Authenticity and food trends: Lowly Chow Goes Highbrow

To a large degree, talented chefs like Jeffrey Stout, chef and co-owner of Alexander's Steakhouse in Cupertino, act as culinary ambassadors, introducing Americans to new foods and cultures that they wouldn't otherwise be willing to take a chance on. While it's changing now, the United States is unique because it makes such a distinction between "high" and "low" ingredients and considers some animal parts off-limits, says Stout.

"Every culture but ours uses every part of the animal," he says.

Perhaps because we're a nation of immigrants who forged new lives in a new country we have a propensity to embrace the new and reject the old, the traditional.

"Or maybe we're just spoiled," says Stout.

In the end, Stout wants to sell food that people want to eat, but he also wants to please himself. He sells top-shelf ingredients like foie gras, beluga caviar and $100 plates of Kobe-style beef. But as a chef, it's the simple, rustic and often time-consuming ingredients like veal tongue, trotters and pork belly that give him the most pleasure.

"There's a richness and uniqueness to them," he says.

Queijo wrote:

...In the end, Stout wants to sell food that people want to eat, but he also wants to please himself. He sells top-shelf ingredients like foie gras, beluga caviar and $100 plates of Kobe-style beef. But as a chef, it's the simple, rustic and often time-consuming ingredients like veal tongue, trotters and pork belly that give him the most pleasure.

"There's a richness and uniqueness to them," he says.