Abstract

This thesis explores the evolution in American discourse on Japanese cooking from the end of World War II through the end of the Cold War. During this time of important changes and tensions in US-Japan relations, Japanese cuisine went from a niche, exotic novelty to a monument of fine dining. Nevertheless, that discourse remained largely static throughout the period. This stasis is imputable to the fact that, at least on a national level, white, educated, upper-middle class writers —rather than Japanese-Americans— popularized Japanese cuisine in the United States. Those writers often perpetuated older Orientalist tropes and used Japanese cuisine as a mean to accrue cultural capital and perform a form of cosmopolitanism that had become fashionable during the Cold War era. This research is based on the analysis of cookbooks, restaurant reviews, mostly from the New York Times, and magazines articles from Gourmet and Bon Appétit published between 1945 and 1992.