8 Food culture/culture and

food
Cultural Studies
Marija Andraka, PhD
marija.andraka@zg.t-com.hr

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP6SE65F
-h4

(2:44)

The meaning of bread food idioms

someones bread and butter

Bread always falls on the buttered side.
Bread is the staff of life.
break bread with someone
know which side ones bread is buttered on
Man does not live by bread alone.
your daily bread

1 Food as a Way of Promoting

Tolerance and Diversity
2 Food and Identity (Individual and
Collective)
3 Comparing European and other Food
Cultures
4 Recent Food Trends
5 McDonaldization

1 Food as a Way of Promoting Tolerance and Diversity

What role does food play in peoples lives

beyond nutrition?
Do you know of cultural conflicts or
misunderstandings over national or regional food
traditions?
How can food highlight various ethnic, religious,
or political differences between cultures?
Can food be used to bring different groups
together across cultural differences?
What is the role of cookbooks in defining
national, regional, and ethnic food cultures?

Food as a Way of Promoting Tolerance and Diversity

Culinary Cultures of Europe Identity, Diversity and Dialogue

(2005). Darra Goldstein and Kathrin
Merkle (eds.)
http://book.coe.int/EN/ficheouvrage.php?PAGEID=
36&lang=EN&produit_aliasid=1912

Food as a Way of Promoting Tolerance and Diversity

Council of Europe Working Group on

Food as a Promoter of Tolerance and
Diversity (e.g. bringing together
Turkish&Greek cuisine)
the importance of cookbooks as
vehicles for communication
promoting good eating and nutrition
(e.g. the Northern California organic
movement)
more emphasis on the use of food to
promote political goodwill (e.g. in Israel)

Food as a Way of Promoting Tolerance and Diversity

Jamie Oliver
campaigns in the UK:
Jamie's Ministry of Food
Jamie's School Dinners
in the U.S.:
Jamie Olivers Food Revolution highlights
food-related health problems in various
American communities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKSoi
Dtdi9s

2 Food and Identity

What kinds of influences, beliefs, and needs
beyond what tastes good influence your
decisions about what to eat and what not to
eat?
Do your own eating habits differ from those of
your family members or from your friends?
How do you respond to eating habits or foods
that are unfamiliar to you? How do other
people respond to the kinds of food that you
choose to eat?

Food and Identity

Tell me what you eat and I will tell you

what you are.
French gourmand Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
in his gastronomic masterpiece The
Physiology of Taste (1826)
"Der Mensch ist, was er it."
Ludwig Feuerbach in an essay titledConcerning
Spiritualism and Materialism (1864)
Meaning: The food one eats has a bearing on
one's state of mind and health.

Food and Identity

English saying: You are what you eat.

the earliest known printed example is
from an advert for beef in a 1923 edition
of theBridgeport Telegraph, for 'United
Meet Markets':
"Ninety per cent of the diseases known to man
are caused by cheap foodstuffs. You are what
you eat."

the notion that to be fit and healthy you

need to eat good food

Food and Identity

Individual identity (psychological)

assertions of individual identity:
Im not going to eat that.
Im vegetarian.
Im going to eat meat. (e.g. when the parents
are vegetarian)
a way of differentiating oneself:
youre vegetarian, youre vegan, youre freegan
(free+vegan), youre a raw foodist

it can be private, but (esp. in American society

today) it can be very public

Food and Identity

Going freegan

Food and Identity

Collective identity (social)

identifying with a group through food, a

way of differentiating ourselves from
others
different kinds of group identity:
RELIGIOUS IDENTITY based on eating
practices, e.g.
the rejection of particular foods
the association of abstinence with spiritual
practices
the structuring of food according to religious
categories (e.g. in yearly patterns of festivals and
fasts such asLentorRamadn; Friday fasting)

Food and Identity

REGIONAL IDENTITIES - ethnic culinary

identities which have to do with
geographic boundaries
communities of people who have migrated or
assimilated into the new culture
often the language will be lost before food habits,
even if the food is not being cooked on a daily basis

Polish delis, Indian curry houses, Jewish bagel

shops, Thai and Chinese takeaways, etc.
we absorb, adopt or adapt the food cultures of
others thus changing our own traditions

Food and Identity

associations food/identity can often slip into

stereotypes

The Swiss - chocolate, cheese

Swedes - meatballs
the English - fish and chips, tea
Americans - hamburgers/cheeseburgers,
chewing gum
Italians pizza, parmesan cheese

stereotypes can be offensive, e.g.:

frogs - the French
krauts - Germans
cheeseheads - the Dutch

Food and Identity

socioeconomic class identities food

related to the social class we belong to

http://www.antalik.com/how-much-food-is-eatenaround-the-world-in-one-week/

3 European and other food

cultures
What are some food traditions or ingredients that
are special to the area you live in or that you have
experienced in other parts of Croatia or in other
countries?
How important is it to preserve the food traditions of
certain regions? Should we worry about food
traditions that change over time as people forget
recipes or experiment with new ingredients or
populations migrate to new places?
How important is it for you to know whether the
corn, tomato, or other produce you are eating has
been altered by scientists?

