Kevin, Gunshow’s chef, started this restaurant enterprise with the inspiration by Brazilian churrascaria-style dining and Chinese dim sum. He combined these two cooking culture and customs into a unique restaurant style and experience. This exactly corresponds to the central topic of my digital story project, which is the influence of one culture on another culture. My digital story focuses on how the rising Startbucks enterprise has brought coffee culture into China and has made a big impact on Chinese culture and lifestyle. On the other hand, Kevin’s ideology of a new unique restaurant style and dining experience is derived from Brazillian churrascaria-style dining and Chinese dim sum. Both of us have discovered and witnessed the power of cultural influence that leads to substantial change and transformation.
For Gunshow, Kevin incorporates the free style Brazilian dining and the open style of Chinese dim sum into his own restaurant, hoping to make a distinctive American restaurant experience different from traditional one. Through this incorporation the elements of Brazilian dining and Chinese dim sum firstly appear at Gunshow, and then gradually will be widely spread to other areas in the United States, because America is such a big international country which contains populations with different flavors of taste. The uniqueness of Gunshow will be favored by lots of people and this kind of restaurant style will eventually be all over the country. As a result, American dining experience will undergo a big change.
The same phenomenon happens in the topic of my project as well. Due to Starbucks’s increasing popularity on a global scale, Chinese culture has become largely affected. Coffee has been widely spread in China and can be seen everywhere nowadays. In addition, Starbucks has changed Chinese people’s lifestyle. In the examples of Gunshow and Starbucks, We can see how the power of globalization is leading to the combination and transformation of culture. Eventually, we will probably see mixed cultures with distinctive local elements everywhere around the world like a “salad bowl.”
For this upcoming conversation with Kevin at Gunshow, I would ask him how he came up with the inspiration from by Brazilian churrascaria-style dining and Chinese dim sum. What was their uniqueness that made him consider them not other dining styles? I will make comparisons between his ideology and my own discoveries on Starbucks in China.