From fresh lobsters in Maine to barbeque disputes in the South, the range of culinary diversity in the United States offers a glimpse into this country’s many personalities.
The six cities below represent regions of the country that are disparate for many reasons, including food. San Francisco and Detroit are nearly identical in population size, though they lie on opposite sides of the income scale, with per capita incomes of $46,000 and $15,000, respectively. Waco, Texas, and Mobile, Ala., round out the lower end of the income spectrum, with per capitas at $17,000 and $22,000, and Boulder’s $35,000 per capita leans towards the upper end. As Boulder continues to gain culinary recognition, residents may wonder: How do we compare to the nation at large?
San Francisco
It is often said that San Francisco is one of the world’s leaders in cutting-edge cuisine. The city contains more than 800,000 people, and its proximity to the coast, mountains and some of the best school systems make it a desirable destination.
“It’s very competitive,” restaurant owner Tim McDonnell says of San Francisco’s cuisine scene. “You have to keep the food quality up in terms of trends.” The city’s populace is highly educated; according to the U.S. Census, 45 percent of its residents hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to about 25 percent in the U.S. California also has a year-round growing season, making it an ideal destination for foodies. With a per capita income of $46,000, there is money to spend on fresh, creative cuisine that often comes at a higher cost.
“There’s a value on [organic and local food] that is probably broader here than in other parts of the country,” says San Francisco food publicist Eleanor Bertino. “People here are willing to spend more on food.” Bertino says Northern California’s political progressiveness helps dictate new food trends, one of the reasons the organic movement took off throughout the region.
“Originally it was a hippie idea that wormy apples were more natural,” she says. “But as [farmers] got more professional, they started growing beautiful things.” Organic farming was in demand among restaurants like Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse, the Berkeley eatery that spearheaded the locavore movement, and the Bay Area saw these two trends come together to form the ultimate foodie culture.
“In L.A., everybody’s skinny, they think food is the enemy,” Bertino says. “But here there is a huge health consciousness, lots of athletics. There’s also a pleasure principle, people really do love good food around here.”
McDonnell, who owns several restaurants throughout the Bay Area, says the city’s high population of young people also influences the fast-moving food trends. “There’s a good clientele ages 25 to 45,”
McDonnell says. “They’ve got some money and they like to try new places. A lot of the restaurants here are just jammed at nighttime.”
Detroit
Soon after the Capital Grille opened in San Francisco, it shut down due to the Bay Area’s high restaurant competition. Yet in the Detroit metropolitan area, the Capital Grille is the finest restaurant available, according to Penelope Francis, a former Bay Area resident who has lived outside Detroit for nearly three years. Francis says that most people there consume fast food and other highly processed foods.
“The junk food is unbelievable,” she says. “I’ll be in line at Kroger, and everybody in line around me is overweight, yet they’re eating Pop-Tarts and soda.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Detroit is the only metropolitan area in the United States that had a food expenditure share significantly above the national average in 2007-08.
Where the typical U.S. household spent 12.6 percent of its total annual budget on food, Detroit households paid 14.3 percent of their annual budgets to eat. The higher expenditure is unusual, considering Detroit’s low per capita income (about $15,000) and high unemployment (15.5 percent in the metropolitan area). The BLS also reports that, compared to the national average, Detroit households spent less on public transportation and more on vehicle purchases.
Francis suspects that health is a low priority in the Detroit area because of the lack of education.
“It’s poor eating habits [in Detroit proper] because the majority of the population is poor and uneducated,” she says. “The more educated you are, the more aware you are of the benefits of healthy eating and exercise.” According to
the U.S. Census, 11 percent of Detroit citizens hold a bachelor’s
degree. The city is highly populated with factory workers, and nearly 30
percent of residents live under the poverty line.
Francis credits the climate
and landscape as well for the tendency toward a sedentary lifestyle.
“In the Bay Area
there’s always something to do outside,” she says. “Here, most
activities are indoors.”
