Generally, little attention is paid to food in intercultural training, even in intercultural training in the USA. This is a shame, as food is also part of the culture. Unfortunately, American food does not have a good reputation here. On the one hand wrongly, on the other hand you can find clichés everywhere. At the beginning of the year, I had the opportunity to experience this first-hand on a trip to Chicago and South Bend.
The importance of food
Food has different meanings in different cultures. In China, for example, food is very important. Even though many Chinese people nowadays “don’t want to waste time”, because time is money in capitalism, invitations to eat are still very important. People there enjoy themselves.
Europe is home to different cultures. The best example is probably France, where fine cuisine is a cultural asset and even fast food chains have only gradually been able to establish themselves. In general, good food is considered very important in Romance countries, where people are Catholic. In the Germanic part of Europe, on the other hand, food is accorded less importance. People eat because they want to be full. Simple dishes are sufficient for this, because people there are predominantly Protestant. This does not mean that there are no local specialties and only simple dishes, but the importance of food is different.
The USA refers to the Pilgrim Fathers, who came ashore on the Mayflower in 1620 in what is now Massachusetts and founded their colony. These so-called Pilgrim Fathers were radical Calvinists who could not practice their religion in England as they wished and therefore decided to emigrate. Today, there is a colorful patchwork of different churches in the USA. Catholics make up only 22% of the population. Just over 40 %, on the other hand, are Protestant churches, which in turn are divided into various churches, such as the Baptists or Methodists and others. And this proportion was of course much higher at the beginning of the USA. As a result, the food culture in the USA is more Protestant in character, even among non-Protestants. Furthermore, one must not forget that in the first decades of the state in particular, fine dining was the least of the problems in most parts of the country. Cowboys drove fillet steaks across the prairie, but simple food that was easy to prepare was available around the campfire.
Cultural influences shape eating occasions and habits
As you will learn in an intercultural training course in the USA, there are many cultural differences between the USA and Germany. When it comes to food, however, Americans live with contradictions. A major value for Americans is convenience, simplicity. This explains, for example, the triumph of fast food chains from the 1950s onwards. Eating there is quick and inexpensive. This would fulfill the Protestants’ requirements for food intake. The contradiction, however, is that choice is also part of American values. This has now led to an almost absurd diversity. Want an example? Here is a list of the Coca Cola flavors you can buy in the USA (source: Wikipedia):
- Coca-Cola Classic
- Coca-Cola Black Cherry Vanilla
- Coca-Cola Blāk (with coffee extract)
- Coca-Cola C2
- Coca-Cola Cherry
- Coca-Cola Cherry Zero
- Coca-Cola Cinnamon
- Coca-Cola Cinnamon Zero
- Coca-Cola Coffee Plus Espresso
- Coca-Cola Coffee Plus Zero
- Coca-Cola Diet Coke
- Coca-Cola Diet Coke Black Cherry Vanilla
- Coca-Cola Diet Coke Twisted Mango
- Coca-Cola Diet Coke Feisty Cherry
- Coca-Cola Diet Coke Ginged Lime
- Coca-Cola Diet Coke Zesty Blood Orange
- Coca-Cola Energy
- Coca-Cola Energy Cherry
- Coca-Cola Energy Zero Sugar
- Coca-Cola Energy Zero Sugar Cherry
- Coca-Cola Exotic Mango
- Coca-Cola Orange
- Coca-Cola Orange Vanilla
- Coca-Cola Orange Vanilla Zero
- Coca-Cola decaffeinated
- Coca-Cola Lemon
- Coca-Cola Light
- Coca-Cola Light decaffeinated
- Coca-Cola Light Plus Green Tea
- Coca-Cola Light Plus Lemon C
- Coca-Cola Light sango
- Coca-Cola Peach
- Coca-Cola Plus
- Coca-Cola Plus Coffee
- Coca-Cola Raspberry Flavor
- Coca-Cola TaB
- Coca-Cola TaB Clear
- Coca-Cola Vanilla
- Coca-Cola with Coffee Caramel
- Coca-Cola with Coffee Dark Blend
- Coca-Cola with Coffee Vanilla
- Coca-Cola with Lime
- Coca-Cola Zero
- Coca-Cola Zero decaffeinated
In contrast, what is offered in fast food chains is downright ridiculous. There is always a certain number of the same dishes, sometimes supplemented by special offers, which always taste the same. Worldwide! Somehow McDonald’s must have captured the ultimate taste. How else could you explain the chain’s global success? And the hamburger is the best example, because you can still get it in every diner in the furthest corner of West Virginia. With time and various waves of immigrants, other cuisines naturally appeared on the market – Chinese or Mexican, for example. Mostly just as standardized and inexpensive (e.g. at Taco Bell). We can therefore speak of a standardized and industrialized food culture.
Variety is available – at a price
However, this does not mean that there is no variety and local specialties. The menus of good restaurants in New Orleans (a French-influenced city) alone make your mouth water. I had informed myself in advance about what I should do in Chicago when I got there. One recommendation was to eat steak. A logical recommendation, as Chicago is a center of the meat-processing industry in the USA. I also found a good restaurant and had the menu shown to me. Great dishes. The cheapest steak cost 50 US dollars! As there was no reason, such as a birthday, wedding anniversary or similar, I ate a complete meal with drinks in a Mexican restaurant for 30 dollars. In fact, if you want to eat cheaply, you have to rely on the usual chain restaurants. This realization was confirmed during my stay in South Bend, which is about 2 ½ hours’ drive east of Chicago in northern Indiana. Chicago is a big city. There is choice, but it is expensive. South Bend is a small town (with a population of 100,000). The price level is much cheaper (I had a really great steak for 23 dollars), but the choice is very limited.
Conclusion
So my experience shows that there is definitely good food in the USA. But it comes at a price. If, like me, you are a traveler who relies on restaurants and has a limited budget, you won’t be able to avoid the chain restaurants. The problem is that a large part of the food consists of cheap carbohydrates. A burger bun made from white flour has a nutritional value of 0 – but is cheap and completely messes up the metabolism of the other ingredients. However, many Americans at the lower end of the wage scale eat this and other cheap foods. So it’s no wonder that the obesity of Americans is steadily increasing. According to Statista, 73% of Americans are overweight or obese! In the U.K. it is 64%, in Germany 60% and in France 49%. In 2004, the proportion in the USA was 32%. A trend that began in the early 1980s. Chicago is a wealthy city. I have seen few really fat people there. But South Bend is not wealthy and I saw a lot of fat people there.
You are less likely to hear about this in an intercultural training course in the USA. Especially as the intercultural experts tend not to be trained in nutritional science. Nevertheless, I think this aspect is important, because ultimately it’s about health. Most people I know who have traveled to the USA have gained weight there (as have I, by the way). If you live in the USA, you can still cook for yourself. Otherwise, you have to be prepared to compromise or have a C-level expense account.
