Jesus Topete

History 87 World History Final Research Paper

Professor Chee, East Los Angeles College
June 7, 2015

National movements paving the way for a Mexican-French cuisine

The Mexican dish chicken supremes with cuitlacocher is a Mexicanization of French cuisine
created in the latter half of the twentieth century and exemplifies what is considered Mexican
food by combining two factors New world ingredients with old world ingredients. The
French/Mexican cuisine or Mexicanization of French cuisine happened as a result of the late
nineteen and early twentieth-century nationalist outcries regarding the food practices of the elite
and the usurpation of traditional Mexican food by European foods. Shortly after its independence
the elite along with the middle class of Mexico took an interest in European cuisine .Traditional
dishes became things of peasants to be avoided and practices were passed to influence people to
let go of the dishes. Mexican food was being usurped with the aim of Euro-centrifying the
country in the name of progress. As Mexican dishes lost favor in Mexico, nationalists began to
condemn the practices of the elite. They began to change French cuisine by adding chile peppers
and changing the way the food was cooked, thus creating a Mexican-French cuisine in the
process. Porfirio Diazs regime made indigenous food products disappear in favor of European
foods to forge the nation towards progress, causing nationalist to rally against the practices and
creating a new cuisine.
The ruling criollo elite Under Porfirio Diaz who were the combination of the new world
and old world peoples felt attach to their old world heritage more than their new world linage.
This caused the country to be ruled the same way the Spanish crown had ruled it, with a disdain
of the Indigenous while exalting European practices and foods.

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The indigenous people held a threat over the Eurocentric nation the criollo elite under Porfirio
Diaz had envision and pursued. They recognize they couldnt force them to leave the country so
a passage to citizenship was devised as an incentive for them to leave their culture willingly. The
lost love for the indigenous caused anything having to do with them in particular their food to be
seen negatively. Published cook books would stay clear of promoting dishes with corn or other
mixed world plates. The plates of the indigenous and mixed plates were seen as peasant food for
the lower classes. Shaming those who ate the food or omitting their recipes from popular cook
books wasnt enough .Mexico city the capital of the nation had a lot of street vendors and
restaurants sell the very same food the elites sought to rid and in response regulations were
passed to close down the vendors even banning popular dishes from being sold such as the chilerelleno. Shaming, regulations, banishment even science entered the arena as tools used to rid new
world cuisine from Mexican cuisine.
By1900 Porfirino elites had come to view popular cuisine not only as
unfashionable, but also as a positive menace to society. Using language from the
ear newly developed science nutrition, Engineer Francisco Bulnes attributed
Indian backwardness to the supposed inadequacy of maize-based diets.
Psychologist Julio Guerrero went further, stating that the criminal behavior
resulted from the abominable foods eaten by the lower classes1
A social Darwinism explanation for why the indigenous people were inferior to European
cultures but rather than shifting blame on race as it is in the west it was directed at food meaning
that even non indigenous people like other criollos could become just as savage if they did not
drop their eating habits of non-European foods. The Porfirato elites under Porfirio Diaz who
came to power in 1876 worked to transform the nation by getting rid of indigenous influence
starting by eliminating their touch over the food in Mexico. To this end the nineteen and early
1 Pilcher. Tamales or Timbales.pg 204

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twentieth century saw an influx of European foods to replace the common foods .By adopting
European foods the culture of Mexico could be changed to fit the Eurocentric view the criollo
elites had.
The criollo elites nationalist goal of making European food dominate and to an extent have it
become Mexicos cuisine reached success in the late nineteen-century and early twentiethcentury under the Porfirato period2 .

The picture depicts a banquet for General Leon a hero of the independence war. The banquet
table has from one end of the table to the other a long line of European wines for the guests to
enjoy. This depiction of the elites in the early nineteen century points out the importance of
European goods among the elites even before Porfirio Diaz came into power, and why it was
easy for him to have Mexico accept European food over traditional foods. The Porfirato period
saw the rise of French Cuisine over that of Mexican foods thanks to the administrations national
policies that shunned traditional plates, and promoted French cuisine as superior. This caused the
2 Porfirato: the time period in which the Dictator Porfirio Diaz was in power from 1879-1911
3 Banquet given at Oaxaca in honor of general Antonio Leon(oil canvas)

