There has to be a line somewhere (I’m not saying it’s there) that allows people to say “In the style of”.
I also agree that places should in general be able to protect origins in some way.
A bit like the US, Australia has had issues with things like cheese. “Feta” must now be Greek, with local feta-style stuff either called “fetta” or just something like “Greek style cheese”.
But there are lots of cheese styles in Greece, and the Australian cheeses are often very good (not always) exemplars of a feta style cheese.
It’s very hard to see where exactly the line should be drawn.
Yeah, we have lots of breweries in Germany that make Pilsner and sell it explicitly as such although Pilsner means coming from Plzeň in the Czech Republic.
On the other hand Nürnberger Bratwurst (basically sausage) has a trade union suing anyone within their reach for
daring to associate their sausage with the city of Nürnberg if not certified to do so.
There might be a somewhat similar situation going on with Parma ham. What I heard is that the meat simply needs to pass Parma in a truck or train to qualify as coming from there. Probably a partly sarcastic take on their hypocritical approach to quality control.
Allegedly the idea was brought to the US by immigrants from Hamburg, thus called Hamburger Steak, but I have no clue how accurate it is. They certainly are made everywhere though, not just (or at all? Not sure if those 12 cows that are still left in Hamburg provide enough meat for local production) in Hamburg.
I actually think that the Fischbrötchen (bun with fish) that is a thing in Hamburg might have been the origin but it doesn't explain how the ground meat patty moved in really and giving the whole thing the name "hamburger" must have happened in America.
