By Nicole Ki
AsAmNews Intern
David Bouhadana, a 23-year-old chef at a NYC sushi spot, speaks English with a Japanese accent while serving customers as “the new face of sushi,” reports Eater New York.
Boudhadana is the executive chef at Sushi by Bou in the Meatpacking District. He is from Florida and is the son of a Morrocan father and French mother. He started his career in sushi when he was 18.
At his restaurant, Boudhadana prepares his food with an offensive Japanese accent describing it as “dericious, dericious.” Boudhadana explained his mock Japanese accent as “fun little jokes,” like the American accents the Japanese chefs he worked with used when they quoted Drake songs.
“Maybe in my mind I think I’m Japanese,” he added.
The young chef claims he is a bridge between American and Japanese culture and delegated himself as an ambassador of Japanese culture. He told the Eater as an American chef his role is to educate Americans on Japanese culture.
He said his youth and American culture allows his customers to relate and trust him more when he introduces different sushi to taste.
“Someone might say: I don’t like mackerel. Well, there are like eight different kinds of mackerel, so try this one. And then they say: Oh, it’s so good. Because I’m younger, and American, some people tend to trust me more, to relate to me,” Boudhadana told the Village Voice.
His racist language has garnered backlash from many people who accuse him of cultural appropriation.
Reading about David Bouhadana gave me such intense cringe/range that my palms got immediately, visibly sweaty
— Hope (@lumsdenbarry) July 1, 2017
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The “problem” is what hes doing is racist af. And why start this story by calling him “aggressively cool?” ??♂️https://t.co/UiaMQsiRTC
— Justin Phillips (@JustMrPhillips) June 30, 2017
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Bouhadana told the Eater he did not intend to offend anyone with his accent, however, integrating the heavily caricatured Asian accent into the restaurant experience validates the “perpetual foreigner” label that Asian Americans can’t escape and brushes it off as a joke. He also profits off of a culture he cannot claim.
Although Bouhadana looks to expand on his sushi endeavors, many challenge his claimed authority on Japanese culture and fake accent.
He worked at a restaurant in Florida under his first master, then Los Angeles, and went to train in Japan for three years.
His cooking has been praised by the New Yorker, Zagat, and the Eater. Zagat said his energetic personality and technical skills have made the restaurant “a hit.”
“It got a hold of me. It was because someone gave me responsibility, someone trusted me. And someone was disappointed–not angry, but disappointed–in me when I didn’t do well,” Boudhadana explains to the Village Voice.
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