103. Who Decides What’s Authentic? The Battle Over Food, Culture, and Identity

When a restaurant says “authentic,” what does that really mean—and who gets to decide? In this episode, Rich sits down with Janna Tamargo, founder of AuthenticFood.com to unpack the complex and often heated conversations around authenticity in food.

From a Japanese restaurant secretly run by Chinese owners to debates over who has the right to cook certain cuisines, Janna shares stories from her global research that reveal why authenticity is never black and white. They explore how memory, culture, and power shape the way we taste and talk about food—and why these conversations matter more than ever in today’s diverse dining landscape.

You’ll never look at a menu claiming to be “authentic” the same way again.

Key topics covered:

• Why the word authentic has become a marketing buzzword—and how that hurts food culture.
• Real-world stories of identity and perception, like the Gainesville restaurant where customers assumed the owners’ nationality based on appearance.
• The fine line between appreciation and appropriation when cooking food from another culture.
• Why immigrants are often the ones actually cooking the “authentic” dishes behind the scenes.
• How global dining experiences, from Rome to Istanbul, reveal universal truths about food and belonging.

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