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This article is part
of the Cuisine series

Understanding...

Utensils
Techniques
Weights and measures

Cooking...

Spices & Herbs
Sauces - Soups
Cheese - Pasta
Other ingredients

List of recipes
Desserts

Discover...

French - Chinese
Indian - Italian
others...
Famous chefs

See Also...

Kitchens - Meals
Wikibooks: Cookbook

A cuisine (from the French word for "kitchen") is a specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a place of origin. Religious food laws can also exercise a strong influence on cuisine. A cuisine is primarily influenced by the ingredients that are available locally or through trade. For example, the "Chinese" dish chop suey clearly reflected the adaptation of Chinese immigrant cooking styles to the different ingredients available in North America.

The last century or so has produced enormous improvements in food production, preservation, storage and shipping. Today almost every locale in the world has access to not only its traditional cuisine, but also to many other world cuisines, as well. New cuisines are constantly evolving, as certain aesthetics rise and fall in popularity among professional chefs and their clientele.

In addition to food, a cuisine is also often held to include beverages, including wine, liquor, tea, coffee and other drinks. Increasingly, experts hold that it further includes the raw ingredients and original plants and animals from which they come. The Slow Food movement is a global effort to preserve local plants, animals, and techniques of food preparation. It has 70,000 adherents in 50 countries.

There are also different cultural attitudes to food, for example:

In India, consumption of food is regarded as an offering, a Yagna. Thus the stomach is considered to be a homagunda (holy fire) and all the food consumed is an offering to the holy fire.

In Japan, participating as a guest in a Japanese tea ceremony is a fine-art and there is an elaborate ceremonial about it. Not drinking tea in the right way is considered to be an act of barbarianism.

The following section is an overview of world cuisines. It is incomplete. It is organized roughly by geographical area, starting in the Western hemisphere and working Eastward and from North to South. Please help complete it.

Table of contents

1 Cuisines of the Americas

1.1 Cuisines of Canada
1.2 Cuisines of the United States, including Puerto Rico
1.3 Cuisines of Mexico
1.4 Cuisines of the Caribbean
1.5 Cuisines of South America

2 Cuisines of Europe

2.1 Cuisines of Northern Europe
2.2 Cuisines of the Mediterranean

3 Cuisines of Africa

4 Cuisines of the Middle East