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Fusion cuisine combines elements of various culinary traditions
Cuisine

Cuisine is a specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a specific culture. A cuisine is primarily influenced by the ingredients that are available locally or through trade....
 while not fitting specifically into any. The term generally refers to the innovations in many contemporary restaurant cuisines since the 1970s.
on cuisine is general term for the combination of various forms of cookery, the concept can take several forms. One approach is regional fusion that combines the cuisine of a region or sub-region into a single eating experience.






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Fusion cuisine combines elements of various culinary traditions
Cuisine

Cuisine is a specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a specific culture. A cuisine is primarily influenced by the ingredients that are available locally or through trade....
 while not fitting specifically into any. The term generally refers to the innovations in many contemporary restaurant cuisines since the 1970s.

Categories and types

Fusion cuisine is general term for the combination of various forms of cookery, the concept can take several forms. One approach is regional fusion that combines the cuisine of a region or sub-region into a single eating experience. Of these sort, Asian fusion restaurant
Restaurant

A restaurant prepares and serves food and drink to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery ....
s have become popular in many parts of the United States, often featuring Indian
Indian cuisine

The cuisine of India is characterized by its sophisticated and subtle use of many spices and vegetables grown across India and also for the widespread practice of vegetarianism across its society....
, East Asian
List of cuisines

This is an alphabetical list of various cuisines....
, and South-East Asian
List of cuisines

This is an alphabetical list of various cuisines....
 dishes alongside one another and offering dishes that are inspired combinations of such cuisines.

Another incarnation of fusion cuisine is a more eclectic
Eclecticism

Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases....
 approach, featuring original dishes using varieties of ingredients from various cuisines and regions and combining them. Such restaurants are often trendy and have no singular thematic cohesion other than innovative eclecticism in their menus. Such a restaurant might feature a wide variety of dishes inspired by combinations of various regional cuisines with new ideas.

A third approach uses foods with a form based on one cuisine, but prepared using ingredients and flavors inherent to another cuisine or cuisines. For instance, pizza
Pizza

Pizza is a world-popular dish of Italy origin, made with an oven-baked, flat, generally round bread that is often covered with tomatoes or a tomato-based sauce and mozzarella cheese....
 made with cheddar and pepper jack cheese, salsa, refried beans
Refried beans

Refried beans is a dish of cooked and mashed beans and is a traditional staple of Mexican cuisine and Tex-Mex cuisine....
 and other common taco ingredients is often marketed as "Taco
Taco

A taco is a traditional Mexican cuisine composed of a maize or wheat tortilla folded or rolled around a filling....
 Pizza" or a similar concept, and is a fusion of Italian-American (pizza) and Mexican-American cuisines. Similar approaches have been used for fusion-sushi
Sushi

In Japanese cuisine, is vinegared rice, usually topped with other ingredients, including fish dishes. In Japan, sliced raw fish alone is called sashimi and is distinct from sushi, as sashimi is the raw fish component, not the rice component....
, such as rolling maki with different types of rice and ingredients, e.g. curry and basmati
Basmati

Basmati is a variety of long grain rice, notable for its fragrance and delicate flavor. Its name means "the fragrant one" in Sanskrit, but it can also mean the "soft rice." Pakistan and India are the largest cultivators and exporters of this rice - primarily grown through paddy field farming in the Punjab region....
 rice, cheese and salsa sauce with Spanish rice
Spanish rice

Spanish rice is a side dish made from white rice, tomatoes, garlic, onions, parsley, cilantro and other ingredients. Although it is called "Spanish rice" this side dish is unknown in Spain....
, or spiced ground lamb and capers rolled with Greek-style rice and grape leaves (resembling inside-out dolmades).

Since fusion cuisine is a general term, it is legitimately applied to either sort of restaurant. While many diners feature dishes from Greek, Italian
Italian cuisine

Italian cuisine as a national cuisine known today has evolved through centuries of social and political changes, with its roots traced back to 4th century BC....
, and sometimes Asian cuisine
Asian cuisine

Asian cuisine styles can be broken down into several regional styles that have roots in the peoples and cultures of those regions. The major types can be roughly defined as East Asian with its origins in Imperial era of Chinese history and now encompassing modern Japan and the Korean peninsula; Southeast Asian which encompasses th...
s side-by-side, these restaurants are generally not considered fusion as they fail to combine any elements of the cooking styles and also have no over-arching fusion or eclectic theme.

