When Anthony Bourdain visited San Francisco for an episode of No Reservations, he admitted he's a "reverse sushi discriminator." "Guys like me, deep down we believe you gotta be Japanese to make truly excellent sushi," he said. He was sitting down to a meal at Sushi Sebo, a San Francisco restaurant owned by two chefs who equate to a quarter Japanese combined. After indulging in a meal of blue fin tuna, giant clam, uni and monkfish liver, Bourdain predictably conceded, you don't have to be Japanese to make great sushi.

Despite the TV host's change of heart, many people still share his view when it comes to the authenticity of ethnic foods. One of my favourite dumpling restaurants in downtown Toronto used to be run by an all Chinese, Mandarin-speaking staff. But recently, I've seen Caucasian cooks in the kitchen. On my last visit, my dining partner, a self-labeled, "white girl from North Toronto" was horrified. In her mind, there's no way someone like her could possibly make a dumpling as good as a Chinese person could. Similar to Bourdain, she had reverse dumpling discrimination.

I come from a Chinese family and I was also surprised to see non-Chinese people working at the dumpling place. While we often see people of all backgrounds work and train in the kitchens of Western cuisines, it's rare to see the reverse at Asian restaurants. I hadn't seen it before.

This incident led me to think about race in restaurants. I questioned whether a cook's ethnic background could really influence his or her creation.

On a larger scale, I wondered whether this is a sign of changing times in the culinary world. As North Americans become more interested in the food of Asia, Africa and beyond, will we be seeing more interest in creating, not just consuming, these kinds of foods?

What's your opinion? Do you think it matters where your chef or cook is from, or where their roots are?