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elite and even the middle class of Mexico to turn their back on traditional dishes and seek out
French cuisine changing the food choice of a nation. The purpose of flooding Mexico with
European food and getting rid of the old colonial mixture was to Whitten the country making it
more Eurocentric in the name of progress.
Latin America nutritional discourse thus reflected the elite belief that to become modern,
Latin America simply had to adopt European culture.4
Mexico underwent whitening in order to modernize the nation with social Darwinism belief
common in the twentieth century attempts at making the country as white as possible were made.
Porfirio Diaz the dictator of Mexico also transformed the nation to resemble the European
culture as much as possible to get the foreign nations to invest. He secured investments by
changing what was Mexican culture and food as part of his nationalist plan.
One hundred years after the plight for independence was given by father Hidalgo the leader of
Mexico celebrated by having a great banquet in the Capital city with dishes having nothing to do
with Mexico. The last year Porferio was in power was the last year Mexican cuisine would be
tied solely to European ways cooking.
As European food became Mexican cuisine during the Porfirato period nationalist sentiments
against the usurpation of Mexican food arose causing the Mexacanizing of the European foods,
in the twentieth century the Mexican Revolution defined what would be considered Mexican
Cuisine. Late nineteen century saw French cuisine served in restaurants across the nation and
prepared in homes of Mexican citizens. Many Mexican nationals of the time saw the rise of
French cuisine as devaluing their own foods. Though they enjoyed eating the French cuisines,
the taste was too different from what their taste buds were used to. So they were made differently
to better suit their own needs the food was mexacanized. Foods like bistec a la Chateaubriand
4 Freedman. Food in Time and Place.Pg128

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which is a rare cooked dish was cooked well done killing the flavor of the dish according to
European standards but not to Mexican tastes. Locals also took the liberty of adding chili peppers
to give the European food the much needed kick along with adding other spices taking away the
natural flavor that French cuisine went for .Slowly the old way of cooking that brought old world
and new world methods to cook was coming back thanks to national fever regarding the loss of
true Mexican cuisine. Mexican Nationalism were questioning the European dishes in Mexico and
began refuting the Porferio era shunning of traditional plates and ingredients such as tamales and
chile peppers. After thirty five years of being in power Porfirio Diaz was ousted out of power in
1911 in the Mexican Revolution. A revolution caused by his administration that placed negative
stigma on local ingredients, promoted the eradication of Mexican traditions by adopting a
European way of life and foods in order to become a modern country. All sections of Mexico
rose up to rid the elite criollo ideology to form a new one Nationalist ideologies replaced the
Eurocentric notion of whitening that had dominated liberal oligarchies in the previous
century.5 .The new ideology that rose to forge the Mexican identity was that Mexico was a
country of mestizos a product of old world peoples coming together with the new world people
to create a new people their heritage was both European and indigenous. Under this ideology
Mexican cuisine would be focused on dishes that blended old world traditions with new world
traditions. The French dishes that were altered by Mexicans who missed their spices or cooked
the meat differently with spices could be called authentic Mexican foods. Mexico had its own
version of French influenced cuisine that would continue to grow over the coming century. In the
latter half of the twentieth century a new way of cooking French/Mexican cuisine had started

5 Freedman. Food in Time and Place.Pg130

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nouvelle Mexican cuisine, blending old world techniques with new world ingredients6. The
chicken Supremes with cuitlacoche is coked using pre-Columbian cooking techniques with
French ingredients. It is a spin of the normal cuisine of cooking old world plates with new world
ingredients but it fits the definition of combining old world and new world to create a new dish.
As the country was formed in the nineteen-century the criollo elite sought to rid the nation of the
indigenous influence in the country. It sought to eliminate their main stream influence by
shunning any dishes that werent one hundred percent European. The purpose was to create a
country with strong Eurocentric ties as a way of moving forward to a modern age. It
managed to make French cuisine a staple of every elite and even middle class home .Euro
centrification however met with backlash from nationals who felt the European influence was
getting rid of the countries own traditions and dishes and retaliated by cooking the French
cuisine with new world ingredients. In the twentieth century the regime that made the
Eurocentric agenda was taken down in the Mexican revolution which rose up out of the
whitening policies. After the war Mexico came out with a new identity that embraced both the
indigenous and European heritage and the new Mexican/French dish chicken supremes with
cuitlacocher created in the second half of the twentieth century further defined what it was that
made a certain dish a Mexican dish.

Bibliography

6 Pilcher. Tamales or Timbales.pg. 215

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Banquet given at Oaxaca in honour of General Antonio Leon (oil canvas).

http://www.magnoliabox.com/art/289999/banquet-given-at-oaxaca-in-honour-of-generalantonio-leon-oil-on
Freedman Paul, Joyce E Chaplin, and Albala Ken (Eds).Food in Time and Place: The American
Association to Food History.102-141.University of California, 2014.
Pilcher M. Jeffrey. Tamales or Timbales: Cuisine and the Formation of Mexican National
Identity 1821-1911.Acadamy of American Franciscan history (1996)193-216.