But she has noticed tremors of a movement toward healthier foods.
“A new restaurant just
opened up that’s organic,” she says. “It’s starting, but it has a ways
to go.”
Waco,
Texas
As some cities progress
toward an eco-conscious food scene, other towns show little interest in
organic foods.
“As far as a real
movement toward organics, not really,” Waco resident Kalie Karnes says
of the eating habits in her town. “People really like the standard [way
of eating].”
What’s
the standard in Waco?
Karnes, a student at Baylor University who has lived in Waco for
nearly four years, says locals tend toward typical Southern fare such as
fried chicken and barbeque and don’t pay much mind to healthfulness.
“It doesn’t seem like they care much about trying to eat healthier or
more organically,” she says.
According to the U.S. Census, Waco is 60.8 percent
white, 22.6 percent African-American and 23.6 percent Hispanic. Karnes
says the Hispanic population significantly influences the city’s eating
style.
“There are a
lot of small Mexican grocery stores and Mexican restaurants,” she says.
“Tex-Mex is really popular.”
While Waco has its fair share of chain restaurants,
Karnes says there are lots of “mom-and-pop” places that have been around
for a long time, allowing customers to know just what to expect in
their meals.
Mobile,
Ala.
A similar
theme permeates the food scene in the coastal city of Mobile.
“We like to eat what we
know is good,” says David Holloway, food editor at the Mobile
Press-Register. The city, which is home to 191,000 people, has a per
capita income of about $20,000, according to the U.S. Census. Holloway
says experimentation isn’t an overriding eating principle among Mobile
residents, and that comfort food reigns most popular, particularly
throughout the economic downturn.
“Comfort food reconnects you with your roots and makes
you feel better about your situation,” Holloway says. “It’s anything
like fried chicken and biscuits or, in this part of the country, fried
shrimp.” Since the city lies on the edge of Mobile Bay, an inlet of the
Gulf of Mexico, seafood has dominated the cuisine scene for decades.
While Holloway says
the national movement toward organics hasn’t quite caught on, he says
buying local seafood is something Mobile residents value.
“We’re in a region where
our own brand of cuisine tends to dominate our local palate,” he says.
“That’s what we grew up eating. We like to eat what we know.”
Boulder
Since the Boulder
Farmers’ Market started in April, downtown is considerably more
populated on Saturdays.
Foodies flock in from
around the area, eager to get fresh foods grown locally.
“[Boulder has] a lifestyle
culture that is dedicated to being healthy, fit and active,” says Karen
Barela, chief operating officer at Boulder’s Culinary School of the
Rockies. “It has to do with the highly educated population and the
abundance of the middle class.”
Boulder contains about 95,000 people, 67 percent of
whom hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to the U.S. Census.
As evidenced in other cities, there may be a correlation between higher
education and a healthy lifestyle. With a per capita income of about
$35,000, Boulder represents the middle class, which Barela says is the
primary supporter of the organic, local movement.
“The local farming
community is alive and thriving, and the middle class is able to support
that in a way that I don’t think would be able to function in other
cities,” she says. “At the moment [local foods] are more expensive, and
for many people it’s harder to make those choices on a day-to-day
basis.”
In the past
10 years, a significant food-related change has taken place in local
restaurants. Many eateries boast chalkboards or daily menus detailing
the origins of each dish, allowing Boulder’s foodies to connect with
farms both at the market and at the table.
“At the farmers’ market you can speak directly
to the person who grew the spinach,” Barela says. “That’s one of the
special things we have here in Boulder.”
A strong connection among customers, chefs and
farmers has driven the farm-to-table movement because of the local
demand for it. Barela also cites the city’s entire lifestyle approach to
healthfulness, including changes like carrying a mug to a coffee shop
rather than using their paper cups.
“Those kinds of changes now seem really engrained in
us here,” she says. “It’ll be interesting to watch the next generation’s
level of choices come to fruition.”
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