Routledge Food Studies – serie

This book is about food and feeding in early childhood education and care, offering an exploration of the intersection of children’s food, education, family intervention, and public health policies.The notion of ‘good’ food for children is often communicated as a matter of common sense by policymakers and public health authorities; yet the social, material, and practical aspects of feeding children are far from straightforward. Drawing on a detailed ethnographic study conducted in a London nursery and children’s centre, this book provides a close examination of the practices of childcare practitioners, children, and parents, asking how the universalism of policy and bureaucracy fits with the particularism of feeding and eating in the early years. Looking at the unintended consequences that emerged in the field, such as contradictory public health messaging and arbitrary policy interventions, the book reveals the harmful assumptions about disadvantaged groups that are perpetuated in policy discourse, and challenges the constructs of individual choice and responsibility as main determinants of health. Children’s food practices at the nursery are examined to explore the notion that, whilst for adults it is what children eat that often matters most, to children it is how they eat that is more important. This book contributes to a growing body of literature evidencing how children’s food is a contested domain, in which power relations are continuously negotiated. This raises questions not only on how children can be included in policy beyond a tokenistic involvement but also on what children’s well-being might mean beyond the biomedical sphere.The book will particularly appeal to students and scholars in food and health, food policy, childhood studies, and medical anthropology. Policymakers and non-governmental bodies working in the domains of children’s food and early years policies will also find this book of interest.

This book is about food and feeding in early childhood education and care, offering an exploration of the intersection of children’s food, education, family intervention, and public health policies.The notion of ‘good’ food for children is often communicated as a matter of common sense by policymakers and public health authorities; yet the social, material, and practical aspects of feeding children are far from straightforward. Drawing on a detailed ethnographic study conducted in a London nursery and children’s centre, this book provides a close examination of the practices of childcare practitioners, children, and parents, asking how the universalism of policy and bureaucracy fits with the particularism of feeding and eating in the early years. Looking at the unintended consequences that emerged in the field, such as contradictory public health messaging and arbitrary policy interventions, the book reveals the harmful assumptions about disadvantaged groups that are perpetuated in policy discourse, and challenges the constructs of individual choice and responsibility as main determinants of health. Children’s food practices at the nursery are examined to explore the notion that, whilst for adults it is what children eat that often matters most, to children it is how they eat that is more important. This book contributes to a growing body of literature evidencing how children’s food is a contested domain, in which power relations are continuously negotiated. This raises questions not only on how children can be included in policy beyond a tokenistic involvement but also on what children’s well-being might mean beyond the biomedical sphere.The book will particularly appeal to students and scholars in food and health, food policy, childhood studies, and medical anthropology. Policymakers and non-governmental bodies working in the domains of children’s food and early years policies will also find this book of interest.

Drawing on ethical and sociological theories of food, this book presents a new approach to food education that moves beyond nutrition-centred education.Food education has gained increasing scientific and political importance in many countries as a promising way to change contemporary eating. However, many practices fail to address two epistemological obstacles regarding its very components – ‘food’ and ‘education’. Food has largely been thought of from a nutritionistic viewpoint alone and the ethical issues over children’s freedom of choice and well-being have been absent. This book resolves these problems by applying ethical and sociological theories of food and analysing food education in two pioneering countries: Japan and France. The book focuses on taste education and gastronomy as two key concepts which have great potential to positively impact food education. Taste education is a promising alternative to nutrition-centred pedagogy which foregrounds the experience and pleasure of eating food, creating an environment for taste sensibility and food curiosity. From taste education, the picture can be broadened to examine the role and impact of gastronomy in food education. Examining the cultural traditions of France and Japan reveals how gastronomy can impact eating habits and food cultures and how these criteria should be an intrinsic part of food education. The book concludes by constructing an integrative theory for food education that moves beyond nutrition-centred education for the benefit of one’s well-being. This book will greatly interest students, scholars, policymakers and educators working on food education, food-related issues at the intersection between nutritional and social sciences, and ‘gastronomes’ searching for a pedagogical guide for developing their capabilities to eat in a more humanistic way.

