This article aims to analyse how the invention of a national cuisine in the United Arab Emirates takes part in the journey of building the nation, both as a metaphor and as performance of larger political and ideological processes. It analyses the discourses of chefs and professional cooks that are or have been tagged as Emirati food experts. In the Emirati nation building process, the construction of identity is not ‘defined by the other’ against which the image of a common ‘us’ should be reflected. This is also mirrored in the national cuisine in the making, which is developing mostly endogamously. Emirati food both participates in and tells the story of nation building in the UAE, through three overlapping stages of development: traditional, modern and fusion food, which correspond to different moments of the perceived nation development and its fit within Western definitions of both national-states and modernity. Emirati food also helps to create identity borders, by defining who is allowed to taste the authentic flavours, through practices of commensality, and who is able to replicate them in restaurants. This article highlights the connections between nation building, social transformation and food, and explores the ways in which constructions of Emirati cuisine reflect discourses and practices of national belonging.

本文旨在分析阿拉伯联合酋长国的民族美食的发明是如何作为一个隐喻以及更大的政治和意识形态过程的表现而参与建设国家的旅程的。它分析了被标记为阿联酋食品专家的厨师和专业厨师的话语。在阿联酋建立国家的过程中，身份的建构不是“由另一方定义”的，而是应该反映共同的“我们”的形象的。这也反映在制作中的民族美食中，这种烹饪大多是配菜式的。阿联酋食品通过三个重叠的发展阶段参与并讲述了阿联酋的国家建设故事：传统食品，现代食品和融合食品，它们对应于感知到的民族发展的不同时刻，并且符合西方对民族国家和现代性的定义。阿联酋美食还通过定义允许人通过礼貌的做法品尝正宗的风味，以及谁能够在餐馆中复制风味来帮助创建身份边界。本文强调了国家建设，社会转型与食品之间的联系，并探讨了阿联酋美食建筑如何体现民族归属的话语和做法。