Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the reconfiguration of Japanese food by foreign chefs in Dublin. The chefs of 'authentic' Japanese style restaurants had a sense of responsibility to serve authentic food in their restaurants with the knowledge and skills that they had acquired in their home countries.

Paper long abstract:

The discourse of authenticity is a recurring theme to food practices amongst migrants. New commodities and new economic markets have been brought about by the circulation of a global human mobility in order for migrants to maintain ties with the homeland through food. Ethnic food typically plays a vital role in linking individuals and their homeland in a transnational framework. However, the notion of authenticity that is central to food practices amongst migrants is also employed by the 'Other' involved in the reproduction of ethnic heritages. Today, the production of Japanese food in Dublin involves a number of diverse actors. Instead of the Japanese, non-Japanese people such as Irish, British, Filipino, Overseas Chinese, Spanish and Indian people are engaged in the reconfiguration of Japanese food. In the context of the absence of the Japanese in the production of Japanese food, how does the discourse of authenticity play out in reconfiguring Japanese food?

This paper examines the reconfiguration of Japanese food by foreign chefs in Dublin. Those involved in the production of Japanese food, particularly chefs of the Japanese restaurants labelled as 'authentic' Japanese style, had a strong sense of responsibility to serve what they thought of as authentic Japanese food in their restaurants. What it took to claim their authentic representation was a degree of loyalty to customers and a 'correct' mode of Japanese food that they had learnt in their country of origin. Through an exploration of the producing of Japanese food, I aim to illuminate the ways in which foreign chefs as the bearers of Japanese culture attempted to protect and transmit the prototype of Japanese food with the knowledge and the senses.