Drawing on ethical and sociological theories of food, this book presents a new approach to food education that moves beyond nutrition-centred education.Food education has gained increasing scientific and political importance in many countries as a promising way to change contemporary eating. However, many practices fail to address two epistemological obstacles regarding its very components – ‘food’ and ‘education’. Food has largely been thought of from a nutritionistic viewpoint alone and the ethical issues over children’s freedom of choice and well-being have been absent. This book resolves these problems by applying ethical and sociological theories of food and analysing food education in two pioneering countries: Japan and France. The book focuses on taste education and gastronomy as two key concepts which have great potential to positively impact food education. Taste education is a promising alternative to nutrition-centred pedagogy which foregrounds the experience and pleasure of eating food, creating an environment for taste sensibility and food curiosity. From taste education, the picture can be broadened to examine the role and impact of gastronomy in food education. Examining the cultural traditions of France and Japan reveals how gastronomy can impact eating habits and food cultures and how these criteria should be an intrinsic part of food education. The book concludes by constructing an integrative theory for food education that moves beyond nutrition-centred education for the benefit of one’s well-being. This book will greatly interest students, scholars, policymakers and educators working on food education, food-related issues at the intersection between nutritional and social sciences, and ‘gastronomes’ searching for a pedagogical guide for developing their capabilities to eat in a more humanistic way.

This book examines controversies in American wine culture and how those controversies intersect with and illuminate current academic and cultural debates about the environment and about interpretation.With a specific focus on the United States of America, the methods that we use to discuss literature and other art are applied to wine-making and wine culture. The book explores the debates about how to evaluate wine and the problems inherent in numerical scoring as well as evaluative tasting notes, whether winemakers can be artists, the discourse in wine culture involving natural wine and biodynamic farming, as well as how people judge what makes a wine great. These interpretative commitments illuminate an underlying metaphysics and allegiance to a culture of reason or feeling. The discussions engage with a broad range of writers and thinkers, such as Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, Louis Menand, Michael Pollan, Greg Garrard, John Guillory, Amitov Ghosh, Pierre Bourdieu, and Barbara Herrnstein-Smith. The book draws upon not only a number of texts produced by wine critics, wine writers, literary critics and theorists but also extensive interviews with wine writers and multiple California winemakers. These interviews contribute to a unique reflection on wine and meaning.This book will be of great interest to readers looking to learn more about wine from cultural, literary, and philosophical perspectives.

This book examines controversies in American wine culture and how those controversies intersect with and illuminate current academic and cultural debates about the environment and about interpretation.With a specific focus on the United States of America, the methods that we use to discuss literature and other art are applied to wine-making and wine culture. The book explores the debates about how to evaluate wine and the problems inherent in numerical scoring as well as evaluative tasting notes, whether winemakers can be artists, the discourse in wine culture involving natural wine and biodynamic farming, as well as how people judge what makes a wine great. These interpretative commitments illuminate an underlying metaphysics and allegiance to a culture of reason or feeling. The discussions engage with a broad range of writers and thinkers, such as Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, Louis Menand, Michael Pollan, Greg Garrard, John Guillory, Amitov Ghosh, Pierre Bourdieu, and Barbara Herrnstein-Smith. The book draws upon not only a number of texts produced by wine critics, wine writers, literary critics and theorists but also extensive interviews with wine writers and multiple California winemakers. These interviews contribute to a unique reflection on wine and meaning.This book will be of great interest to readers looking to learn more about wine from cultural, literary, and philosophical perspectives.

