Eating a Meal with the Other
103
These concerns about the way that we deal with individuals from other
cultures—specifically with regard to the sharing of food—are echoed by Patai in
her discussion of feminist research methods. She describes an important moment
in her early research when she is interviewing a woman in Brazil named Teresa.
The experience sticks out in her memory because of the way that Teresa invites
her into her dwelling and offers her a bottle of soda and a piece of cake, despite
repeated refusals by Patai. This generosity is contrasted with the fact that “the
refrigerator was bare when she opened it, and she herself looked worn out and
undernourished” (Patai 141). Patai wonders why Teresa had participated in the
interview at all, and further worries that putting Teresa’s narrative in the public
sphere is a form of exploitation. While Bourdain may be compensating the
individuals for the meal that they provide, it is clear that this act of sharing food
with the legitimized, authoritative outsider is troubling on many levels. What,
exactly, are the participants getting out of their encounter with Bourdain? While
Patai worries about the fact that her role as a researcher stands in the way of
“fair exchange” between the participant and herself—as she is surely getting
more out of it than they are—there is an even sharper contrast between
Bourdain’s Laotian interviewees and himself It would be impossible for the
Laotians to see themselves on the American television program or to reap the
benefits of exposure in any way, and so they are left with simply the notion that
they are contributing to a greater body of knowledge for the American public. It
is certainly possible that both the Laotian family and Patai’s informant Teresa
shared the meal out of a sincere generosity and desire to share that they would
gladly offer in any situation, but we cannot ignore the identities of those who
asked of these individuals. In light of these issues, it is quite possible that the
participants opened their home to Bourdain because it was requested by an
American television crew, and they were in no position to deny such a request.
One way that Bourdain repeatedly attempts to shrink this power differential
throughout the show is through invoking language of brotherhood through food.
He often claims food culture as a common ground between himself and his
interview subjects, despite the real inequalities that divide them. “Where food,
people and culture intersect, that’s where you really see both the things that are
different about us and what we share,” he states in the episode on China. Yet
this romantic notion of shared passions and friendship merely disguises the
problem. Patai notes that feminist researchers often invoke “sisterhood” as a
way of alleviating power differentials between the interviewer and the
interviewee. Female researchers will try to befriend their subjects because they
are both women and can understand each other on that level as equals. However,
as Patai argues, “the problem with this honorable intent is its disingenuousness”
(Patai 144). In Patai’s own research she interviewed 60 women, and although
she promised many of them that she would keep in touch, she found it
overwhelming to actually maintain any meaningful ties. The idea that the
participants benefit from things like “the opportunity to tell their stories, the