When Building Your Grocerant ...

Here's a must-read column on Forbes.com for all grocerants, and restaurateurs! “Last week, the food world was hit with the news that Kooks Burritos, in Portland, Ore., had been forced to close their cart after weathering accusations of stolen recipes and cultural appropriation. The Kooks debate centers on the actions of the two white female owners of the burrito cart. The women started their business over 1,000 miles away from where local 'abuelitas' first created the tortilla recipe that they appear to have pilfered from the local Mexican cooks.” 

Recently there has been much press about this topic – similar to the situation that surrounded photos available on the internet and was resolved a couple of years ago with aggressive monitoring by bots. While it's easy to copy and paste a recipe, the question goes beyond who created or owns the recipe, and now extends to whether the grocerant, food truck, food cart or restaurant is culturally appropriate to sell the food. Imagine a lawsuit challenging whether McDonald’s stole or could sell French fries. 

The Forbes column goes on to say that food has always helped to define and differentiate cultural identities, and the cultural assimilation and mutation of foodstuffs is constant across nations and cultures through the mechanisms of both trade and imperialism. The writer asks, “Where would the modern British foodscape be without the influence of native Indian dishes that came as a result of colonialism?” The article further points out that some dishes were even engineered just for a new culture. Chicken tikka masala was created for Anglican palates, just as General Tso's chicken seems to have been a culinary invention of Chinese chefs looking to appeal to American tastes in the mid-20th century. The most absurd was Chef Rick Bayless, who lived in and researched Mexican cuisine for years, coming under fire that his restaurants were serving Mexican cuisine, since he isn’t Mexican.

What does this have to do with your grocerant? Plenty, as you look to differentiate your menu from others. Be sure that your chefs are carefully planning your culinary experiences and work closely with suppliers that have test kitchens and culinarians on staff to develop custom and appropriate recipes for your foodservice operations.

Whole Foods Market came under severe criticism for tweeting to more than 4.8 million followers its recipe on how to cook collard greens. CNN ran a headline that had others follow the story: "Whole Foods gets in hot water with Black Twitter." 

The story isn’t about whether blacks or whites “own” collard greens, it’s about shoppers being overly sensitive these days, and it’s certainly become part of our food culture. It’s unfortunate, but be smart, be careful and be sensitive.