American cuisine

American cooking is regional: New England chowders, Southern barbecue, Louisiana gumbo — they share less with each other than European national cuisines do.

What passes for American food abroad is mostly chain formats. The real regional traditions are older and stricter: New England argues about tomatoes in chowder, Texas about sauce on brisket.

Immigration here did not dissolve but settled in layers: Italian in New Jersey, German in Wisconsin, Mexican across the south-west. Many an American dish is somebody's recipe reworked on local ingredients.