The New Culinary Hyperlocalism Along the Pacific Rim (Culinary Historians of Southern California)

What are the new and distinctive hyperlocal cuisines that have appeared at fine dining establishments located in global cities along the Pacific Rim in this century? New culinary hyperlocalism builds on the nouvelle cuisine’s critique of the cuisine classique and on the path blazed by the regional cuisines in the United States and by René Redzepi’s New Nordic Cuisine. But the new hyperlocalism draws on both indigenous foodways and well-established culinary traditions in Asia that have always prized locavorism. Many of the new ingredients, condiments, and culinary techniques these chefs use, as well as the dishes they make, are drawn from non-Western culinary traditions; thus, the new hyperlocal cuisines are products of an important post-colonial moment as well.

Samuel H. Yamashita is the Henry E. Sheffield Professor at Pomona College, where he has taught since 1983. He was a specialist in early modern Japanese Confucianism before turning in the 1990s to the Asia-Pacific War. Since 2009, he has been doing research on food and published Hawai’i Regional Cuisine: The Food Movement That Changed the Way Hawai’i Eats in 2019. He recently compiled Chefs Don’t Talk and Other Kaiseki Writings, the first English-language anthology of kaiseki chefs' writings, and is currently finishing a book-length study of the hyperlocal cuisines that have emerged in global cities along the Pacific Rim in this century.