Americans: Not as Simple as We Like to Believe

Jon Favreau’s film “Chef,” a small independent film about a frustrated chef who goes his own way, is taking America by storm. It’s a charming little film, with two hours of love, laughs and close-ups of frying garlic. The U.S. and food is a rewarding theme.

In Europe, we love to denigrate American culture: french fries, hamburgers, gigantic portions, Coca-Cola in 10 liter buckets, melted cheese – an unsophisticated country whose population is eating itself to death. And certainly there is some truth to the stereotype. Obesity is spreading like a plague, in the poorer states more than anywhere else. Semi-manufactured products and fast food are the only things wages can buy, if you even have a wage.

In “Chef,” however, it’s another side of the U.S. we get to see, far away from hamburger chains and sodas. In the urban United States, among the well-traveled and well-informed middle class, food – and knowledge of the world’s various cuisines – is a status symbol. Here in Los Angeles, my American friends compete in recommending restaurants that have “the best” of something: mozzarella, gnocchi, Kobe beef, tacos and ceviche. The more experimental they are, the more interesting and urbane they appear to be.

When I met up with him, the director, actor and scriptwriter Jon Favreau spoke about how everyone’s picture of the U.S. is that the country basically only consists of highways and fast food restaurants, and here is likely the answer to the need of some Americans to change the image of “the American.” It’s as if they have a complex about the rest of the world – like they need to prove that they’re not at all as simple as we seem to believe. It’s actually a little sweet. Even Americans have low self-confidence sometimes.