Event Title
Hibachi Restaurants and the Commodification of Cultural Difference
Location
Diamond 221
Start Date
1-5-2014 9:00 AM
End Date
1-5-2014 3:00 PM
Project Type
Presentation- Restricted to Campus Access
Description
This paper will explore the allure of the hibachi experience and its implications. Specifically it will examine the hibachi restaurant Mirakuya in Waterville, Maine. Benihana, the most successful hibachi restaurant in America, will help contextualize the physical space and intention of Mirakuya. A variety of restaurant reviews and analysis of the surrounding Waterville area will also aid in understanding why customers flock to the hibachi experience. Through close ethnographic study of this space, this paper will argue that Mirakuyas contrived Japanese environment attracts and simultaneously distances the Caucasian customer. Furthermore it will show how this relationship not only creates one form of identity, but rather several.
Faculty Sponsor
Ben Lisle
Sponsoring Department
Colby College. American Studies Program
CLAS Field of Study
Interdisciplinary Studies
Event Website
http://www.colby.edu/clas
ID
567
Hibachi Restaurants and the Commodification of Cultural Difference
Diamond 221
This paper will explore the allure of the hibachi experience and its implications. Specifically it will examine the hibachi restaurant Mirakuya in Waterville, Maine. Benihana, the most successful hibachi restaurant in America, will help contextualize the physical space and intention of Mirakuya. A variety of restaurant reviews and analysis of the surrounding Waterville area will also aid in understanding why customers flock to the hibachi experience. Through close ethnographic study of this space, this paper will argue that Mirakuyas contrived Japanese environment attracts and simultaneously distances the Caucasian customer. Furthermore it will show how this relationship not only creates one form of identity, but rather several.
https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2014/program/395