Maybe you have a good answer. Here's a story i was thinking about. There's two guys a Mexican and a Chinese. Theyre both friends, they live together. They decide to cook some chinese food. They go out and buy the ingredients. They prepare it together and eat it. Years later they both open thier own restaruants, both serving Chinese food, both using the same recipe they used that day to cook some Chinese food. The Mexican has Mexican workers serving. The Chinese has Chinese workers serving. A guy walks in to the Mexicans restaurant. He thinks to himself, this is being cooked by a bunch of Mexican's, this aint authentic Chinese food, it doesnt even taste like authentic Chinese food. So a day later he walks into the Chinese guys restaraunt. He thinks to himself, man this is some good authentic Chinese food. Same excact food, two different places. What is authentic Chinese food in this case? also, why do people consider Taco Bell not authentic Mexican food?

What? Who do you think cooks your food in ANY restaurant? Before you answer that, let me just say that cooking is a passionate profession. Anyone and everyone from all walks of life decide to do this for a living because they LOVE it. It's one of the most diverse professions I know of. It doesn't matter about your ethnicity, all that matters is the fact that the person cooking the food is a GOOD COOK! I could care less where they hail from. I have had people working for me from India cooking Mexican food better than anyone. I have had Mexican cooks working for me who can cook French food like they were born in Paris. During the Cold War days I even had a fighter pilot that defected to America cooking for me, and he loved to do it. He could have done anything here, but he chose cooking. Your skills are not your ethnicity. It also has nothing to do with the immigration debate or bigotry. In the kitchen, all that matters is the quality of the work. It's a pretty pure environment in that regard. Someone who works in a kitchen will be the first to tell you that. Your hypothetical story makes no sense to me. It's akin to something like this: "If a bear craps in the woods and nobody is there to hear the tree fall, did it really make a sound?" Of course that makes no sense. But it's kinda funny isn't it?

Did those receipes come from Mexico? I don't think so. I'm a Mexican and I've never wrapped my tosada with a flour tortilla before! Taco Bell food was created by some Californicator who had the munchies!

LMAO! As for taco bell, that is revamped mexican food by white people. NO mexican cooks like that. As for the chinese food, it is just as authentic if it is the same recipe. I do not see the difference, I see how it tastes. Taco bell is white people in a white cooperation with their idea of what is mexican food tastes like. It is funny to see that real mexicans eat there. Same with chinese food, if you see chinese people eat at the place then you should eat it :-D LMAO!

this is a matter of perception you are talking about here. people's mentality is that authentic food must be cooked by someone who grew up in that culture and he must be well-trained in the culture to cook authentic food. so even though both foods taste the same exactly, we can be mislead to think that the chinese food cooked by mexicans is not authentic enough, especially if you never tried chinese food before. Authentic Chinese food has to be prepared with knowledge of the culture and the Chinese's preference of taste. For example, Teochew food tends to be more bland and Sichuan food tends to be spicy. There are different tastes for different groups, so authentic chinese food is really very subjective. however, it is of course best for someone chinese to cook chinese food as they would have grown up eating the food and they would be able to understand how the chinese food should taste like, how it should look like, smell like and how it should be prepared. if a mexican is able to fulfill the exact requirements of cooking the food of another culture, it would be really impressive and over time, people would realise that the chinese food cooked by the mexican is actually just as good as the food cooked by the chinese, and they would appreciate his efforts in cooking food from another culture. it would be difficult usually for someone to be able to cook food from another culture well, but it is still possible for the chinese food cooked by the mexican to be authentic. as for taco bell, it may be because it is a fast-food restaurant, and not many people knows of its food as mexican food. through globalisation and westernization, taco bell is treated as yet another fast-food, and not as a representation of authentic culture. also, the food would be changed to suit the consumer's tastes and the culture in different countries, hence, the food may not be authentic mexican food in the end. i hope this answers your question ^^

It's all in the head, but very true. I walked into a Mexican restaurant once and seen a bunch of white folks (whiter than my very white self!) doing the serving. I told my husband that I was disappointed because they wouldn't be the real thing. Would you know they were indeed Hispanics from Mexico!?! They couldn't even speak English! They were just white. Oh, yeah, and the food was SUPER! I hear that our Chinese food is not authentic in America, also, but most of us haven't been there to try it. They say we probably wouldn't eat the real stuff... and they are probably right! Mexico, on the other hand, is closer, many of us have been there, and the food is closer so it comes in still authentic. Taco Bell is good, authentic or not, but it is a food in it's own class. If you are from a non-hispanic area, it is more Mexican than McDonald's, but say, in Texas, it is probably considered to be very Americanized.

The mexican learned how to cook chinese from his friend so I consider it authentic chinese. Try leaving the country and going to a foreign one like Japan. You won't see a lot of french or italians cooking in those french or italian restaurants. Its the Japanese, they leave Japan and learn from the french and italians and bring back those cooking techniques back to Japan and open their own restaurants. As for Taco Bell I consider it Americanized Mexican Food. Half of the Mexican Foods is either impossible to pronounce or too spicy for some people so the way its prepared caters to the American. I personally like taco bell. I got a funny story to share... I went to Nashville last year for the CMA Music Fest and I always wanted to go into PF Chang's. I walk into the place and the staff is sweating bullets because I'm Asian. I see white bartenders and servers and in the kitchen I see Mexicans. If they had any Asian cooks or servers they had the night off. I have to say I only stuck around for a couple of beers, 2 orders of dumplings, one fried and the other steamed - i got the fried for free since my server messed up my order since i only asked for steamed and beef and brocoli and fried rice. The food was just as good as if I went into a NY chinatown restaurant.

taco bell is not authentic mexican food becuz you can make anything on their menu if you have hot water. also, i doubt you even know wut authentic chinese food is...do you think its like sweet and sour chicken and beef and broccoli? ohplease...if you go to china you will know that they have never heard of that becuz it is pretty much all americanized

Gee, I don't quite know how to answer that. We live in Mexico City. We get our take out "carnitas" from a little place up the street - best I've even had. Owner is Chinese (Chinese-Mexican) in fact he's a cousin of the Governor of Hidalgo state, Miguel �ngel Osorio CHONG! I've never even thought about it before..... (I guess we Mexicans just don't continually obsess about "race" like you Gringos do........)

It all has to do with the Ingredients and not with who is cooking the food. I can cook really good chinese food and I'm caribbean

if the recipe is Chinese its Chinese food no matter who cooks it. taco bell is not Mexican food. it's good crap on the go, but not mexican. mexican food is made from scratch. and when its hot sauce they mean HOT sauce. you want mexican food go to mexico theres food stands in every corner all day. its just really different.

It doesn't matter WHO cooks it...it matters HOW it's cooked.

Yes of course I'm Irish I cook fried rice according to an Oriental cookbook that does not change it to Irish rice... Nonsense

The food doesn't care who is cooking it and neither should you. Your logic is waaaaaay off. I have had great Chinese food cooked by Mexicans in the US in Sweden by Swedes as well as by Chinese chefs. The ethnicity of the food is determined by the ingredients, cooking methods, and skill of the chef, not their nationality. Taco Bell is Tex Mex, marketed to the average American who has never traveled or experienced Central or South American food nor cook this cuisine at home.

If the recipe is authentic, it doesn't matter who cooks or serves it. Look around and see who is eating it. If it is a lot of Chinese people, it is authentic. Taco Bell is mystery food, Tex-Mex style. I never ate anything like it in Mexico. I enjoy Cuban food, especially ropa vieja. Does the fact I'm not Cuban change the recipe?I think not.