QUESTIONABLE CUISINE; ETHNIC DISHES IN AMERICA LACK AUTHENTICITY, CHEFS SAYS.

Byline: Donna Abu-Nasr Associated Press 

When Italian chef Francesco Tonelli makes pizza, he never tops it with pepperoni. In fact, there's no pepperoni in his country - or even spaghetti with meatballs, veal parmigiana or pasta as a main course.

French chef Michel Richard calls French dressing ``an outrage.'' ``You never see a French person serving tomato vinaigrette in his home,'' sniffed the master chef.

Egg foo yung, chicken chow mein, crispy noodles. Forget it. You won't find them listed on a menu in China, said Chinese chef Shirley Cheng. And that must-end-a-Chinese-meal-with, the fortune cookie, is actually an American invention.

So when Americans eat in a French restaurant, or a Chinese restaurant, or an Italian restaurant, or any other ethnic restaurant, they're more likely than not to eat food that no one in France, China or Italy is likely to eat - or sometimes even to recognize.

Why? Why is it difficult to find French vinaigrette that's light and translucent, tabbouleh that's crunchy and green, sweet and sour pork that's naturally red, and pasta sauce with the actual taste of tomatoes?

Wrong cooking methods, said the experts, a lack of proper ingredients, a shortage of professionally trained ethnic chefs, scarcity of the right tools and equipment.

In addition, a dish may change character or even get crossed off a menu simply because Americans won't eat it.

Take aji, for instance, a Japanese dish in which the fish is essentially alive as you eat it. ``Every time you take it, the fish kind of makes a face at you,'' said American chef Jonathan Zearfoss, who tried it in Japan. ``There's no way that you would be able to market that in America.''

Although qualified chefs and proper ingredients are generally more available in recent years, many chefs still Americanize their ethnic dishes merely to please American palates. The result, critics say, is food that's heavy, creamy, thick and sweet with clashing flavors.

Richard, who moved to this country from France 24 years ago, is appalled at the way Americans smother their salads with thick, creamy, sweet dressings, like French dressing.

``They should stop that,'' said Richard, part owner of several restaurants in Washington and Los Angeles. ``The dressing should be lighter than the salad. It should complement it, not mask its flavor.''

His ideal dressing? A nice olive oil, a few drops of vinegar, salt and pepper. That's it.

Another American oddity that puzzles Richard, who calls his restaurants ``food embassies,'' is kids' menus rich with pasta and hamburgers. ``How come kids don't eat like adults?'' Richard wonders.

The pet peeve of Cheng is that the flavor of Chinese cuisine is all too often destroyed by stir-frying, deep-frying and blanketing food with too much sauce.

``Good food takes a long time cooking,'' said Cheng, who like Zearfoss and Tonelli is a professor at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.

In China, she said, ``You prepare, you stew, you steam. . . . But here it's stir-fry, deep-fry, because it's fast, the customer has no patience and the kitchen labor is limited.''

Tonelli finds food preparation too complicated in the United States.

Although Italy enjoys many variations of tomato sauce, none has more than five ingredients, said Tonelli. Here, though, sauces tend to have more ingredients and the recipes more complexity. The same is true for American pizza, which not only has too many toppings but also includes ingredients you'd never find on an Italian pizza: bell pepper, pepperoni, chicken.

Another difference that Tonelli noted is the perception of food itself. Italian cooks prepare food ``more with our feelings, with our hearts, with smelling the food,'' Tonelli said. Americans try to analyze it and rationalize the techniques they use.

``If you can see both methods and understand them both, then try to balance them in the way you cook, you can probably improve and become a better cook,'' Tonelli said.

Tonelli and the others stressed that Americanizing dishes can produce great results. All said the customer should be told when a dish is not authentic.

``Otherwise, this creates confusion . . . and makes people believe wrong things and have misconceptions,'' Tonelli said.

Zearfoss said American customers are becoming more educated about what they eat and as a result are beginning to demand more authentic ethnic fare.

Elizabeth Connell agrees.

A researcher who lived in Beijing for a year, Connell, 28, said when she ate in China, she would ``sit there and try to identify the spices'' in the food. ``But when I eat Chinese food in the United States,'' she said, ``I don't even taste those spices.''

CAPTION(S):

photo

PHOTO French chef Michel Richard, at work in one of his restaurants, calls French dressing ``an outrage.''

Vince Lupo/Associated Press