“Masterchef: The Professionals” contestant Philli Armitage-Mattin came under fire this week for calling her Asian-inspired cuisine ‘Dirty Food Refined’ in her social media profile, the Today Show News reports.
In previous versions of her Instagram bio, Armitage-Mattin calls herself an ‘Asian Specialist,’ while also using the hashtag #prettydirtyfood. The bio has since been changed.
The London-based chef released an apology Monday. According to Today, many community members viewed her apology as lacking.
Clarence Kwan, author of “Chinese Protest Recipes,” which explores the relationship between Chinese food and antiracism, called Armitage-Mattin’s response a ‘non-apology.’
“When people say ‘I’m hurt,’ the response shouldn’t be ‘I’m sorry you’re hurt,’” Kwan said, according to Today.
“In a year where Chinese and East Asian communities have essentially been blamed for the pandemic and chastised as ‘dirty,’ this type of narrative is completely unacceptable,” Kwan said.
Her cuisine is intended to be ‘proud’ and ‘celebratory,’ Armitage-Mattin wrote in her apology post via Instagram.
According to Welwyn Hatfield Times, Armitage-Mattin has travelled to Japan and other Asian countries to work in the restaurant industry. She currently runs a food consultation business.
“The way I mean food to be ‘dirty’ is indulgent street food; food that comforts you as in ‘going out for a dirty burger,’” she said. “I have found the social media discussion and direct messages around the language of my food to be personally very upsetting and misinformed.”
Instagram user @acooknamedmatt told Armitage-Mattin to ‘ignore the haters.’
“I completely understand where you’re coming from,” the Seattle-based chef wrote. “I went through the same thing when I talked about trashy fast food. Keep pushing.”
Portraying Asian food as ‘grubby’ is an injustice to the huge variety of Asian recipes, Instagram user @the_lazyfoodie wrote.
“Chinese food isn’t just cheap stir fry, bak choi and dumplings with chilli oil. Vietnamese food isn’t just pho and banh mi,” the London-based blogger wrote. “Japanese food isn’t just ramen and katsu curry and miso black cod. Korean food isn’t just Korean fried chicken and kimchi fried rice.”
It’s not the first time cooking competition contestants have faced controversy, a previous AsAmNews article reports.
The reality baking series “The Great British Bakeoff” faced backlash in October for hosting a Japan-themed episode that featured ‘bao,’ Chinese steamed buns. According to AsAmNews, the restaurant industry has long praised white chefs working with non-Western flavors over chefs of color.
“Food media is predominantly white. Critics are predominantly white,” Abad-Santos, a Vox senior correspondent, said. “White readers might think, like, oh, well, that’s a little bit too far for me. But then when it’s through this lens of a cool white girl presents it to you or a cool cutting-edge chef presents it to you… It becomes much more accessible, much, much more popular.”
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