The taste of whiteness

A food writer’s take on the white gaze: how western media and chefs appropriate and de-contextualise Asian food.

Last month, Bon Appétit , an American food magazine, apologised to its readers and pledged to address issues of cultural appropriation, cultural de-contextualisation, the white gaze, and tokenisation that are present—consciously or unconsciously—in the magazine’s content. The apology was issued after a racially discriminatory image of the magazine’s editor-in-chief surfaced on social media, bringing to the fore such underlying issues.