Background

This type of restaurant's success depends on a number of factors. Among these are:
  • Clientele's (or prospective clientele's) cultural diversity
    Diversity (politics)

    In the political arena, the term diversity is used to describe political entities with members who have identifiable differences in their backgrounds or lifestyles....
  • Clientele's travel
    Travel

    Travel is the change in Location of people on a trip through the means of transport from one location to another. Travel is most commonly for recreation , for business trip or for commuting; but may be for numerous other reasons, such as migration, fleeing war, etc....
     patterns and experiences.
  • Clientele's culinary sophistication and openness to new eating experiences.


Wolfgang Puck
Wolfgang Puck

Wolfgang Johann Puck is an Austrians celebrity chef, restaurant, and businessman based in Los Angeles. Wolfgang Puck restaurants, catering services, cookbooks and licensed products are run by Wolfgang Puck Companies, with three divisions....
 is considered as one of the pioneers of fusion cuisine. However, his restaurant "Chinois" was named after the term attributed to Richard Wing, who in the 1960s combined French and Chinese cooking at the former Imperial Dynasty restaurant
Imperial Dynasty restaurant

The Imperial Dynasty restaurant was a five-star restaurant in Hanford, California. The restaurant was founded in 1883 in Hanford's chinatown, and was run by the same family for four generations....
 in Hanford, California
Hanford, California

Hanford is an important commercial and cultural center in the south central San Joaquin Valley and is the county seat of Kings County, California....
.

A sampling from the menu of an American
Cuisine of the United States

The cuisine of the United States is a style of food preparation derived from the United States. The cuisine has a history dating back before the Colonial history of the United States when the Native Americans in the United States had a rich and diverse cooking style for an equally diverse amount of ingredients....
-European
European cuisine

European cuisine, or alternatively Western cuisine is a generalized term collectively referring to the cuisines of Europe and other Western world....
-Japanese
Japanese cuisine

Japanese cuisine has developed over the centuries as a result of many political and social changes. The cuisine eventually changed with the advent of the Medieval age which ushered in a shedding of elitism with the age of Shogun rule....
 restaurant in California might include the following items:
  • Sake
    Sake

    Sake is a Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice.This beverage is called sake in English, but in Japanese language, sake or Honorific speech in Japanese refers to alcoholic drinks in general....
     cocktail
    Cocktail

    A cocktail is a style of mixed drink. Originally a mixture of Distilled beverage, sugar, water, and bitters, the word has gradually come to mean almost any mixed drink containing alcoholic beverage....
    s
  • Salad with crisp nori
    Nori

    is the Japanese name for various edible seaweed species of the red alga Porphyra including most notably P. yezoensis and P. tenera, sometimes called laver ....
     topping, and a miso
    Miso

    is a traditional Japanese cuisine produced by fermentation rice, barley and/or soybeans, with salt and the fungus , the most typical miso being made with soy....
    -cilantro vinaigrette dressing
  • Rock shrimp dumplings
  • Eel
    Eel

    True eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 19 Family s, 110 genera and approximately 600 species. Most eels are predators....
    , lettuce
    Lettuce

    Lettuce is a temperate annual plant or biennial plant of the daisy family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable. In many countries, it is typically eaten cold, raw, in salads, hamburgers, tacos, and in many other dishes....
     and tomato
    Tomato

    The Tomato is an herbaceous, usually sprawling plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family, as are its close cousins Nicotiana, potatoes, aubergine , chilli peppers, and the poisonous Atropa belladonna....
     sushi
    Sushi

    In Japanese cuisine, is vinegared rice, usually topped with other ingredients, including fish dishes. In Japan, sliced raw fish alone is called sashimi and is distinct from sushi, as sashimi is the raw fish component, not the rice component....
     handroll
  • Poached
    Poaching (cooking)

    Poaching is the process of gently simmering food in liquid, generally water, milk, stock or wine.Poaching is particularly suitable for fragile food, such as egg , poultry, fish and fruit, which might easily fall apart or dry out....
     tofu
    Tofu

    Tofu , also , doufu , toufu, or bean curd , is a food of China origin, made by coagulating soy milk, and then pressing the resulting curds into blocks....


See also

  • Tex-Mex cuisine
    Tex-Mex cuisine

    "Tex-Mex" is a term used to describe a cuisine of the United States that blends food products available in the United States and the culinary creations of Mexican-Americans influenced by the Mexican cuisine....
  • California cuisine
    California Cuisine

    California Cuisine is a style of cuisine marked by an interest in "Fusion cuisine"— integrating disparate cooking styles and ingredients— and in freshly prepared using local ingredients....

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