Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • The Food and Eating Experience. Article

    Uploaded by

    Daniel Di Gaetano
    14 views21 pages

    Original Title

    The food and eating experience. article

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf
    14 views21 pages

    The Food and Eating Experience. Article

    Uploaded by

    Daniel Di Gaetano

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf
    of 21
    Creating Experiences in the Experience Economy Béited by Jon Sundbo Professor of Innovation and Business Administration, Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies, Roskilde University, Denmark Per Darmer “Associate Professor, Department of Organisation, Copentagen Business School, Denmark SERVICES, ECONOMY AND THNOVATION Edward Elgar CCettenham, UK + Norhamptce, Ma, USA 2. The food and eating experience Jan Krag Jacobsen “When you wake upin the morning, Pooh said Pl, wha’ the frst thing you sayto yoursel” ‘What for breaks said Pook. What do you say, Piglet” “Tsay, wonder wba going te happen exciting Lo-day sud Piglet. Pooh nadded thoughtfully "Tc the same thing, he said. (A.A. Milne: Winne- ‘the-Poob, 1926) ‘The role of food and eating has changed fundamentally over the last 50 years in the moderaalfiuent societies of the Western world and in their likes elsewhere, Ths chapter describes the change and ventures into the poss bilities for developig several kinds of food-based scenarios relating to this ‘part of the experience economy, ‘Winnie-the-Pooh demonstrates his deep insight into the significance of| ood and eating, In hstime, in the 1920s, food wasin short supply and large 5 trons of Eeopens were unernurahed, ass the cae nay Poe around he or » vaya tact nite bod iso longer a sere and expense ban somali ae thas cme ly eheap sot for expe TEE Plog aneomey monly rodurd ndconsuned local Imported 62 ‘Sedtvce rhe re: Today ods rom all verte won ae on diy [Rey perma tasting ow rs. 1 FOOD CULTURE ‘The use of the comept food culture has accelerated and its mes ‘hanged, Earlier in the Danish language, it had a flavour off 14 ‘the fact that the Food has always been of reat economia foods Now the B 4 Creating experiences inthe experience economy sowing attention to ood cultre has made nutrition, health and the food {xperince economy pats of the politica agenda, Modern food passes through & long and complicated pathway from nature table and a food cute is constantly being created by the inter. play of raw materials tools eipes, sil and so on and itis formed by Climate, geology, history, aesthets, morals, adios, pois, economy, power relations, echnology, knowledge, education and the et Food culture isan important key to understanding asoiety or group. “You are what you et, goes «popular saying. Acquiring the food culture of the group in which you grow up isa pivotal part of your socalization process, Threetente for certain foods and esting habits thelast ing assimunigiaul drops. tis obvious to most peopl that established at forms ike musi, theatre, cinema, painting, visual art iteraure and architecture ate natural parts of the modem experience economy, but for food and eating, the station seems different. Maybe itis because eating i a fundamental and’ WbiguitOus biolgial acts. Tissue wil be tented in greater depth later in the chapter. Whatever, iti interesting 0 note that the word ewe is derived from the Latin word cllsurdtfieaning the Cultivation of land=> From an experience economy view it ful to regatd kitchens and tables tages wht att thre tine ay grodeen xpress ‘phenomena with imniense economic and cultural consequences 2 FOOD:AND CIVILIZATIONS Aess to sufiient amounts of fod is a absolute condition for ie and ‘human society has emerged and developed asa form of cooperation aimed at securing a sufficient food supply. We name earlier types of communities land societies after their way of producing foods, such as gatherers, hunter- gatherers and agricultural societies. TheVeryprocess of civilaatfoncan as Borer (3 ) miintaiied, be vegarded as the development of | puwduction habits Food is the basis of life and society and most activities can in one way o another be elated to food. This makes theating experience very complex and, therefor, the possibilities of developing the expetienes ‘"Toodiand eating arc unlimited, Formerly, most people prepared thei food from raw materials often gathered near the home and food was scarce and famine Frequent, Today, industry has taken over a fairly large proportion of the cooking and