How Restaurant Food in Florida Has Progressed

In my internet meanderings I ran across this article about a food writer named Jason Sheehan who decided he hated Florida and Florida food based on experiences he had in 1997 in Brandon and Tampa.

The interesting part was the response from chefs in the Tampa Bay area. Sheehan is quoted as saying that the food was "aggressively nonregional." Strangely enough, the chefs agree that at the time what he said was true. But they saw it as more of a national trend than something localized.

They believe that Tampa and the country has progressed and that we are now doing interesting things in the kitchen and on restaurant tables.

I do wonder what the future holds though. The recession has changed many aspects of life, so I do wonder how it will change the tablescape.

More people are eating comfort foods and staying away from the exotic. People don't want to spend money eating out unless they know what they're getting.

On a practical level, this means that fixed-price menus have become more popular in the last 3-5 years. Even if you're spending more on a meal (say $25-80) at least you know exactly what you'll be spending.

But will the economics strengthen or weaken regionalist cooking? Comfort foods are often regional, particularly the further South you go in the U.S.

Florida is kind of the exception to the rule. Jacksonville is part of American Southern culture, but the further South you get in the State of Florida, the less likely you are to have a traditional, regional American Southern dish. Miami might geographically be Southern, but in the culinary arena, it's more Cuban and international.

Tampa, I think, was probably struggling for a culinary identity. While there are Cuban influences (Ybor City) it's a little too far North to totally take on that brand of regionalism. And it's not an especially Southern-minded city, at least not in culinary idealogy.

Since the late 90s were an especially bland time in the country's palate, it's understandable that Tampa should have seen the worst of it.