Searching for a national cuisine

Abstract

As the marketing of national cuisines is spreading at an epidemic rate all around the world and as we witness countless aberrations it is necessary to shed light on the gastronomic search for identity. In this article I will be looking at some common postulates on national food. The discussion will tackle four main issues: are we really what we eat? What makes a cuisine unique? What is the place of tradition in national cuisine and how can food heritage be used to define group identity? Taking Maltese national cuisine as an example, I hope to start an indispensable debate. This article does not intend to define what is national cuisine but exposes the pitfalls and contradictions that are endemic to such definitions.