the ‘Western world experiences an abundance of food never seen before in the tong evolution of mankind. The accessibility Is slmost overwhelming. The fod and eat experience 15 ‘The development of technology during the industratization of agricul- ture and eo prodaon bas ed oa sation, ert rn Seton oe Sets people ar nla wih slaughtering. Today, reais neatly cut and packed and we bu ou bet mead bewingat home Weal eed {ohavea certain numberof cooking skills but the way we acquire them has In post-industrial society, the Tact that a sufficient supply of food is stil the foundation of a society, is obscured. In Denmark, in 1998, the food supply was jeopardized by a major strike and many Danes hoarded, Baker's yeas, one of the fundamental ingredients of bread, especialy was hhoarded. Some individuals hoarded enough yeast to bake several tons of bread. However, flour was not hoarded to the same degree and it might have made more sense to hoard rice, pasta, canned foods and so on. ‘This event was remarkable, seen in the light of the development of European civilization, The ancient Greeks considered bread the emblem of civilization and running out of bread was the scariest aspect of the strike in the minds of many Danes. But the knowledge of how to produce it bad. teen bred 7 are og, an xp net ted hn. Toy 0 oh thad IO perentot thei ncome ae \ average. ‘taxion food: This new situation has oo changed ater food. p36" and eating, The obesity epidemic has taken over the scene from malautri- tion and the food market has become a buyers’ market ‘The consequence of this development is thatthe search for experiences has taken oer om te snr or appropriate an cheap rbot at, po teins vtaminsand sone Aus cogent shod CMSPOTOCEMMGE Is food produ ody basta nd wo ntoducea new product he/she willhave toanswer questions suchas the following. Which heyproduc?? Intoswbat kid offeod ce should it give the customer? 3. THE'RATING EXPERIENCE CColloguially the terms taste and flavour are used synonymously to describe the sensations experienced when consuming food. But in the pivaiolopeal literature taste is connected to the mouth and favour to the nasal cavity. To understand some erucial aspects of the eating experience it is necessary to venture ~a little ~ into the physiology of the senses. 6 Creating experiences the experience eonony “The taste buds on the surface of the tongue and parts of the mouth epithelium are receptors of the ive basic tastes: sour, sweet, salt, biterness fand ummami,! In the mouth and throat we also experience textue, emper- ature, false coolness? spicines? and astringency* Some researcher: add a Gispated sensation of fat (Rolls et a., 1999). The impulses creating these sensations in the brain are conveyed by the trigeminal nerve and enter the brain through the thalamus “The receptor neurones for favour are situated in the 10 em? olfactory epithelium situated in the oof of the nasel cavity. The volatile lavour mol- ecules reach the receptors either through the nose or from the back ofthe ‘mouth. The signals from the receptors enter the brain through the ol'actory bulb situate just above the nasal cavity This system can distinguish between ‘many hundreds of flavours. I makes up a relatively large part of the DNA tnd isa very old pact of the brain. No wonder that a food searchingsystem isa very ancient and important part of the nervous system. How thissystem ‘works in detail is still rather unclear. The signals from the receptors enter Gireetl into the parts of the brain where emotions, memory, sexuality and ‘motivation are processed: the limbic system. Odour information is stored in the long-term memory and has strong connections to emotional meriory. Tis rather easy to decide whether a food is sat, sweet, sour or bitter, ora combination of these tastes, and find the right words to express the sensa- tion, It is much more difficult to identify and describe a lavour. The use of | language poses a fundamental problem in relation to the kind of sensual experiences offered by the olfactoricsystem, A cognitive and linguistic frame- work cannot capture the experience. Tisis the problem of the wine expert. Hllshe can easily determine and communicate the taste of the wine, but the Aevoue poses problems. The metaphors used ae often rather funny, such as leather, tobacco, forest floor, old ladies violets, and so on. Interestingly, the favours often the expensive and fickle part ofa wine. ‘The favour of food communicates by reverberating with emoticns and long-forgotten memories sometimes