Are fusion-y, foreign influences coming to befoul our beloved Thai cuisine? The Ministry of Culture sure seems to think so. But fear not, they’re currently cooking up ways behind the scenes to preserve its authenticity.
The country is going to create a master plan to “promote and preserve Thai food wisdom,” Culture Minister Vira Rojpojchanarat revealed at an internal meeting at the ministry yesterday, a move intended to guarantee the taste of Thai dishes will not change from their traditional flavors.
Vira expressed his concern that as Thai food has gained popularity all over the world, the Thai culinary arts are being affected by foreign dishes, with many local dishes being adapted via fusion techniques he fears will lead to gradual disappearance of authentic Thai cuisine.
In response to the “threat,” he has set up a panel to draft a plan that will be implemented between 2020 to 2024 to correspond with Thailand’s 20-year national development strategy.
If any of this sounds familiar, it’s probably because this is not the first time the idea of “Thai food not being Thai enough” bedeviled the Thai government.
Under former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, a robot was reportedly in development that would have been tasked with determining whether food was genuinely Thai. That idea was mooted after the PM (later ousted in a coup) sampled food at Thai restaurants abroad and found it “unworthy” of being called Thai.
In the end, no one knew what really happened to the robot, but it was safe to say the initiative was probably scrapped along with her government.
