EATING VERSUS SELLING AUTHENTICITY: NEGOTIATING TORONTO’S VIETNAMESE CULINARY LANDSCAPE BY NANCY HUYNH A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE PROGRAM IN THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY IN CONFORMITY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA OCTOBER 2012 COPYRIGHT © NANCY HUYNH, 2012 ABSTRACT Despite the popularity of Vietnamese cuisine in Toronto, there is limited understanding of how this culinary cuisine is socially constructed through its consumption and production. This thesis research examines the production of Toronto’s Vietnamese culinary landscape with the aim of unpacking the discursive power relations between consumers’ and purveyors’ construction of authenticity through the processes of racialization. It also highlights the identities created through racialized consumption and production practices, and how such identity constructions are constitutive of Vietnamese culinary culture. To this aim, consumers were surveyed and in‐depth interviews were conducted with owners and managers. Results from the fieldwork process demonstrated that both consumers and producers construct authenticity and images of Vietnamese culture for their own benefits but had different, and sometimes confounding, understandings of how such constructions are interpreted and practiced. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Audrey Kobayashi for her advisement through the research and writing processes of this thesis. Her commitment and mentorship helped me through the up and downs of each stage of the Master’s program and was influential to my completion of this thesis. A thank you to my examining committee, Dr. Heather Nicol, Dr. Laura Cameron, Dr. Petra Fachinger, and Dr. Audrey Kobayashi, for their helpful and thought‐provoking comments, questions, and suggestions. A special thanks to folks in the Geography Department at Queen’s University for all their support. Lastly, I owe a special acknowledgement to my spouse, Tony Trang, and my dearest friends Diane Scarlett, Jonathan Scarlett, and Connie Sung for always being there when I needed encouragement. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................ i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................................... ii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 THESIS GOALS AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ................................................................................. 4 1.2 TORONTO’S VIETNAMESE RESTAURANTS .................................................................................... 5 1.3 TORONTO’S VIETNAMESE ETHNIC COMMUNITY ......................................................................... 9 1.4 MOTIVATIONS FOR FOOD GEOGRAPHY ..................................................................................... 11 1.5 CHAPTERS OUTLINE .................................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ....................................................................................... 16 2.1 OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................................. 16 2.2 COMMODITY CULTURES—CONSUMING THE WORLD ON A PLATE ........................................... 17 2.3 ETHNIC ENTREPRENEURS ........................................................................................................... 22 2.3.1 ETHNIC BUSINESSES AND THE SOCIAL CAPITAL OF THE FAMILY ........................................ 25 2.3.2 ETHNIC COMMERCIAL AREAS IN TRANSITION .................................................................... 26 2.4 RACE ........................................................................................................................................... 28 2.5 MOST FAMOUS AUTHENTIC VIETNAMESE CUISINE ................................................................... 31 2.6 TOGETHER MAKING VIETNAMESE RESTAURANT CULTURE ....................................................... 37 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................... 40 3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN ...................................................................................................................... 40 3.2 QUESTIONNAIRES ....................................................................................................................... 41 3.3 INTERVIEWS ................................................................................................................................ 43 3.4 OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH ....................................................................................................... 46 3.5 LIMITATIONS AND ETHICS .......................................................................................................... 47 CHAPTER FOUR: UNDERSTANDING CONSUMERS’ HUNGER FOR AUTHENTICITY QUESTIONNAIRE ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................. 51 4.1 GENERAL DEMOGRAPHICS ......................................................................................................... 51 4.2 EATING HABITS ........................................................................................................................... 53 4.3 VIETNAMESE CULINARY CULTURE: SPICY, CHEAP, AND UNSOPHISTICATED ............................. 58 4.4 PHO SOMETHING ........................................................................................................................ 61 iii 4.5 IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURS: PURVEYORS OF AUTHENTICITY ............................................... 62 4.6 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 63 CHAPTER FIVE: ETHNIC ENTREPRENEUR STRATEGIES: INTERVIEWS WITH OWNERS & MANAGERS .. 65 5.1 VIETNAMESE RESTAURATEURS .................................................................................................. 66 5.2 PRICING STRATEGIES: CONTENDING WITH CHEAP .................................................................... 69 5.2.1 PAN‐ASIAN PRICES .............................................................................................................. 70 5.2.2 THE PRICE OF DECOR .......................................................................................................... 72 5.2.3 PRICING STRATEGY OUTCOMES .......................................................................................... 73 5.3 NEW GENERATION MANAGERS: OPERATING RESTAURANTS AND PRACTISING CULTURAL IDENTITY ........................................................................................................................................... 74 5.3.1 ENGLISH‐SPEAKING SERVICE ............................................................................................... 77 5.3.2 NEW GENERATION BUSINESS IDEAS ................................................................................... 79 5.3.3 FAMILY‐BUSINESS CONTINUITY STRATEGIES OUTCOMES .................................................. 82 5.4 LOCATION STRATEGIES: CHINATOWN VERSUS MAIN(STREAM) STREETS ................................. 82 5.4.1 CHINATOWN ....................................................................................................................... 84 5.4.2 MAIN(STREAM) STREETS ..................................................................................................... 86 5.4.3 OUTCOMES OF LOCATION STRATEGIES .............................................................................. 88 5.5 STRATEGIES TO STAGE AUTHENTICITY ...................................................................................... 89 5.5.1 DECOR ................................................................................................................................. 89 5.5.2 INGREDIENTS & MENUS ...................................................................................................... 90 5.5.3 OUTCOMES OF STAGING AUTHENTICITY STRATEGIES ....................................................... 94 5.6 CONSUMERS AND PRODUCERS AT A COMMON DINING TABLE ............................................... 95 CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 97 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................... 100 APPENDIX ONE: QUESTIONNAIRE DISTRIBUTED TO CONSUMERS .................................................... 104 APPENDIX TWO: INTERVIEW SCHEDULE FOR INTERVIEWS WITH PURVEYORS ................................. 113 APPENDIX THREE: LETTER OF INFORMATION AND CONSENT FOR INTERVIEW PARTICIPANTS ........ 114 APPENDIX FOUR: RESEARCH ETHICS BOARD APPROVAL ................................................................... 116 iv LIST