oulside the reach of language and consciousness. Everybody is familiar with the experience that a certain smell or the favour of a food may trigger emotions difficult to explain. Often the emotions are flt before iti realized that they are caused by a smell. Sometimes the experience can be pat into words and sometimes not: “Oh, itsmells like my aunt's sponge cake” ‘A famous example of this phenomenon is found in the novel A la ‘recherche di temps perdu (1913-27) by Marcel Proust. The narrator tastes ‘4 Madeleine cake soaked in ime blossom tea: 1 raised to my ips a spoonful ofthe tain which Thad soaked a mor of the ‘ake No soover had the warm guid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate The food and eating experince ” than a shudder ran though me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. Am exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses omethng lated, detached, with o sbggeston ofits origin... put down fhe cup and examined my own mind. alone can discoer the wath. And | ‘begin to ask myself what it could ave been, this unremembered state which brought with ino logical proof, but the indisputable evidence, of is fei, its realy and in whore presence other sates of consciousness meled and van- |shed And at s90n ae had recognized the tate ofthe pecs of madeleine soaked inher decoction of lime-blossom which my aunt sed to give me ‘mmeditely the old grey house upon the suet, where her room as, rose up ike ‘lage et fo attach sll to the Ite pavilion opening on tothe arden which ‘had been bul out behind it for my ents (Shortened) “Te French Symbolist, among them Ghar BET the at 19th rar oan three gd ete net seemed wierd atthe ie Mary F Peehoe 007 iterpet thi os respons ‘to te fragmevted,debuanized, and materialist guaies of tnodern fan te Symbolist asiaton with the more” and Intangible senses of taste (ouch and mel and ther intrest in discovering ew langage of enatio. : “Themoder marktis booming with perfumes for both menand women and there isa uemendovs focus on te taste and frou of food. Ths could perbps be itrpreted asa response fo te fagmete, dehman- fied and matenliste qulies of modem ie and atthe same tine expressing these conditions asthe xu consumption of mass industrial products eee, man sOdiologist'Georg Simmel Nas beautifully described how individual cating ia biological response to hunger when, in company with others, it leads to a profound social experience. Yer because his primitive physiological actis an absolutely general man on, it doesindeed betome the substance of common ations. The ecological struc tureof the meal emerges, which Inks precisely the exclusive selfshnes of eating Witha equeney of being together, ath a bait of being gathered together sch {sis sldom attainable on oszaions of a higher and intelectual ort. in ths posh hone aed “in this possiblity, assocted wih the prmitenes and hence universal Te of materal interest, tere is he immearurblesocologeal sienisno=” ofthe meal. (Simmel, [910]197) 18 Creating experionces nthe experience economy “These words of GEO Simmel ae pu into perspective by the discovery of themiror neurones in the brain of primates end the fairly large amount of evidence suggesting that they are alo present in th human brain. Certain neurones are active in the brain of a macaque monkey eating a nut, as ae the same neurones in another macaque sesng the stone chewing the nut ‘These neurons are very important inthe process of learning and social organization since they seem tobe responsible forthe abiliytoimitate and feel empathy (Rizzolat and Craighero, 2008. This isin accordance with the fact tha the fod and eating expericne can onl unfaTits Tull poten-_ co Eatin i i ene yoga xs heats Fels and digests the food: The mind reads the ‘ously and unconsciously in the form of activated emotions and memories. In his worldwide studies of attitudes towards fod, the anthropologist Giaade ssrubiguitouly met the division of the edible in two categories according fo good and bad emotions. One ofthe puzles of food eslture Studies is why some potential foods become regarded as edible and others not "A Danish cookbook published in 1837 states that the smile ofthe house- wifi the most important spice (Mangor, 1837).'A good meal with good ‘Company isa pleasure; so is foreplay and lovemaking; so is a good shit, writes the grind olf man of performance theory, {2o07), The total response of the body is at play in the food and eating experince * Bain jta78 (1999) coined the concept transformation to

    You might also like