This book presents a fascinating exploration of eating experiences within US national parks, explaining how, on what, and why people eat in national parks and how this has changed over the last century.National parks are enjoying unprecedented popularity, and they are especially popular sites for the expression of cosmopolitanism, an ideological outlook descended from the Romantics on whose vision the parks were originally founded. The book explores the constructed foodscape within US national parks, situating the romantic consumption ethos within the context of sociological work on distinction, culinary tourism, and culinary capital. It analyzes and problematizes elements of cosmopolitan taste and desire, examining food tourism in wilderness spaces that satisfies cosmopolitan hunger for authenticity and a certain type of self-making. Weaving together strands of research that have not been previously integrated, the book gleans meaning from concessions menus and park restaurant web pages and employs audience analysis to take stock of park restaurant visitors’ contributions to restaurant review websites, as well as to understand how they represent their park eating experiences on social media. The book examines how satisfying cosmopolitan tastes in the parks creates profit for corporate concessioners, but also may produce bioregionalist successes and a recentering of Indigenous foodways. It concludes by exploring inroads to a better food experience in the parks, involving food products and processes that are regionally/locally specific, where tourists witness and participate in food production and enjoy commensality, but that are also non-extractive and show care for the environment and the people who inhabit it.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food studies, tourism and hospitality, sociology of culture, parks and recreation, American studies, and environmental studies. The book will also be of interest to parks and recreation decision makers, sustainable tourism leaders, and hospitality managers.

This book presents a fascinating exploration of eating experiences within US national parks, explaining how, on what, and why people eat in national parks and how this has changed over the last century.National parks are enjoying unprecedented popularity, and they are especially popular sites for the expression of cosmopolitanism, an ideological outlook descended from the Romantics on whose vision the parks were originally founded. The book explores the constructed foodscape within US national parks, situating the romantic consumption ethos within the context of sociological work on distinction, culinary tourism, and culinary capital. It analyzes and problematizes elements of cosmopolitan taste and desire, examining food tourism in wilderness spaces that satisfies cosmopolitan hunger for authenticity and a certain type of self-making. Weaving together strands of research that have not been previously integrated, the book gleans meaning from concessions menus and park restaurant web pages and employs audience analysis to take stock of park restaurant visitors’ contributions to restaurant review websites, as well as to understand how they represent their park eating experiences on social media. The book examines how satisfying cosmopolitan tastes in the parks creates profit for corporate concessioners, but also may produce bioregionalist successes and a recentering of Indigenous foodways. It concludes by exploring inroads to a better food experience in the parks, involving food products and processes that are regionally/locally specific, where tourists witness and participate in food production and enjoy commensality, but that are also non-extractive and show care for the environment and the people who inhabit it.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food studies, tourism and hospitality, sociology of culture, parks and recreation, American studies, and environmental studies. The book will also be of interest to parks and recreation decision makers, sustainable tourism leaders, and hospitality managers.

Focusing on high-end cuisine, this book examines the flows of culinary knowledge from culturally peripheral locations to two cities at the global center, London and New York.Through the voices of chefs and other professionals in the industry, this book invites readers to rethink our understandings of high-end and ethnic cuisines, as well as the conventions and principles that shape the contemporary field of gastronomy and fine-dining. It examines a broad range of cuisines, including Peruvian, Korean, Mexican, Malaysian, Senegalese, West African, Thai, Chinese, and Indian, and conveys the chefs’ voices as they strive to elevate their cuisines through discursive and material means, including the shaping of menus, and restaurant decor. While the main focus falls on chefs as the producers of high-end cuisines, this book also gives consideration to their consumers, that is cosmopolitan diners in the two global cities, and to the influence of culinary intermediaries judging and legitimizing their high-end status. Theoretically, this book contributes to the debate on cultural globalization. It undertakes a study of hitherto rarely examined cultural counterflows or reverse cultural globalization and analyzes both the precipitants of this occurrence and the effects of cultural counterflows on both Western global cities and the home countries of chefs.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food studies, food cultures, cultural globalization, and culinary studies.

Focusing on high-end cuisine, this book examines the flows of culinary knowledge from culturally peripheral locations to two cities at the global center, London and New York.Through the voices of chefs and other professionals in the industry, this book invites readers to rethink our understandings of high-end and ethnic cuisines, as well as the conventions and principles that shape the contemporary field of gastronomy and fine-dining. It examines a broad range of cuisines, including Peruvian, Korean, Mexican, Malaysian, Senegalese, West African, Thai, Chinese, and Indian, and conveys the chefs’ voices as they strive to elevate their cuisines through discursive and material means, including the shaping of menus, and restaurant decor. While the main focus falls on chefs as the producers of high-end cuisines, this book also gives consideration to their consumers, that is cosmopolitan diners in the two global cities, and to the influence of culinary intermediaries judging and legitimizing their high-end status. Theoretically, this book contributes to the debate on cultural globalization. It undertakes a study of hitherto rarely examined cultural counterflows or reverse cultural globalization and analyzes both the precipitants of this occurrence and the effects of cultural counterflows on both Western global cities and the home countries of chefs.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food studies, food cultures, cultural globalization, and culinary studies.

This book presents a critical analysis of the concept of food heritage, through a dialogue between its academic definitions and the vaguer, more common-sense meaning of the term.By addressing the notion of heritage through the question of food and eating practices, this book allows us to question in a fresh way the very meaning of this concept, now so well established but still interpreted through a wide variety of perspectives. In mirror image, viewing the notion of heritage through the lens of food allows us to investigate an important dimension of our modern foodways. Beyond the conceptual discussion, the book analyses the concrete processes through which foods and food practices come to be defined, recognized, and mobilized as heritage, showing how these dynamics unfold in varied cultural and institutional contexts. Chapters draw on case studies from across the world — in Belgium, Catalonia, China, Korea, Estonia, France, Japan, Poland, Morocco, Serbia, Brazil, as well as across Africa and the Mediterranean region — and propose different temporalities while involving a range of actors. Among these actors, however, UNESCO occupies a particularly important place in this volume, due to the role it plays as a legitimizing body, supposed to officially consecrate certain elements as heritage. The practical cases reveal the complexity of the situations and provide detailed examples of specific issues and difficulties involved in thinking about the heritagization of food and assessing the practices related to it.This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars from across food studies, heritage studies, cultural studies, tourism studies, and anthropology.

This book presents a critical analysis of the concept of food heritage, through a dialogue between its academic definitions and the vaguer, more common-sense meaning of the term.By addressing the notion of heritage through the question of food and eating practices, this book allows us to question in a fresh way the very meaning of this concept, now so well established but still interpreted through a wide variety of perspectives. In mirror image, viewing the notion of heritage through the lens of food allows us to investigate an important dimension of our modern foodways. Beyond the conceptual discussion, the book analyses the concrete processes through which foods and food practices come to be defined, recognized, and mobilized as heritage, showing how these dynamics unfold in varied cultural and institutional contexts. Chapters draw on case studies from across the world — in Belgium, Catalonia, China, Korea, Estonia, France, Japan, Poland, Morocco, Serbia, Brazil, as well as across Africa and the Mediterranean region — and propose different temporalities while involving a range of actors. Among these actors, however, UNESCO occupies a particularly important place in this volume, due to the role it plays as a legitimizing body, supposed to officially consecrate certain elements as heritage. The practical cases reveal the complexity of the situations and provide detailed examples of specific issues and difficulties involved in thinking about the heritagization of food and assessing the practices related to it.This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars from across food studies, heritage studies, cultural studies, tourism studies, and anthropology.

Culinary Man and the Kitchen Brigade offers an exploration of the field of normative subjectivity circulated within western fine dining traditions, presenting a theoretical analysis of the governing relationship between the chef, who embodies the Culinary Man, and the fine dining brigade.The book offers a unique treatment of western haute cuisine’s interlocking regime of labor and aesthetics and theorizes the underexplored kitchen brigade as a model of disciplinary formation. It deploys a heterogeneous set of disciplinary discourses and practices which have the effect of consolidating monopolies on epistemic authority and governance. Each position within the brigade’s hierarchy is subject to distinct, though related, disciplinary practices. Thus, chapters identify the specific practices pertinent to each brigade subject, while also illuminating how they fit together as a coherent hegemonic project. The application of Wynterian and Foucauldian insight to the fine dining brigade offers a political theory of culinary work which departs from other food studies texts. Notably, this work offers an in-depth treatment of the brigade’s colonial dimensions which resonate with emerging critiques, scholarly and general, of the race and gender politics of restaurant labor. The concluding chapters seek to identify where extant modes of resistance or alternative forms of culinary organization may hold the potential to move beyond the hegemonic overrepresentation of Culinary Man.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars from across the social sciences and humanities interested in critical food studies, political and cultural theory, and popular culinary culture.

Culinary Man and the Kitchen Brigade offers an exploration of the field of normative subjectivity circulated within western fine dining traditions, presenting a theoretical analysis of the governing relationship between the chef, who embodies the Culinary Man, and the fine dining brigade.The book offers a unique treatment of western haute cuisine’s interlocking regime of labor and aesthetics and theorizes the underexplored kitchen brigade as a model of disciplinary formation. It deploys a heterogeneous set of disciplinary discourses and practices which have the effect of consolidating monopolies on epistemic authority and governance. Each position within the brigade’s hierarchy is subject to distinct, though related, disciplinary practices. Thus, chapters identify the specific practices pertinent to each brigade subject, while also illuminating how they fit together as a coherent hegemonic project. The application of Wynterian and Foucauldian insight to the fine dining brigade offers a political theory of culinary work which departs from other food studies texts. Notably, this work offers an in-depth treatment of the brigade’s colonial dimensions which resonate with emerging critiques, scholarly and general, of the race and gender politics of restaurant labor. The concluding chapters seek to identify where extant modes of resistance or alternative forms of culinary organization may hold the potential to move beyond the hegemonic overrepresentation of Culinary Man.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars from across the social sciences and humanities interested in critical food studies, political and cultural theory, and popular culinary culture.

This book explores how food shapes urban identity, through people and practices, and reflects the cultural and social experiences of urban gastronomy.From streets to markets, from restaurants to home, Food Tourism in Urban Places is a way of experiencing cities, connecting with cultures and societies and participating in stories through places. Drawing on examples from around the world, including Uruguay, Italy, Japan, Georgia, Spain, South Africa, Denmark and New Zealand, this book combines multiple perspectives and theoretical drivers, from foodscapes and museums’ narratives to gastrodiplomacy and somaesthetics, slow food and regenerative tourism. It demonstrates how food tourism is both universal and locally specific, connecting tradition and innovation, and ordinary and extraordinary experiences as part of a dialogue between everyday life and tourism. Looking forward, this book highlights the importance of indigenous knowledge and sustainability for the future of urban food experiences. Drawing on food through visual, sensory and participatory methods, readers are invited to see, taste and feel the cities to discover how food becomes a language of communication, identity and transformation.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food studies, gastronomy, hospitality and tourism, cultural anthropology, human geography and urban development. This book will also appeal to readers outside academia with an interest in food, tourism and urban culture.

This book focuses on the (re)invention of French food in the US, probing the intricate transatlantic dynamics underlying notions of cooking and eating French.By looking at French gastronomy as both a symbolic formation and an exclusionary practice closely tied to power, class, and race, this book re-centers histories that have been marginalized in traditional narratives of French gastronomy. Rather than focusing on food itself, this book explores transatlantic foodways and the complex and changing nexus of historical, socioeconomic, cultural, political, and ideological routes and trajectories, both real and imaginary, that have connected France and the US around a range of gastronomical practices and representations. Foregrounding the gastronationalism that subtends the idea of “eating French” in the US, this book also looks at how a diverse group of contemporary chefs is working to deconstruct stereotypical and constrictive representations of French food and to create new cuisines that are, in turn, more inviting, inclusive, hospitable, and convivial as well as more globally sustainable. Exploring the transatlantic relation between France and the US through the lens of food offers a significant point of entry into the ways in which imagined gastronomies reflect imagined communities past, present, and future in an ever-globalizing world.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars from a wide range of interdisciplinary fields of study including food studies, global French and Francophone studies, cultural studies, media studies, Black/African American studies, history, and ethnography.

