Watch Jonathan Gold Talk Culinary Authenticity at MAD

The videos from this past Summer's MAD Symposium keep trickling in, and here now is LA Times critic Jonathan Gold riffing on the conference's theme of "guts." Gold directs the conversation to authenticity in cooking, asking: "Does it matter?"

While he does say that the "best" traditional dishes tend to be found in the place where they originated, Gold notes that "cuisine has never been static" and that authenticity is a "moving target." He goes on to praise the innovations of chefs who take those traditional dishes and make then their own, including Kogi tacos and Momofuku bo ssam, concluding that authenticity is at once "the most important thing in cooking" and "not important" at all. In the 20 minute lecture below, Gold also touches on how the internet has slowed "culinary misinterpretations," how presumably inauthentic foods can be totally authentic to certain people, and Spam, the "totem of culinary authenticity in America." Go, watch:

Video: Jonathan Gold: "On Authenticity"

· Jonathan Gold: "On Authenticity" [Vimeo]
· All Jonathan Gold Coverage on Eater [-E-]