Should Chinese people be able to open "Japanese" restaurants?

Question

It seems like most of the Japanese restaurants I know are being run by Chinese people. Sometimes they have a Japanese Sushi Chef, but the fried food is often premade frozen. If you mention Soba to them they have no idea what you are talking about. Caucasians can't get away with opening a Chinese or Japanese restaurant, so why should Chinese be able to get away with making Japanese?

Answer 1

Wow are you off base

I'm Irish and if I had the money I dang well could open any KIND if restaurant I wish..

and I could hire Italians or Afghans to cook

any thing else would be discrimination and bigoted...

be careful in your assumptions

prove your facts !!!  what laws prohibit such nonsense..

Answer 2

What, you do honestly think there are French citizens at your local French restaurant cooking away?  Chances are, most of the line cooks have never even been to Europe, much less study cooking in France.

If you read 'Kitchen Confidential' by the boisterous Antony Bourdain, he explains that his personal preference for cooks were from Eucador because they don't miss work, their food is consistent and they don't talk back.  Of course this led to him having to learn a bit of Spanish in order to get the cooking done in his French restaurant, but he admits it's a lot of fun (for him, anyways...)

It doesn't matter what ethnicity the cook is.  So long as his food is good, what more do you need?

I do ask that if you say that if you're running a Japanese restaurant, you actually serve Japanese food and actually know what Japanese food is.  Finally, never, EVER, try to fool your customer.

One Japanese restaurant I went to took an hour to get me a simple sashimi dish because the waitress didn't know what sashimi was.  Apparently she thought it was a fried dish so she kept giving my order to the line chefs in back, instead of the sushi chef.  The manager profusely apologized for that, and gave me the meal for free.

Another so-called Japanese place tried serving me bul gol gi, while claiming it was a chicken teriyaki bowl.  Bul gol gi is a Korean beef dish btw...  Yeah, turns out the chef was Korean.  Worse still, he figured I (a caucasian) wouldn't know the difference...in a city heavily populated by Asian restaurants of all types.  Unfortunately, not only do I know the difference between Korean and Japanese cuisine, but I also know the difference between chicken and beef.  The real tragedy was that if the place just said it was a Korean restaurant, they would still be in business.  But trying to pass Korean food off as Japanese food in an area like that?  Bad, bad idea.

Yet another place claimed to have never heard of katsudonburi, which is a fried pork cutlet that's sliced, then tossed with some onions and a soy sauce mixture before being served over a bowl of rice.  They had other doburis, and they also served the pork cutlet as a dinner, yet the chef refused to believe that someone would actually put the two items together despite his decades of training in Japan...yet he couldn't speak any Japanese...or English for that matter.

At the same time, one of my favorite sushi places is run by a nice Chinese couple, and the Ranch 99 (Chinese grocery chain) largely employs Mexican and Hispanic people to run their registers.  They can even speak a little Chinese.  Hey, if you can do your job well, what does it matter what your ethnicity is?

Answer 3

who cares! it doesn't make any difference what the person's ethnicity is behind the stove. if the food is good, then the food is good. it wouldn't matter. not even if the flying purple people eater opened a vegan restaurant.

Answer 4

All the sushi restaurants around where my husband went to college were ran by Koreans.  But, now we live close to Novi where Japanese people run it.  To me, I can't taste the difference.  I doubt it really matters.

And if they are running  a Japanese restaurant, they should know typical Japanese foods: soba, udon, tempura, sushi, etc

Answer 5

Sure they can... why not?

If the food is good, people will vote with their wallet.

Answer 6

Anybody, regardless of where they are from can make any type of food they want. I can think of a lot French and Italian restaurants that have non French and Italian chefs, sous chefs, etc. Some of the best French food I've ever had was made by an Ecuadorian.

Answer 7

I honestly don't see why they couldn't, but it's like, why don't the Chinese open their own nationality restaurant.

Answer 8

I think they should be able.

Answer 9

Why not? Their foods are almost alike. I don't think it really matters who does what just as long as the food taste awesome!!!

Answer 10

who says a caucasian cant open a ethnic restaurant