The Cultural Politics of Food, Taste, and Identity : A Global Perspective

__The Cultural Politics of Food, Taste, and Identity__ examines the social, cultural, and political processes that shape the experience of taste. The book positions flavor as involving all the senses, and describes the multiple ways in which taste becomes tied to local, translocal, glocal, and cosmopolitan politics of identity. Global case studies are included from Japan, China, India, Belize, Chile, Guatemala, the United States, France, Italy, Poland and Spain. Chapters examine local responses to industrialized food and the heritage industry, and look at how professional culinary practice has become foundational for local identities. The book also discusses the unfolding construction of “local taste” in the context of sociocultural developments, and addresses how cultural political divides are created between meat consumption and vegetarianism, innovation and tradition, heritage and social class, popular food and authenticity, and street and restaurant food. In addition, contributors discuss how different food products-such as kimchi, quinoa, and Soylent-have entered the international market of industrial and heritage foods, connecting different places and shaping taste and political identities. Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Map 9 Introduction: The Cultural Politics of Taste in Global Perspective 10 Part I: Taste and the Politics of Identity 22 Chapter 1: Food, Taste, and Identity in the Global Arena 24 Chapter 2: Centralization and Standardization of Taste 40 Chapter 3: Heritagization of Fermented Taste in Southwestern Fukui, Japan 52 Chapter 4: Tides High and Low: The Changing Landscapes of Gongfu Cha Tea Culture in Contemporary China 65 Chapter 5: Italian Cheese in the Global Heritage Arena 82 Chapter 6:The Gastronomic Capital of the World: Food, Politics, and Identity in Lyon 95 Part II: Translocal and Transnational Politics of Taste and Identity 110 Chapter 7: Fetid Flesh and Fragrant Fare: Food, Scandal, and Identity in Contemporary Bengal 112 Chapter 8: Tasting “Innovation”: The Politics of Taste in Contemporary Restaurant Food in Seville, Spain 127 Chapter 9: Of Corn and Coconuts: Taste and the Cultural Politics of Gastronationalism in Belize 143 Chapter 10: Street Food to Restaurant: Politics of Eating and Cultural Heritage in Antigua, Guatemala 156 Chapter 11: Popular Urban Taste and Mass Culture: Chancho and Terremoto in Chile 170 Part III: The Global-Local Politics of Taste 184 Chapter 12: Foreign Influences in Polish Culinary Taste during the Twentieth Century 186 Chapter 13: Kimchi’s Transnational Journey: Tastes of Authenticity and Ambiguity 206 Chapter 14: Tasting Quinoa: From Indigenous Food to “Healthy” US Dining 222 Chapter 15: The Taste of the Mediterranean Diet: Food, Taste, and Identity in the Campania Region, South Italy 235 Chapter 16: Soylent: The Cultural Politics of Functional and Tasteless Food 251 Postface: Heritage-Making after the US Century 263 Contributors 270 Index 273 "The Cultural Politics of Food, Taste, and Identity examines the social, cultural, and political processes that shape the experience of taste. The book positions flavor as involving all the senses, and describes the multiple ways in which taste becomes tied to local, translocal, glocal, and cosmopolitan politics of identity. Global case studies are included from Japan, China, India, Belize, Chile, Guatemala, the United States, France, Italy, Poland and Spain. Chapters examine local responses to industrialized food and the heritage industry, and look at how professional culinary practice has become foundational for local identities. The book also discusses the unfolding construction of 'local taste' in the context of sociocultural developments, and addresses how cultural political divides are created between meat consumption and vegetarianism, innovation and tradition, heritage and social class, popular food and authenticity, and street and restaurant food. In addition, contributors discuss how different food products--such as kimchi, quinoa, and Soylent--have entered the international market of industrial and heritage foods, connecting different places and shaping taste and political identities."-- Provided by publisher