Cooking Iranian Food in America, 1960–1979: the Politics of Authenticity in Revolutionary Times

Abstract This article examines the food culture of the Iranian diaspora in the United States to emphasize how politics intruded on the lives of Iranians (rather than the ways in which Iranians engaged in political activism). The immigrant experience is defined by an effort to assimilate, dissimulate, and exert one's unique character onto the landscape of a host society. In the United States, Iranians struggled with competing impulses, which presented unique challenges in the food industry. In an effort to formulate and offer an “authentic” dining experience against the backdrop of an alternatively hostile and orientalizing Anglo-American clientele, Iranians nimbly accommodated both the political pressures from Iran and the transforming demographics of their restaurant patrons and cookbook readers.