International Pot Luck Variety Spices the Country's Rich Culinary Life

By Mimi Sheraton

To prepare her favorite appetizer, Susan Maurer fills won ton wrappers with goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, cilantro and some chili fried in peanut oil. "It's fast to do Asian things," says Maurer, a Berkeley travel agent. It does not occur to her that in her Asian "thing" Maurer envelops influences that reach from the Rio Grande to the Mediterranean. Call it Chinese ravioli, Italian won ton or Mexican kreplach, the result is a wholly new, wholly American creation.

Such culinary adaptations started as soon as the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock and began trading recipes with the Pamet Indians. When Mayflower Passenger Edward Winslow was asked to aid the ailing big chief, Massasoit, he revived him with some English fruit jam. Perking up, Massasoit is reported to have asked for some "good English pottage," a soup he had already sampled, thus becoming, probably, the first American to order foreign food. Since then, immigrants have been arriving like guests at a covered-dish supper, contributing their specialties to the new communal table. The result is the world's most diversified menu, one that includes such typical "American" foods as hot dogs with sauerkraut from Germany, Italian pizza and the apple pie of Elizabethan England.

Recent newcomers -- Greeks and Middle Easterners, Hispanics and Asians -- are already adding their produce, breads and seasonings to the ever expanding American larder. Pita bread and tacos are now on supermarket shelves alongside English muffins and bagels. Cilantro, jalapeno peppers and mangoes are almost as standard in produce departments as carrots and apples; hoisin sauce and annatto are right there on the shelf with the catsup and mustard.

The big difference in the past ten years is the speed with which these new foods have entered the mainstream American diet. In the past, such specialties were sold in the small neighborhood shops for the immigrants themselves. Now, thanks to mass marketing and communication, the general public accepts such foods within a few years, instead of the 20 or 30 formerly required.

"The influx of population has encouraged suppliers to develop products for these people," says Karen Brown of the Food Marketing Institute, a supermarket trade association. "Their presence has enlivened interest in the various cooking styles. We have a number of retailers who offer cooking classes as part of their services." One of them is the Giant Food stores of Washington, where international chefs demonstrate their specialties. At a recent F.M.I. exhibition in Chicago, many foods prepared for supermarket delicatessen cases were on display, including Oriental chicken salad and Cha- Zah!, a brand of frozen egg roll. Says William Loutit of the Grand Union supermarkets: "These things are all growing more rapidly than other product lines."

Even as they learn about new cuisines, Americans are busy naturalizing foreign ingredients into native dishes: tofu, the cheeselike soybean curd, as the base for burgers and ice cream; tacos and pita as sandwich holders; chili oils and fruit sauces for barbecues. Surimi, a preserved-fish product developed in Japan a thousand years ago, has been reshaped for the American market to look like shrimp and crab legs. Tempeh, the Oriental fermented soybean cake, is here formed and flavored to simulate bacon and pastrami.

Not all foreign innovations are introduced by immigrants, however, the most obvious exception being Japanese food. Like French cuisine, the Japanese style was first made popular by gastronomic trendsetters -- chefs in fashionable restaurants, fancy-food stores and the food press. French and American chefs, experimenting with nouvelle cuisine, became fascinated by the aesthetics of Japanese food. Japanese restaurateurs and sushi masters came $ to the U.S. in response to a demand that had already been created.

The appearance of Japanese foods along with those of the Middle East, Latin America and the rest of Asia coincided with the new American obsession with health. This fare seemed to meet the demand for proteins other than meat (bean curd or tofu, fish, beans), less animal fat and more complex carbohydrates (rice or noodles). Indeed, many of these ingredients first appeared in this country on the menus of health-food restaurants.

Immigrants also acquaint Americans with their foods by cooking for them. Food service is traditionally an entry-level job, requiring few skills and almost no English. Starting as dishwashers, busboys and street food vendors, newcomers gradually manage to save enough money to open simple restaurants. Featuring dishes that are novel and generally inexpensive, immigrants get a foothold that can lead to the sort of success enjoyed by Rocky Aoki, the Japanese tycoon behind the Benihana restaurant chain and frozen-food company.

"The taste has to be good. That's the bottom line," says Aoki, whose operation began with a four-table restaurant in New York City in 1963.

Given the ingenuity America seems to inspire in its immigrants, the newcomers may give Aoki stiff competition. How long can it be before Benihana is joined by chains with names such as Tacorama, the Piteria, Dim-summery and even Tofusion?