Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Contrasts in Fusion

Aloha nui. I hope that you have enjoyed peering my mind and glimpsing into what drives me in this direction of cooking. I enjoy  the meshing of styles because of my background. I was born in one part of the world, then moved to another part of the world. The worlds are different yet are the same. The east coast of America has a fusion of peoples from eastern Europe, where Hawai'i has a fusion of peoples from the Pacific. I was able to adapt because of my acceptance of other peoples views of life.
Now in keeping with the merging of differences, I want to bring to light some famous personalities in America. One celebrity is from the United States, while another was born in another country, yet both have achieved tremendous fame in this land. The former is Chef Ming Tsai, who owns Blue Ginger in Massachusetts, and the latter is Chef Masaharu  Morimoto of  Iron Chef fame.
Ming Tsai received his formal traing from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France. There he was instructed in the French techniques of preparing food. His style of cooking is Chinese Fusion. He blends his Chinese heritage with the skills he learned abroad. He has a television on PBS titled East meets West. That program demonstrates how he chooses to presents the meals he creates on a daily basis at the business he owns.
The other chef, Morimoto; has taken this concept in another direction. He uses his Japanese background to display his version of cooking with the same French techniques he was educated to utilize. Morimoto has several restaurants located throughout the country. His latest venture has brought his talents to the island of Maui. Chef Morimoto is a classically trained sushi chef who adapts his knowledge of the culinary world into a hybrid style of cooking.
These two well known chefs are from Asian heritages that choose to cross ethnic boundaries and create works of art in a manner that has been adopted by many younger, skilled, aspiring cooks; as well home grown foodies that choose food as a hobby. Many individuals are on point with fusion cooking while many more are way off base.
Morimoto and Tsai have transformed their individual repertoires of cooking into a fusion of western techniques with their Asian heritage. One chef has his Chinese background for inspiration, while the other chef employs his Japanese history to propel his creativity forward. I hope you were kept fascinated with my brief post.  I will update soon. A hui hou

2 comments:

  1. What's up boss man.? Always enjoy reading your blogs and hearing all the knowledge you be telling me in person. Well fusion is and old concept but yet very new too because lots of cooks who are traditionally trained don't like to change anything and that cool.but I believe the chef who think and work outside the box and willing to change are amazing chef because they keep and use traditional styles of food and mix them and BAM!!! now you have mexican and Chinese , carribean and hawaiian, etc. This type of chefs challenge the palte of the foodies and change the way to look at foods. Well bruddah til your next post.

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  2. So Ming Tsai has a television on PBS? wow, I did not know that, however I am aware that he has a television show on PBS, nah, just kidding, I guess you forgot to put the word "show" after television, ... happens. So, about your blog, I knew about fusion cooking, it turns out I've been using this technique for years, I just did not realize that it was called fusion cooking. I find a great deal of fascination in fusion cooking, to blend the East with the West. The Yin and Yan theory of the culinary arts, in my opinion, portrays itself clearly here, so with that said, fusion cooking rocks.

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