Food and drink



         



This article is part
of the Cuisine series
Understanding...

Utensils
Techniques
Weights and measures

Cooking...

Spices & Herbs
Sauces - Soups
Cheese - Pasta
Other ingredients

List of recipes
Desserts

Discover...

French - Chinese
Indian - Italian
others...
Famous chefs

See Also...

Kitchens - Meals
Wikibooks: Cookbook

A cuisine (from the French word for "kitchen") is a specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a place of origin. Religious food laws can also exercise a strong influence on cuisine. A cuisine is primarily influenced by the ingredients that are available locally or through trade. For example, the "Chinese" dish chop suey clearly reflected the adaptation of Chinese immigrant cooking styles to the different ingredients available in North America.

The last century or so has produced enormous improvements in food production, preservation, storage and shipping. Today almost every locale in the world has access to not only its traditional cuisine, but also to many other world cuisines, as well. New cuisines are constantly evolving, as certain aesthetics rise and fall in popularity among professional chefs and their clientele.

In addition to food, a cuisine is also often held to include beverages, including wine, liquor, tea, coffee and other drinks. Increasingly, experts hold that it further includes the raw ingredients and original plants and animals from which they come. The Slow Food movement is a global effort to preserve local plants, animals, and techniques of food preparation. It has 70,000 adherents in 50 countries.

There are also different cultural attitudes to food, for example:

The following section is an overview of world cuisines. It is incomplete. It is organized roughly by geographical area, starting in the Western hemisphere and working Eastward and from North to South. Please help complete it.

[Top]

Cuisines of the Americas

Most of these cuisines are based on the cuisines of the countries from which immigrant peoples came, primarily Europe. However, the traditional European cuisine has been adapted to a greater or lesser degree and many local ingredients and techniques have been added to the tradition.

[Top]

Cuisines of Canada

See also: Canadian cuisines

[Top]

Cuisines of the United States, including Puerto Rico

See also: Cuisine of the United States

[Top]

Cuisines of Mexico

See also: Mexican cuisine

[Top]

Cuisines of the Caribbean

See also: Caribbean cuisines

[Top]

Cuisines of South America

See also: South American cuisines

[Top]

Cuisines of Europe

See also: European cuisines

[Top]

Cuisines of Northern Europe

[Top]

Cuisines of the Mediterranean

See also: Mediterranean cuisine

[Top]

Cuisines of Africa

See also: African cuisines

[Top]

Cuisines of the Middle East

See also: Middle-Eastern cuisines

[Top]

Cuisines of East Asia

See also: Asian cuisine

[Top]

Cuisines of India

See also: Indian cuisine

[Top]

Non-regional cuisines

[Top]

Related topics







  View Live Article   This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License