The Omnivorous Fish

“because I think that this has more to do with the “French Mafia” in NYC and that french food is held in such high regard in America (deserved or not, no matter.)”

There are restaurant mafias in every immigrant community. The French enjoy a certain premium because they have made food an ostentatious part of their culture thoughout history. The Italians, who have a longer tradition of eating for pleasure than just about anybody, have ingrained food so deeply into their lives that their cuisine never developed a cache in this country until this most recent food era.

Time plays a certain role in this as well, as a nation we’re simply used to looking up to French cooking, although this has begun to wane recently as well. Other ethnic foods have only recently gained a foothold in fine dining, I think, because we’ve only been ready for them in the last 10 years. Racism is partly to blame for this, but I think mainly it’s the culture of processed food that we’ve wallowed in for so long here. There’s green bean casserole with canned onions, and there’s haute cuisine.

Further reading:
http://omnivorousfish.com/node/82