Ugly Delicious Asian-American Chef David Chang

In the Netflix show Ugly Delicious, Asian-American chef David Chang explores the combination of different ethnic cuisines and their racial history in the U.S. He often compares Asian and European cuisines to try and elevate the social standing of Asian food and challenge perceptions of Asian foods as being cheap, unhealthy, and unhygienic. In the episode “Fried Rice”, an episode revolving around the usage of fried rice in various cultures but focusing on Chinese cuisine, Chang and food historian Ian Mosby perform an informal experiment on non-Asian Americans. These non-Asian Americans first share their experiences eating MSG, or monosodium glutamate, a type of sodium associated with Chinese food. Most claim to have gotten physically ill - headaches,

numbness, and dizziness. They were then given common American junk foods to eat, such as Doritos, Ruffles and Pringles, which unbeknownst to them also contain MSG. When told that MSG is commonly found in most foods, including what they had just eaten, they very quickly backtrack or even defend their prejudiced assumptions. Dubbed “Chinese restaurant syndrome” in 1968 and known as MSG Sensitivity Syndrome today, symptoms such as numbness, weakness, and headaches are commonly attributed to the MSG in Chinese food even though decades of research have found no link between MSG and these symptoms in most people (Tarasoff, Kelly 1993; Woessner 1999; Geha 2000). Mosby states that “it is one of the most widely used food additives in the United States, though most of it is used by the food processing industry, not Chinese restaurants.” These symptoms are an example of a purely psychosomatic illness created by sensational racial prejudice in viewing “ethnic” food as exotic and therefore suspect. Despite all evidence, people are more likely to believe they received food poisoning from non-European food (Simmons 2014). The association of uncleanliness with immigrants is an extremely pervasive, decades old stereotype originating in the mid-19th century (Zimring 2018). For Mexican and Chinese establishments, these prejudices manifests in the fear of the use of “mystery” meats, health concerns such as diarrhea and indigestion, and rat and/or roach infestations.