On Being My Authentic Self: What I Learned from Meeting Chef Pati Jinich

For Hispanic Heritage month, our DE&I team invited chef, author, and television host Pati Jinich for a virtual conversation surrounding food, Mexican culture, and her work connecting the US and Mexico on her James Beard-award winning PBS series Pati’s Mexican Table. As a major foodie, I was really excited for this work event, but didn’t expect it to make such a personal impact on me.

Let me explain. Pati began the conversation by explaining how food has helped people better understand Mexico and Mexican communities and how the work of cultural connection has evolved. In the early days of her cooking show, almost ten years ago, she took a rather conservative approach limiting the amount of Spanish and particular regions she introduced. Gradually, as her audience became attuned to the new cultures she highlighted, she was able to expand and expose them to more daring and unknown regions of Mexico and Spanish dialects, ultimately creating a more genuine connection for the audience.

During Pati’s talk, I felt the familiarity of trying to shrink and simplify my country’s complex history and diversity when introducing Tunisia to an American audience. Much like Mexico’s food tapestry is weaved by African, Lebanese, Syrian, and Jewish influences, Tunisia, located at the tip of north Africa and projecting into the Mediterranean Sea, was historically influenced by a succession of various cultures; Carthaginian, Sicilian, Ottoman, African, Arab, French, and the list goes on. There’s a sense of responsibility to accurately and authentically relay the nuances that come with one’s culture and ethnicity. In Pati’s case, her passion for food served as the medium through which she breaks myths and misconceptions, and really shows the world the diverse and rich mosaic that Mexico is.

Pati’s initial approach to lightly introduce her Mexican culture and attempts to keep Spanish snippets out of the conversational aspects of her show were all too familiar to me. It reminded me of several occasions when I felt unless I “translated” everything into something already familiar to Americans, no one was going to be interested in what I have to say. However, like Pati, I grew bolder with introducing Arabic words and familiarizing my friends and acquaintances with this or that Tunisian dish. Like Pati, I was able to be more authentic.

One particular quote that stuck with me from our conversation with Pati was “the most noble space for sharing ideas and differences, that can be hard to understand, is the kitchen.” It’s around the kitchen table and its festive multi-ethnic meals that Tunisians partake in loud and heated conversations. Sometimes, speaking the same language isn’t even necessary to build an authentic connection. Take it from my mom and my host mom! During my time as an exchange student in the US, I lived with a host family who visited me in Tunisia. They did not speak Arabic or French and my family did not speak English. Yet, it is in the kitchen that conversation was flowing, and connection built. I vividly remember looking back and hearing my mom and my host mom’s laughter while deep in a gesture-filled conversation over a festive Sunday couscous meal — the perfect embodiment of Pati’s quote.

Whether it’s a plate of tacos or a plate of couscous, as Pati put it, food is “the one unifier” and through it we can perhaps come one step closer to seeing the beauty that lies in our differences for this Hispanic Heritage month and all other heritage months.