Chef explains why white people don't season their food

yummy yummy

note: i *used to be* a chef sorry for the lie

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[abraxasjinx]

In addition to properly using salt, I will add that acid is often missing in home cooking. Even if it's just a drop, a bit of citrus or vinegar can totally open up a dish. Salt, fat, sugar, and acid. That's the core of good food.

[HeriEystberg]

I come from a tiny Nordic country in the middle of nowhere where fish and sheep are abundant. My grandfather was and my father is a fisherman as well as rearing sheep and growing potatoes. As a kid I would get fresh fish, potatoes and some melted butter for dinner at least 3 times a week.

I could see how some would call it bland food, but man, that fish just melted on your tongue.

[Nyurite]

There's also the fact that European cultures tend to incorporate more fermented foods such as a huge variety of cheeses, sausages, etc. in their cuisines, which adds more variation in flavors overall. There's other creative ways to add flavors than the use of herbs and spices.

[onewholovesvenison]

Onion and garlic powder are so useful in the kitchen, and the power of salt is underestimated so often.

[thebegungler]

Northern Europe is not a desolate wasteland without plants, we have many native spices/herbs but they are maybe milder or unfamiliar to other cultures

[hexkobold]

Some other points:

1. There are plenty of non-European cultures that use minimal or subtle seasoning. Japanese is good example - A lot of modern Japanese cuisine emphasizes freshness and uses subtle ingredients like soy sauce, mirin, sake, miso, spring onions, bonito flakes, shiitake mushrooms, perilla leaf, various seaweeds, citruses, etc. There are exceptions but no more or less than there are exceptions in European cuisines - Japan like their version of curry just like British like their version of curry; Japanese have wasabi just like British people have hot mustard and horseradish, Japanese have togarashi shichimi just like many Western kitchens stock Cayenne powder, etc.

Other non-European cuisines to think about are traditional Mongolian food and other cuisines of traditionally northern, nomadic, pastoral, or subsistence-farming cultures such as indigenous peoples of North America and Siberia.

2. "Seasoned" is not a black-and-white concept, it's a spectrum. My Persian coworker raves about her native cuisine which uses spices like saffron, sumac, cardamom, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, turmeric, black lime, etc. One day she recommended her favorite Persian restaurant to a client originally from southern India who then told her he'd tried that restaurant before and found it the taste too mild for his taste.

3. There's a huge difference between traditional European cuisine made by old grandmothers from farming villages using fresh, locally-sourced ingredients, and the "white Midwestern homemaker" cuisine that was born from the 1940's onward with the advent of widespread home refrigeration and cookbooks of "convenience" teaching people shortcuts with canned, jarred, and shelf-stable ingredients and factory-farmed meat from a sterile supermarket.

[snood]

The Great Depression and convenience culture are huge influences too. Poverty can knock pricy ingredients out of a generation’s nostalgic comfort foods. We also work ourselves to death over here and our mega corporations are glad to toss frozen fish sticks at our exhausted bodies.

[jonathanrealman]

I am German and I season food all the time, we have a lot of native spices/herbs parsley, thyme, laurel, chives, black pepper, juniper berries, nutmeg, and caraway. All of those are, and have been used for ever. Also we use things like honey or barries to flavor meats and so on.

[loganritten]

I always found this stereotype super funny. I'm from the southern united states, and we season our food REAL good. I even started a hot sauce company with my own recipes. When people say "white people don't season their food' they mean people from the northern united states, or people who never learned how to cook for themselves. I guarantee if you come to a BBQ with my family you will never ONCE think the food needs more flavor.

[euclois]

as a mediterranean who likes to cook, i go by "less is more", a pinch of salt, a touch of olive oil, some rosemary or pennyroyal and a clove of garlic is enough to bring the flavor and essence of well cooked ingredients. I love to feel the natural flavors of fish, or meat, but I am also fortunate to have access to good produce and ingredients. when the food is over seasoned i feel like something is being covered up.

[jakemcnamee]

The problem is how americans view spices.
If it's exotic then it's a spice.

Herbs like mint are a spice, rosemary, garlic and onion.
Ir doesn't need to be a spicy chilly to be spicy.

[XlightninX]

I think it also comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of what costitutes a spice, garlic and onion as you said add flavor yet some people would only acknowledge their powdered forms. I'd argue herbs are Europe's spice rack, but they're disregarded by some. Marjoram, basil, thyme, rosemary all seem like spices to me, they're only there for flavor.
Also as others have mentioned it was often a matter of preservation, southern countries used spices to make food last while northern ones used the cold or fermentation. They used what they had.

[imjustvisiting]

As an Indian who likes spicy food, I don't like it when people deride "white people's food." Yes, it's not for everyone's palate, but making fun of minimally seasoned food as "white people's food" is just as bad as people saying that curries smell bad. It may not be suited to your tastes and senses, but don't ridicule it.

[terdragontra]

4:30 Northern europeans wouldnt have eaten potatoes in medieval times or earlier, its a new world crop!

[Abcflc]

I’m from Argentina and we tend to only salt and pepper beef because the meat, when properly cooked, is so flavourful that it doesn’t need anything else. But I love an Indian curry or a Mexican Birria. I think it’s a matter of balance: I wouldn’t want to eat “bland” food everyday but I wouldn’t want everything to be spicy.

[dinosaurpower]

As Eastern European I just wanted to add that we add dill, garlic, laurel, parsley and peppers to food :0
As well as horseradish and mustard
My great-grandpa would also snack on a whole chilly pepper every time he ate borscht

[Anonymous-sbrr]

Traditional Dutch cuisine uses spices like nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and cumin. But none of these are hot spices. It should also be noted that the Netherlands, like England, has historically been a spice trading nation, which is not the case for places like Germany, Scandinavia and north eastern Europe, so spices may be less common in those places.

[JeffreyMartin]

your production, arrangement, narration, typography are really first-rate. thank you!

[JuanDuarte-gxoe]

I'm from Paraguay and our cuisine does not have strong seasonings as well, I can go even a step further saying that picking and preserved food are foreign concepts even for out modern days, the reason might be because our natives did not have harsh winters so food were fresh and abundant, some tribes had their fermented drink made out of mandioca roots but it was fast to make and it was not made with the purpose of preserving or storing food, but more for ritualistic purposes. Foreigners often think that all of south american food are all similar to mexican cuisine but that is totally not the case, we even consider mexican food way too spicy or way too seasoned compared to the paraguayan cuisine and that is not a bad thing.
our most liked delicacy is called asado, and it is just sprinkling a bit of salt on big cuts of meat cooked on a fire, as simple as that.

[dbadagna]

To add saltiness, but also umami, to your food (and not just Asian food), it's possible to use fermented condiments like soy sauce or miso. Also, numerous cultures around the world swear by an MSG-laden bottled brown sauce called Maggi (although it only originated in the 1880s in Switzerland).