Culinary capital
By: Peter Naccarato and Kathleen LeBesco
Contributors: LeBesco, Kathleen, 1970-
Edition: English ed.
Publisher: Berg
Published: 2012
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 145
ISBN-13: 9780857854155; 9780857853820; 9780857853837
Subjects: Food; Food consumption; Cross-cultural studies; Food habits
Description: TV cookery shows hosted by celebrity chefs. Meal prep kitchens. Online grocers and restaurant review sites. Competitive eating contests, carnivals and fairs, and junk food websites and blogs. What do all of them have in common? According to authors Kathleen LeBesco and Peter Naccarato, they each serve as productive sites for understanding the role of culinary capital in shaping individual and group identities in contemporary culture. Beyond providing sustenance, food and food practices play an important social role, offering status to individuals who conform to their culture's culinary norms and expectations while also providing a means of resisting them. This book analyzes this phenomenon in action across the landscape of contemporary culture. The authors examine how each of the sites listed above promises viewers and consumers status through the acquisition of culinary capital and, as they do so, intersect with a range of cultural values and ideologies, particularly those of gender and economic class.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.