Don Quixote and the American Culinary Arts

The most recent generation of chefs in America is shifting the culinary

landscape to include Spanish cuisine. In part this trend is due to the

molecular gastronomy revolution of the nineties that began in Cata-

luña under the creative leadership of Ferran Adrià. But credit also lies

with one of Spain’s cultural icons whose presence has enhanced Spanish

restaurants in the United States for the past century: Don Quixote of La

Mancha. Throughout the twentieth century, the popularity of the Spanish

restaurant in the United States was intrinsically tied to Don Quixote; his

presence lent a certain authenticity to the establishment, perhaps even a

safe comfort zone that put patrons at ease. Into the twenty-first century,

Spanish cuisine has become further entrenched in the American culinary

scene, and although less visually connected toDon Quixote, Cervantes’s

masterpiece still shares an intimate space with chefs and food critics alike

who are renovating Spanish cuisine in America. This chapter explores the

connection between Cervantes’s most famous novel and the American

culinary arts by first bringing to light the presence of food inDon Quixote

and then considering the effect of both the novel and Spanish cuisine on

American dining and culinary sensibility.