Synopses & Reviews
From Eve's apple to Proust's madeleine to today's culinary tourism, food looms large in culture. Debates about health and nutrition are common in news reports. Yet despite its fundamental relationship to food, taste is mysteriously absent from most of these discussions. The flavors of foods permeate social relations, religious and other occasions. Charged with memory, emotion, desire and aversion, taste is arguably the most evocative of the senses. The Taste Culture Reader explores the sensuous dimensions of eating and drinking, from the physiology of the tongue to the embodiment of social identities and enactment of ceremonial meanings. This book will interest anyone seeking to understand more fully the importance of food and flavor in human experience.
Review
"A timely and valuable resource on the wide-ranging topic of taste across the disciplines, from biology to sociology to gastronomic literature and philosophy, by pathbreaking writers in these fields."--Denise Gigante, Stanford University
"A rich range of disciplinary perspectives, both western and nonwestern, that engages taste as at once innate and profoundly cultural."--Jennifer Fisher, York University, Toronto
Synopsis
From Eve's apple to Proust's madeleine to today's culinary tourism, food looms large in culture. Debates about health and nutrition are common in news reports. Yet despite its fundamental relationship to food, taste is mysteriously absent from most of these discussions. The flavors of foods permeate social relations, religious and other occasions. Charged with memory, emotion, desire and aversion, taste is arguably the most evocative of the senses. The Taste Culture Reader explores the sensuous dimensions of eating and drinking, from the physiology of the tongue to the embodiment of social identities and enactment of ceremonial meanings. This book will interest anyone seeking to understand more fully the importance of food and flavor in human experience.
About the Author
Carolyn Korsmeyer is Professor of Philosopsy at the University of Buffalo.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments *
Introduction:Carolyn Korsmeyer—“Perspectives on Taste” *
Part I: Taste: Physiology and Circumstance * Preface
* Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin—“On Taste” * Linda M. Bartoshuk and Valerie B. Duffy—“Chemical Senses” * Elizabeth Rozin and Paul Rozin-- “Culinary Themes and Variations” * Elisabeth Rozin—“Flavor principles: some applications” *
Part II: Taste Cultures: Gustation in History * Preface * Jean-François Revel—“Retrieving Tastes: Two Sources of Cuisine” * Jack Goody-- “The High and the Low: Culinary Culture in Asia and Europe” * Pierre Bourdieu-- “Taste of Luxury, Taste of Necessity” * Donna R. Gabaccia—“Colonial Creoles * Hoppin John * M.J. Weismantel—“Tasty Meals and Bitter Gifts *
Part III. Eloquent Flavours * Margaret Visser-- “Salt: the Edible Rock * Sidney Mintz-- “Sweetness and Meaning * Wolfgang Schivelbusch-- “Spices: Tastes of Paradise * Paul Stoller and Cheryl Olkes-- “Thick Sauce: Remarks on Songhay Social * Relations *
Part IV: Body and Soul * Preface * T. Sarah Peterson-- “Food as Divine Medicine” * R.S. Khare-- “Food with Saints” * D.T. Suzuki-- “Zen and the Art of Tea” * Marjo Buitelaar-- “Living Ramadan: Fasting and Feasting in Morocco” * Bitter Herbs and Unleavened Bread: from the Passover Haggadah * Elizabeth Carmichael and Chloë Sayer-- “Feasting with Dead Souls” *
Part V: The Discriminating Sense: Food and/vs. Art * Preface * David Hume-- “Of the Standard of Taste” * Immanual Kant-- “Objective and Subjective Senses” * B. N. Goswamy-- “Rasa: Delight of the Reason” * Yi-Fu Tuan-- “Pleasures of the Proximate Senses: Eating, Taste, and Culture” *
Part VI: Fine discernments and the Cultivation of Taste * Preface * Stephen Mennell-- “Of Gastronomes and Guides” * Jukko Gronow-- “Champagne and Caviar: Soviet Kitsch” * Amy Trubek-- “Place Matters” * Emile Peynaud-- “Tasting Problems and Errors of Perception” * Richard Watson-- “On the Zeedijk” *
Part VII: Taste, Emotion, and Memory * Preface * Marcel Proust-- “The Madeleine” * C. Nadia Seremetakis-- “The Breast of Aphrodite” * David Sutton-- “Synaesthesia, Memory, and the Taste of Home” * Deborah Lupton-- “Food and Emotion” * M.F.K. Fisher-- “The Pale Yellow Glove” * Christmas Cake * Sunshine Cake *
Part VIII: Artifice and Authenticity * Preface * Constance Classen, David Howes, and Anthony Synnott-- “Artificial Flavours” * Rainbow Delight Cake * Roger Hadon-- “Taste in an Age of Convenience” * Darra Goldstein-- “The Plays the Thing: Dining out in the New Russia” * Allison James-- “Identity and the Global Stew” * Lisa Heldke “But Is It Authentic? Culinary travel and the search for the “genuine article” *
Bibliography * Juneko Robinson-- “Succulent Selections” * Notes on Contributors * Permissions * Index