Rodriguez 1

Alex Rodriguez
Professor Spitler-Lawson
English 115 Honors
Project 2: Analysis Essay Final Draft
Word Count of Body: 1206
10/28/16
Authenticity in La Cocina Bar & Grill
Authentic Mexican food in todays society is what one can call a massive controversy.
This is in the sense that almost every American restaurant or food place has its own section of
menu items that pertain to the stereotypical selection of Mexican dishes, which usually includes
tacos, burritos, and quesadillas. There are also many chain food places which advertise their food
as Mexican, when really what they represent in their food items is a result of the integration of
the Mexican culture into the mainstream culture in the United States. With their heavy Latino
presence, most counties in Southern California are no exception of this. Places like El Pollo Loco
and Taco Bell dominate the food market around Los Angeles, but it is commonly known that
they do not sell authentic Mexican food. Many people tend to avoid those places in search for a
real connection with what truly hails from Mexico. La Cocina Bar & Grill provides an outlet for
the mostly suburban people of the Santa Clarita Valley to get a taste of authentic Mexican
culture. It stands out and succeeds in part because of the Americanization of Mexican food.
The question of cultural authenticity in a restaurant is a very interesting one. Unless a
person is actually in Mexico inside of a diner, that person cannot really say that they are in a one

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hundred percent authentic Mexican restaurant. However, in the United States, a line can easily be
drawn between what is closest to authentic, and what is not even remotely close to it at all. For
example, Taco Bell is a food place found across the country, but everything about it screams
Not Mexican. Its fast food set up with a zig zag line that leads to a long counter with a register;
its numbered combo menu items; its commercialized soft drinks; and even the option for
customers to order their food in their cars in a drive through. These McDonalds-type aspects
emphasize efficiency and maximize business, which is a benefit in a capitalist country like the
United States, but they are completely different from the characteristics of a restaurant like La
Cocina Bar & Grill, which has no windows, no lines, and no large display menus. La Cocina is
instead a constantly crowded room with employees pacing everywhere. It is an organized mess
of teamwork that brings satisfaction to its customers. The food in a place like Taco Bell is
another part of what helps anyone to easily draw the line between what is authentic, versus what
is not authentic. In Taco Bell, there are tacos made with Dorito shells, which combine a Mexican
concept of a lunch item with an American snack, as well as burritos made with Fritos corn chips.
All of their food is made to satisfy the taste buds of the common American citizen. Lots of
cheese, guacamole, sour cream, and lettuce come in almost every menu item. A Mexican person
might look at food like this and see it as a disregard for their culture, but the truth is that that is
not what Taco Bell cares about or means to accomplish. Like any business or corporation, money
is the target, and since many Americans like Taco Bell for what it offers, it continues to offer
Doritos Locos tacos.
Although Americanized Mexican food has had its fair share of success across the nation,
places with more authentic styles have always been very popular. The reason behind this because
the authentic food simply tastes better. Chipotle emphasizes speed, but La Cocina emphasizes

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taste, which is why Chipotle is crowded at lunch time, and La Cocina is crowded at dinner time.
The taste of La Cocina has always resonated well with the mostly White middle-class folk of the
Santa Clarita Valley. Its tacos are legitimately from Mexico. They are not made with flower
tortillas, sour cream, or cheese. They are made with corn tortillas, any choice of meat, and topped
with onions and cilantro. The chocolate mole sauce enchiladas in La Cocina can never be found
in an inauthentic Mexican food place. These dishes are made and served by fluent Spanishspeaking Chicanos who express their heritage through their work. La Cocina Bar & Grill lends
its success to this type of service which is authenticity in a nutshell.
One of the most intriguing parts of La Cocina Bar & Grill is the way in which it creates a
subculture of its own. A trip to La Cocina greets one with many Caucasian families sitting and
enjoying their delicious meals with a few booths filled up by Latino families, in an almost
claustrophobic setting. The walls of La Cocina are lined with paintings that depict an older era of
Mexico where agriculture dominated every landscape. Brown pottery bowls are hung on the
walls with growing plants in them, and several collages filled with family portraits of customers
show off the restaurants prosperous history. The warm, completely window-less nature of the
space puts a newcomer in a different world. The environment inside is always very loud, but
friendly. The constant banging of forks against plates combined with the dozens of conversations
fade into the background as one enjoys his or her own meal. The entire staff of La Cocina Bar &
Grill consists of Chicanos. Many restaurants with themes from specific cultures or ethnicities
tend to have chefs from completely different cultural backgrounds. This is not to say that a
Chinese person cannot learn how to make authentic Mexican cuisine, but it is to say that a
customer can feel more assured of the authenticity of his meal if that customer knows that the
person who cooks it is native to the culture that the meal derives from. So, when any new

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customer, whether they are from America, India, or Puerto Rico, goes to La Cocina Bar & Grill,
they visually recognize the authenticity of the place before even tasting its food. It is a
psychological issue of trust in the genuineness of a cultural restaurant that La Cocina does not
have to deal with because of its Chicano workers.
In a country where almost every business is driven by profit, and where culture-specific
food is inherently popular, it has become a staple for restaurants to offer their own renditions of
many of these types of food items that descend from different countries. It is a reflection of how
the varying cultures of millions of immigrants have come to the United States, and combined to
form the massive culture that is now held by this nation. In this mixture of cultures, a common
fear that many people have is that authentic culture can sort of get lost in the mix. It is places like
La Cocina Bar & Grill in the Santa Clarita Valley, that allow for genuine culture to be preserved
through authentic cuisine. La Cocina stands out and prospers because of its nonconformity. It is
always overcrowded because it is that place that people search for when they want to taste
something good and when they want to eat at a place without a bad reputation. It brings people
of different backgrounds together into an enjoyable environment that represents the positive
experience of a delicious family dinner.