Just recently I was watching a TED talk by Jennifer 8. Lee about Chinese food and it’s origins here in America, and one of the parts that really interested me was that she compared Chinese food to Linux.  Here’s a quote:

“[W]e think of McDonalds as sort of the ‘Microsoft’ of the culinary dining experiences, we can think of Chinese restaurants, perhaps, as ‘Linux’.  Sort of an ‘Open Source’ thing, right?  Where ideas from one person can be copied and propagated across the entire system.”

I would really recommend watching the entire talk here:

It’s a real interesting thought and it’s not something one usually thinks about.  Are there any other cuisines that you think could fit into this?  I know parts of Italian food here in the US can, but I don’t think it holds a candle to what we consider Chinese food to be.  Also, funny thought, I was asked what OSX would be in this scenario and between myself and the person who asked we decided it would be Nouvelle Cuisine as “their users both claim it to be amazing and that the price tag ‘adds to the experience’.”  What do you think?