The Study of Gastronomy

Friday, 12 December 2008

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This page continues from

"Gastronomy - People Aspects"

On the "Rationale for this site" page, I put the promotion of an international forum on Gastronomy. Within that, there could be an area for Gastronomy students to put the addresses of their blogs.

A possible resource is the Journal of Gastronomy which can be viewed via the Link above left. However, you will see that a lot of work is needed to find anything specific. You would expect to find a specific article after clicking a link. Mostly, you go round in Google circles.

Before moving on to "The Study of Gastronomy" below, let's take other looks at it in the round.

"Gastronomy is the study of the relationship between culture and food. It is often thought erroneously that the term gastronomy refers exclusively to the art of cooking, … but this is only a small part of this discipline; it cannot always be said that a cook is also a gourmet.

Gastronomy studies various cultural components with food as its central axis. Thus it is related to the Fine Arts and Social Sciences and even to the Natural Sciences ... .

A gourmet's principal activities involve discovering, tasting, experiencing, researching, understanding and writing about foods. Gastronomy is therefore an interdisciplinary activity."

This Wiki contribution has been edited. It serves as a useful introduction.

The study context at Adelaide adds another useful framework for the following discussion in the lower panel.

"The study of gastronomy, with its focus on the how, what and why of eating and drinking, necessarily draws upon the complete spectrum of the humanities as well as the social and natural sciences.

While gastronomy necessarily refers to food and drink - all that sustains us, in the words of Brillat-Savarin - what is more important is their place in human societies and the norms, explicit or implicit, which are understood and accepted by the culture in which they originate and which apply to such concepts as mealtimes and contents of meals, to the values associated with foods, and to the ways foods are produced, prepared, cooked and served.

Precisely because it ranges so broadly, the study of gastronomy has a privileged position in communicating the characteristics of a culture; it is not only a means to learning about others but also about ourselves, both as individuals and as part of a group.

In studying the broad field of gastronomy, students have the opportunity to explore the broad spectrum of the humanities, from literature and history to philosophy, religion, communication and politics."

The Study of Gastronomy: A Catalyst for Cultural Understanding

Barbara Santich

Published in the International Journal of Humanities

We now proceed to another look at study.

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Use the tool bar if the text is too small

"Defining Gastronomy" - from “Gastronomy” published in 1982 – out of print. Author – Alan Harrison

Page numbers precede direct quotations. The letters will be used as referral points later and elsewhere.

Comment in green text has been made by the author in 2008. If other comments arrive, they will be added in red text.

Reference is made here to, as yet, unpublished on the web pages or chapters. Work is in progress to publish the book as an etext.

The source of quotations will be added in due course.

3c

THE STUDY OF GASTRONOMY

The study of Gastronomy can involve:-

(a) An appreciation of foods and drinks consumed in the major and even in the minor counties of the world.

(b) A possibly more detailed knowledge of some of the well known national dishes and beverages of the major countries of the world.

(c) If not an understanding at least an appraisal of how such dishes, cooking and service methods have evolved in these countries.

(d) An understanding of how food and beverage resources are used in a particular situation, how they are adapted in different situations. It involves knowledge of the similarities of approach used in various countries and cultures in terms of their food and beverages.

What may be important, however, are the different approaches in the use of the same or similar foods in different countries.

(e) An appraisal of the various social, economic and technical factors relevant to the foods and beverages consumed by an individual.

(f) An appreciation of these factors relevant to the foods and beverages consumed by a group, locality or even a nation.
(g)A study of the factors impinging upon the enjoyment of food and how such enjoyment can be increased.

(h) An examination of what is meant by the term ‘good food’, ‘good wine’ and in whose terms. If in terms of the provider what criteria are used in assessing what they will eat. If in terms of the consumer then the question of standards and appreciation needs to be considered.

4a
It is probably recognised by those who propound that their subject is a subject to be studied in its own right, that there is a body of knowledge and that there is a language unique to the subject.

Although at later stages in the study of Gastronomy as detailed in these pages some attempts at new terminology are made one does at least recognise that Gastronomy is everybody’s subject and as such cannot possess its own language and terminology.

No special dictionary is required and some common words in the language of food and drink are identified, even clarified.

4b
Some of the basic terms used in Gastronomy

A summary resulting upon a dictionary search may be useful at this point. Gastronomy is detailed in some dictionaries as ‘the study of food’. In others ‘the art and science of good eating’. Such a phrase as ‘the art and science of’ is an everyday phrase but both the questions of art and science are given some attention fairly early on in the work.