European and other food cultures

In Europe
anti-GM movement
concern over unintended health and
environmental impacts
concern over the increased dependence
of world food production on a small
group of industrial companies
concern over the ethical issues of
mixing plant and animal genes and
tampering excessively with nature

European and other food cultures

In the U.S.
in recent decades - veganism, eating
local foods, farmers market foods
bans on importation of GM foods in
Europe have caused trade conflicts
with the U.S., which produces a
majority of GM crops

European and other food cultures

In Europe
Appellation of Controlled Origin (AOC), from the
French Appellation dorigine contrle) originally a French certification system for food
products - in 1935

the EU-wide system based on the AOC:

inaugurated in 1992
European PDO (European Protected Designation
of Origin/in Croatian: Oznaka izvornosti)
PGI (Protected Geographical Indication/Oznaka
zemljopisnog podrijetla)
TSG (Traditional Speciality Guaranteed/Oznaka
tradicionalni ugled)

European and other food cultures

they set standards for certain

products that producers have to
meet in order to make products
called by certain names and also
define products based on geographic
area
Source:
http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/pa
ges/appellationofcontrolledorigin

European and other food cultures

In Europe

importance of culinary patrimony

(the idea that meaningful cultural
heritage is passed down through
food traditions)
France applied to UNESCO to get French
culinary traditions included in its
Intangible Heritage List; this request
wasrejected twice, in 2006 and in 2008
gastronomy not yet designated as a
category in UNESCOs heritage list

European and other food cultures

France vs. England, USA

France: those open to new ideas in

food - not necessarilly liberal in
politics
England, USA: those in favour of
progressive political reform are also
likely to favour liberal reforms in food
practices

4 Recent Food Trends

Have you heard of the term
locavore?
(A person who eats locally grown and
produced foods)
What are the arguments for and
against always eating locally?

Recent Food Trends

The locavore movement

trend in using locally grown ingredients,
seasonally available foodstuffs that can be
bought and prepared without the need for
extra preservatives
encourages consumers to buy from farmers
markets or to grow or pick their own food
arguments:
local products are more nutritious and taste
better
shipping food over long distances often requires
more fuel for transportation

Recent Food Trends

The Slow Food movement (1989)

Slow Food International - a non-profit, ecogastronomic member-supported organization
led by Italian writer and food activist Carlo Petrini
to counteract fast food and fast life, the
disappearance of local food traditions and peoples
dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it
comes from, how it tastes and how our food
choices affect the rest of the world
brings together pleasure and responsibility ,
paying attention to criteria like taste and quality
but also environmental and social impact
today - over 100,000 members in 132 countries

Recent Food Trends

Who are some famous chefs or food

personalities? How have they
influenced your interest in food?

Recent Food Trends

Celebrity Food Culture

Anthony Bourdains Kitchen Confidential and No
reservations
Other celebrity chefs: Jamie Oliver, Rachel Ray,
Nigella Lawson, etc.
we live in a celebrity culture
positive: they get peoples attention, they get people
thinking
negative: foodie-ism

Foodie:
Apersonwhopaysunusualattentiontofood,cuisine,
etc;devoteeof healthygourmetcookingandeating; a
person having an avid interest in the latest food fads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT
hnq3-d6PY
(Julia Child)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz
RK7VXQl-k
(Julie and Julia, trailer, 2:33)

5 The McDonaldization of World

Cuisine
How often do you eat at fast food restaurants?
Which ones do you prefer and why?
What are the effects of fast food restaurants on
neighbourhoods and on the culture at large? Can
there be positive effects of fast food restaurants?
What do you think the term McDonaldization
means? What is the attitude towards McDonalds
in foreign countries?
What are the most important factors for you and
your family in deciding where to buy your food
and what kind of food to buy?

McDonaldization
term coined by U.S. sociologist George Ritzer
the process by which the principles of the fast-food
restaurant are coming to dominate more and more
sectors of American society as well as the rest of the
world.
On the business and production side efficiency,
predictability, an emphasis on quantifiable results, and
control, especially through non-human technologies.
On the consumer side eating habits that emphasize
food as something to be consumed as quickly,
efficiently, and as inexpensively as possible
Ritzer: a profound threat to the entire cultural
complex of many societies"

The McDonaldization of World Cuisine

cases in which the arrival of McDonalds

was greeted with loud local protest
e.g. Italy - McDonald's planned to build a
restaurant near the Piazza di Spagna in Rome
in 1986; Slow Food International founder Carlo
Petrini organized a demonstration in which he
and his followers brandished bowls of penne as
weapons of protest; this example also
prompted discussion of the ways in which local
responses to the U.S. fast food chain reflect
these populations attitudes toward U.S. food
culture and U.S. influences in general, as well
as the role of food in their own cultures.

The McDonaldization of World Cuisine

ways in which McDonalds adapts to

suit the tastes of the local population
(glocalisation)

World Food Day, October 16

in honor of the date of the founding of
theFood and Agriculture Organizationof
theUnited Nationsin 1945.
dedicated to raising awareness about
global hunger
The World Food Day theme for 2014 was
Family Farming: Feeding the world,
caring for the earth

 one way toreduce hunger is by

addressing food waste - related to the
impact that farming has on the environment
around the world food waste occurs at
every step of the food chain
globally, about 24% of food calories
produced for people get wasted on the
journey from farm to plate
how that happens is very different
depending on where we live, as this chart
from the World Resources Institute shows: