You Eat What You Are: Cultivated Taste and the Pursuit of Authenticity in the Slow Food Movement (original) (raw)
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Introduction. Food, Foodways and Italianicity
Italians and Food, 2019
Food is perceived as probably the most distinctive aspect of Italian identity both in Italy and abroad. Food culture is central both to the way Italians mark their national identity and to the consolidation of Italianicity in a global context. However, gastronomic identity, just like other aspects of identity, is a continuous construction that consolidates through practice across history and geography rather than an essence to be discovered in a purified moment of origin, a well-delimited site, a single product or recipe. Creolization and hybridization are indeed a feature of any cuisine. This is particularly the case for Italian cuisine, exposed as it has been to a variety of influences throughout its history. This introduction illustrate the rationale for putting toghether a collection on Italians and food and sets the major coordinates for the study of italianicity at the table.
Journal of Ethnic Foods, 2020
This research draws from memories, and the deep sense of belonging, tradition, and presence that is linked with a dish of Italian regional tradition; agnolotti pasta, one example of what can be considered an Italian ethnic food. It does so in order to challenge an assumption that is widely spread in the public debate and as well as in scholarship, which automatically links the popularization of traditional, ethnic cuisine with a fulgid prospective of local development in particular for the rural communities. This article challenges this imagery by drawing attention on what popularization means and how it is achieved in food festivals, restaurants, and shops. In doing so, it contributes to decouple popularization and development by exploring the ethnographic case of Piedmont, Italy.
The Italian Way of Eating Round the World : Italian-sounding, Counterfeit, and Original Products
Food customs are an expression of the identity and traditions that form and grow stronger in a particular area over time. Nevertheless, they suffer non-stop comparison and hybridization with other cultures and practices, a result of commercial exchange and temporary or permanent migration processes. Food (as well as the practices and rituals involved) is in all respects a 'social fact'. For this reason it can become a 'fashion' that fixes and orients consumption styles, creating behaviours that decree a gap between upper and lower classes. The market for these goods could be called a 'market of distinction', saturated with modern products, or 'status goods'. During the centuries, a double process has occurred: first, the coding and preservation of products we define as 'typical', meaning closely linked to their territory (terroir) of origin; and second, the constant hybridization of products and tastes on the wave of ever stronger globalization. In the last two decades, globalization has deepened, and large countries such as India and China are entering the international markets of consumption and tourism. All this has given the food market a sudden acceleration. Certainly, this evolution is not unheard of. Analogous processes have been seen the past, characterized by constant innovation in and hybridization of tastes and food practices. However, none of these processes matches the scale and speed of the changes that have occurred in the last 20 years. Thus, in both developed and emerging countries we have witnessed growth in the desire to consume foods and drinks associated with the food and wine culture and identity of certain countries that trendsetters (and the upper classes they inspire) consider particularly 'elegant'. The phenomenon is a very strong 'desire of Europe', particularly focused on the food and wine traditions of two countries:
Review: Representing Italy through Food ed. by Peter Naccarato, Zachary Nowak, and Elgin K. Eckert
Food, Culture & Society: An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 2018
For scholars of Italian history and culture, Representing Italy through Food, edited by Peter Naccarato, Zachary Nowak and Elgin K. Eckert, will be a welcome contribution. Originating in a 2012 conference at The Umbra Institute in Perugia, Italy, this anthology explores “how representations of Italian food and foodways construct, promote, and/or challenge historically and ideologically specific images of Italy and Italian culture.” Building upon a growing body of interdisciplinary scholarship which, during the past twenty years or so, has examined the “invention”—to reference E. J. Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger’s seminal 1983 anthology—of Italy’s cultural heritages and traditions, each of the volume’s fourteen chapters challenge the “historical and cultural association of Italy with food” by interrogating “claims to authenticity” in a variety of mediatic contexts.
The Carbonara Case: Italian Food and the Race to Conquer Consumers' Memories
Dublin Gastronomy Symposium , 2024
Can a recipe divide historians, gastronomes, and chefs? The answer is yes if we are dealing with carbonara, an iconic Italian dish, famous throughout the world. However, so much animosity could have deeper roots than the recently renewed controversy over its authorship suggests. This article aims to study the case of carbonara as an example of the race to conquer consumers' memories. Following a transdisciplinary methodology, the author identifies three main approaches to the making of carbonara: glocal, regional, and creative. These approaches reflect distinct schools of thought regarding food within the diverse spectrum of Italian society. Their supportersorthodox, revisionist, and innovators-compete to influence and rewrite the past to better suit our deepest needs for safety, protection, enjoyment, and eternity. Their interactions are explained with the help of a model, the "golden recipe triangle," shedding light on the conflict-inducing elements but also accounting for the widespread popularity of the recipe. Moved by the remembrance of a perfect carbonara, we all want to experience it again and again. Ultimately, this perception, continuously stimulated by competing narratives, may underpin the success of this global "megafood" (valued at least 1 billion euros in turnover per year), along with other worldwide renowned dishes such as pizza and tiramisù. In the end, the turbulent dynamics at play in the carbonara case should be viewed as indicative of the vitality of Italy's culinary culture.
The Politics of Pasta: La cucina futurista and the Italian Cookbook in History
2013
In 1932 the Italian Futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti published La cucina futurista, provoking the public with his "crusade against pasta" and promise to expand minds and publics with his wildly unusual recipes. Though Marinetti's debt to past cookbooks has been acknowledged, most modern readers have characterized the text as a successful but minor example of a late Futurist avant-garde foray into the sober and codified world of nineteenth century cooking. Yet from its inception, the Italian cookbok has in fact figured itself as a nuanced and potent political tool, used first in the early modern Italian court to instigate movement up the hierarchy, and later as the peninsula tried to become a cohesive whole after the Risorgimento. This article explores Marinetti's cookbook in light of the more complex historical tradition and political valences of the genre, demonstrating the serious intentions of the apparently insubstantial text.
Springer eBooks, 2019
The series will be a channel and focus for some of the most interesting recent work on consumption, establishing innovative approaches and a new research agenda. New approaches and public debates around consumption in modern societies will be pursued within media, politics, ethics, sociology, economics, management and cultural studies.