FOOD STUDIES

FOOD STUDIES, introducing "taste"

Where does our diet stem from?

The Omnivore's paradox

Self protection

Principle of incorporation

What is taste in fact?

Tastes and aromas only exist if there is a biological apparatus to interpret them.

Flavours you get thanks to your taste buds, AROMAS BY YOUR NOSE and throat (RETRO-smell), TRIGEMINAL SENSATIONS THANKS TO YOUR TRIGEMINAL NERVE.

Very complex aromas

• 650 molecules in the cocoa aroma and 800 in the coffee aroma.
• Some of those molecules are found in very diverse aromas: sulphur ones for example are found in wine and melon!
• Those molecules change when cooked or fermented.
• Fat has a tendency to capture aromas.
• Intensity has an influence on your perception: with a small dose you may like an aroma that you'll dislike with a larger quantity.

SWEET OR SAVOURY?

For a long time, it was commonly stated that there were 4 basic tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, acidic. Twenty years ago, a Japanese scientist introduced the UMAMI taste which is the taste of the glutamate amino-acid. Today's controversy: are there only 5 types of flavours? It's more of a continuum.

Biologically speaking

human beings have bodies that can -without science really understanding how - practise an unconscious and efficient regulation: energetic homeostasis. Its efficiency is true MOST OF THE TIME but too much food + less effort to get it = DEREGULATION of that homeostasis.

Where does disgust come from? Disgust = biological/physiological: your body says no! Distaste = more cultural /social and so acquired. We often talk of "acquired taste" but we could also talk of an "acquired distaste": not eating insects (the French), not eating fermented milk (the Japanese) etc.

How is taste formed?

"Il ne suffit pas qu'un aliment soit bon à manger, encore faut-il qu'il soit bon à penser." Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1962

In taste formation, a few factors can be identified: biological psychological cultural. Intra-generational interaction is crucial in the sense that young eaters will be more durably influenced by their peers than by their family ways.

ZOOPHAGY VS SARCOPHAGY

our food cannot get on the plate straight from the slaughterhouse. 2 strategies to make meat acceptable for us:

SARCOPHAGY: the meat gets so transformed that I don't realize what I'm eating anymore. Words exemplify the need for a certain distance: cochon = porc, vache = boeuf, sheep = mutton, gallina = pollo ...

ZOOPHAGY: I'm at the top of the food chain. I'm not an animal so I can consume animals. (the full chicken on the table)

DISTINCTION AND TASTE

Since the 16th century

Before that, in the 14th and 15th C, spices were a way of achieving social distinction.

Usual transmission : top - down but a few occurrences of the other way round: dishes coming from the peasantry (blanquette, pot au feu etc) are now fashionable.

Influence of the aristocracy in the Renaissance. Eg: Catherine de Medici and forks in the 16th C.

Change during the French Revolution: it was the Bourgeois that were influential.

Another influence: monasteries and the regularity of meals.

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People in the same country have different diets = does not only depend on financial means. Can result from social category, region etc.

Some "classes" will over consume specific types of food: fish or fresh fruit for example in the case of the upper classes. However, even in one class, there are differences.

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TODAY'S ISSUES

Loss of points of reference as far as food and the act of eating are concerned: those landmarks used to be RELIGION, SEASONS, TRADITIONAL EATING CODES AND HABITS.

Eating disorders like obesity stem from deregulations = gastro-anomy. People have to decide for themselves how to eat = brings anxiety.

Evolutionarily speaking, the capacity to accumulate fat is seen as positive.

In some countries it's a question of portions: France vs the US.

Macdonaldisation

The French eat at MacDonald's restaurants a lot.

In fact mass-customization (Taylor, Smith, 1998) works hand in hand with a sugar-coating of traditional food. Big companies want to be profitable, so one way to do so is to listen to consumers (bulk in supermarkets etc).

In many ways the situation is improving with people wanting more and more local food, not only for themselves but to support local economy. More and more people see cooking as a nice activity that can be very rewarding.

There are still inequalities as far as access to healthy food is concerned. But it is not as bad as it used to be.

What remains crucial though is essentially the access to KNOWLEDGE about food. In French, saveur and savoir are related (through the latin word "sapere" (avoir de la saveur = être sage = savoir). In Italian, the double meaning survives: "Sa di cipolla", "Non sa niente."

Thanks for your attention!

Eureka!

SOURCES: Stephen Mennell, All Manners of Food (1985) F. Régnier, A. Lhuissier, S. Gojard, Sociologie de l'alimentation (2006) Claude Fischler, l'Homnivore (2001) André Holley, Le Cerveau gourmand (2006)