Students say the Bon Appétit Management Company, in charge of the school’s cafeterias, don’t know how to cook multicultural food. They’ve been particularly disappointed with how the service cooks Asian food.
“When you’re cooking a country’s dish for other people, including ones who have never tried the original dish before, you’re also representing the meaning of the dish as well as its culture,” Tomoyo Joshi, a student from Japan, told the paper. “So if people not from that heritage take food, modify it and serve it as ‘authentic,’ it is appropriative.”
Some observers have noted that lots of food labeled as Asian is, in fact, Asian-American food. “For Oberlin’s cafeterias to further Americanize something (such as) General Tso’s chicken doesn’t harm its essence—it had American DNA in it to begin with,” writes Slate‘s Rachel Gross. “Dear Oberlin students: Your cafeteria served you subpar sushi. That does not mean your cultural heritage was appropriated. It means cafeteria food is gross.”
However, the protests still convinced college officials to consider changes. “In our efforts to provide a vibrant menu, we recently fell short in the execution of several dishes in a manner that was culturally insensitive,” said Michele Gross, Oberlin’s director of dining services. (New York Times, Slate)