Fusion Cuisine: Cooking Without Boundaries

America, the melting pot of cultures, is fast becoming the melting pot of cuisines, too. In continuing to satisfy their customers' demands for variety, chefs nationwide are blending together indigenous ingredients from different cultures in a culinary trend known as fusion cuisine.

"Fusion cuisine is when you combine particular ethnic cuisines and fuse them into one," said Keith Coughenour, executive chef and captain of this year's Culinary Olympics Team USA. "The combination has to make sense, be compatible and, ultimately, taste good."

In this "East meets West cooking," the ingredients, flavors and techniques of different cultures are pulled together to create unique, flavorful dishes. For example, Pacific Rim cooking combines Asian and Western styles. Another popular combination is French and Vietnamese.

When mixing ethnic cuisines, it's important to consider the flavor of the ingredients. Coughenour suggests starting with products that overlap both of the cuisines being fused, such as cilantro and hot peppers, which are both used in Asian and Mexican cuisines. "Once you find a similar starting point, you can expand the flavor by adding ingredients specific to each cuisine," said Sherrie Rosenblatt, director of public relations for the National Turkey Federation. "It helps to use a versatile base like turkey, whose mild flavor takes on seasonings easily."

While most chefs are embracing this concept, many classically trained chefs are concerned that the blending of ingredients that naturally work well together is being sacrificed in the pursuit of preparing different and exotic dishes. Coughenour uses the example of young chefs just out of culinary school. "They're limited in their knowledge of regional and ethical cuisines and often put together ingredients that don't make sense."

As long as chefs continue to use high quality ingredients and make food people like to eat, there's room for both styles of cooking, says Craig Scheuerman, CCC and chef instructor at the Greater Washington, D.C.-based ATI Career Institute of Culinary Arts.

"Mixing and matching flavors is the way food trends are going in the U.S.," said Scheuerman. "It's great to be able to experiment with different ingredients and we'll continue to see more and more of it." Try creating some fusion in your own kitchen with Turkey Cutlets and Soba Noodles with Cilantro-Peanut Pesto, an easy-to-prepare delight with a touch of Thai and Mexican influences.