Most millennials will remember a Mad-Tv skit from 2007 featuring an unaccommodating fast food employee named Bon Qui Qui. The video satirizes the American habit of customizing our meals at Fast Food restaurants. Customers casually approach the cash register and are immediately shot down when ordering anything that deviates from the specified menu item. Viewers realize that ‘Bon Qui Qui’, clearly will not be inconvenienced by a “complicated” order.

While this scene comments on many different aspects of the American cuisine and culture, the most interesting to me are the ideas of individualism and convenience.

Contrast, for example, the scene of Bon Qui Qui with the experience of grabbing a quick bite to eat, in a country with a strong cultural unity, such as Italy. For anyone who has ever spent time in Italy, you will find it easy to recall the process of ordering a panino (singular form of panini). The process is easy to recall because it involves only one decision. When ordering a panino, you simply select the sandwich, as is. Unlike for Bon Qui Qui, changing the defined menu item is not simply an inconvenience for your vendor, it’s a personal and social offense.

While traveling abroad as an American, my initial reactions to this experience were ones of outrage.  How could they tell me that I couldn’t add an extra meat? Who are they to say that mozzarella wouldn’t be better than pecorino? What if I don’t like the sauce, but still want the sandwich? I identified as an individual and wanted to assert my individuality! Not only that, I also wanted to be applauded for my ingenious sandwich creation! Although this outlook was hard to shake, I soon came to understand the greater implications of accepting a meal as it was presented to you.

It turns out, this concept is much related to the concepts of terroir and tradition, as described by Trubek and Berry. While being denied my individualism, by accepting a sandwich as presented to me I had become a part of something greater. While fast food gives us an instant gratification of our perceived personal needs, it is denying us a vital cultural connection to a history, a place and a people. I think Trubek said it well that “They don’t know where they come from or where they are going.” While I could not tell you the cultural significance of every panino I ate while living in Florence, I can say that there was a contentment in not having to make choices. There is something hauntingly lonely about constantly accommodating my personal desires and something indescribably inclusive about accepting a food item the way it is “supposed to be”.