This book focuses on the (re)invention of French food in the US, probing the intricate transatlantic dynamics underlying notions of cooking and eating French.By looking at French gastronomy as both a symbolic formation and an exclusionary practice closely tied to power, class, and race, this book re-centers histories that have been marginalized in traditional narratives of French gastronomy. Rather than focusing on food itself, this book explores transatlantic foodways and the complex and changing nexus of historical, socioeconomic, cultural, political, and ideological routes and trajectories, both real and imaginary, that have connected France and the US around a range of gastronomical practices and representations. Foregrounding the gastronationalism that subtends the idea of “eating French” in the US, this book also looks at how a diverse group of contemporary chefs is working to deconstruct stereotypical and constrictive representations of French food and to create new cuisines that are, in turn, more inviting, inclusive, hospitable, and convivial as well as more globally sustainable. Exploring the transatlantic relation between France and the US through the lens of food offers a significant point of entry into the ways in which imagined gastronomies reflect imagined communities past, present, and future in an ever-globalizing world.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars from a wide range of interdisciplinary fields of study including food studies, global French and Francophone studies, cultural studies, media studies, Black/African American studies, history, and ethnography.

This interdisciplinary volume investigates American serial television, exploring how food serves as a compelling lens to examine cultural narratives, societal dynamics, and the artistry of storytelling.As both a mirror and a molder of cultural values, television serves as a powerful platform for ideological discourse and public consciousness. Within this dynamic medium, the portrayal of food emerges as a fascinating lens through which cultural identities and social dynamics are both reflected and reimagined. This volume employs a rich array of methodologies to reveal how television shapes and reflects societal narratives, cultural norms, and personal identities. By intersecting literary and media studies with the vibrant field of food studies, a discipline that unpacks the intricate ties between food, culture, and identity, this volume explores how American identity is constructed, challenged, and redefined when food takes center stage in serial television. The chapters examine narrative-driven series such as The Brady Bunch, The Bear, Star Trek, Ted Lasso, Only Murders in the Building, Lessons in Chemistry, and others, emphasizing the role of food and drink in shaping characters, advancing plots, establishing settings, and driving conflicts to resolution. Through this exploration, the collection examines how culinary symbols on the small screen become a narrative device for interrogating the essence of American identity.The book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food studies, media studies, cultural studies, and literary studies.

This interdisciplinary volume investigates American serial television, exploring how food serves as a compelling lens to examine cultural narratives, societal dynamics, and the artistry of storytelling.As both a mirror and a molder of cultural values, television serves as a powerful platform for ideological discourse and public consciousness. Within this dynamic medium, the portrayal of food emerges as a fascinating lens through which cultural identities and social dynamics are both reflected and reimagined. This volume employs a rich array of methodologies to reveal how television shapes and reflects societal narratives, cultural norms, and personal identities. By intersecting literary and media studies with the vibrant field of food studies, a discipline that unpacks the intricate ties between food, culture, and identity, this volume explores how American identity is constructed, challenged, and redefined when food takes center stage in serial television. The chapters examine narrative-driven series such as The Brady Bunch, The Bear, Star Trek, Ted Lasso, Only Murders in the Building, Lessons in Chemistry, and others, emphasizing the role of food and drink in shaping characters, advancing plots, establishing settings, and driving conflicts to resolution. Through this exploration, the collection examines how culinary symbols on the small screen become a narrative device for interrogating the essence of American identity.The book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food studies, media studies, cultural studies, and literary studies.

This book explains how “natural wine” was made and not discovered by Spanish lawmakers, chemists, merchants, and theologians, showing how Spain consolidated a legal construct that normalised specific technical interventions while preserving the label natural.The book argues that wine labelled as “natural” was not the preservation of a traditional product, but the product of a legal fiction that allowed wines with additives to be normalized and protected under law. In doing so, the book explores the emergence and changing meanings of natural wine. Rather than providing a fixed definition, it analyzes how the boundaries of “natural” shifted from period to period. It shows how natural wine ended up being used in the historical-legal sense that crystallised in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Spain and culminated in 1932. Through detailed archival research, the book explores debates around adulteration, chemistry, purity, and authenticity, using historical food studies and legal analysis as its framework. It introduces the Spanish case as a significant but overlooked moment in the broader European shift toward legally codified standards of food authenticity and quality. Drawing primarily on the work of Alessandro Stanziani and influenced by Bruno Latour’s perspective on scientific authority and socio-technical networks, the book bridges the fields of legal history, enology, and cultural politics. This historical analysis sheds light on contemporary controversies surrounding wine regulation, appellation systems, and the global natural wine movement.The book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food and wine studies, legal and economic history, anthropology, science and technology studies and European agrarian history.