A Gastronome is a ‘judge of cooking’. An epicure is ‘one who is choice and dainty in eating and drinking’. A gourmet is given as being a ‘connoisseur of table delicacies’. The word connoisseur itself is given as being ‘a critical judge in matters of taste’.

Gourmand, according to some dictionaries, is a person who is gluttonous and yet in others this person is ‘fond of eating’. However, such meanings as these will be found in the English dictionaries. A slightly different interpretation is given in the French dictionary where Gourmand can mean both gluttonous and epicure.

De Groot (1966) provides a useful definition for the term Gourmet ‘a title that applies only a person, a title of honour (sic) confirming certain skills which have been learned by study and practice’. He also gives a derivation of the word based on the term grommet – a kind of ‘business manager’ in the court of Louis XIV at Versailles which is well worth reading.

4c
Why study Gastronomy?

It s recognised that the higher level course were the first to accommodate Gastronomy as a component of study. There is no need to debate here which centre of learning was the first by the earliest reference which can be included here was penned in 1972.

Professor J. Fuller outlined ‘Gastronomy in Catering’ (HCIMA Journal) and mentioned that Gastronomy had been included in the degree programme at the University of Surrey for the first time in 1971.

This book becomes available to all who are interested in food and especially the interested student who finds a slight insufficiency of lecture room time to cover the subject.

5a
In many respects, the formal study of Gastronomy within the curriculum of the higher level Culinary Arts courses has come at the appropriate time. This is not by any means to say that Ordinary Diploma courses, General Catering courses or Day Release courses should exclude Gastronomy, far from it.

5b
For posterity, if not for general interest, there is a need to record how man eats today and delve into the styles relevant to former ages. There is much to find out about current eating modes and a great imbalance to rectify concerning the distribution of food stuffs across the nations of the world.

5c
Before the ‘Western world kills itself with the consumption of what has been called ‘junk food’ and before others starve in the midst of plenty because of prejudice or religious dictate, a new Gastronomy must get to grips with the problems.

5d
Nutrition and Gastronomy will need to link arms more tightly in the future if some of the problems outlined above are to solved. The nutrition experts or ‘gastronomers’ can identify the way forward and help increase the stock of foodstuffs to the world.

Where Gastronomy takes over may be a the shop counter but in between there is an abundance of political, economic, sociological and psychological factors, many of which are counter-productive to the optimum use of foodstuffs across the world.

5e
But Gastronomy in the higher courses in the field of Culinary Arts is a useful start in a much needed process of wider food education. It would not be a sweeping statement to claim that all who study Culinary Arts will need to face some of the issues raised here since many of these will have one hand on the ladle or serving spoon.

5f
Those who tighten the purse strings also need this insight and there is a need to query whether an hour or two weekly, called Home Economics and including cooking, for the less academic pupils in our schools is appropriate, one hesitates to use the word ‘sufficient’.

5g
It is not proposed that Gastronomy as outlined in this book is going to solve any ‘world problems’ since Gastronomy as a topic for study serves as its focus. Within these pages, however, there will be found sufficient to exercise the minds of those interested in some of the wider issues.

5h
Gastronomy for the Culinary Arts student can provide:

A perspective of cookery and the catering process

The source of inspiration for future activities

An understanding of the specific food-based services a specific consumer hopes to obtain

An understanding of why such services are required, of the conditions which dictated the needs

An understanding of the variables within the conditions so that a constantly changing set of conditions can be anticipated

An acquaintanceship with some of the many forces at work on the feeding human

6a
The Culinary Arts course syllabus is in a welcome process of altering the balance of its study away from the classical cuisine which dominated it for so long.

The attention is given now to all forms of Culinary Arts and this is entirely appropriate. It is obvious that increased international travel will widen the appetite range of all and an even bigger quantity of ‘foreign foods’ will be demanded at home.

6b
It cannot be too far distant when the final examinations of many Culinary Arts courses include questions on Chinese etc. cookery and this will surely be when Gastronomy is no longer a subject but its philosophies fully integrated into the curriculum.

6c
Some further reasons for the extension of the component of Gastronomy which concerns the preparation of foods of other lands are:-

(a) Those who cannot get to such places will still be ‘ under pressure’ to be aware of the different food styles

(b) Those who do manage to go abroad will wish to ‘relive’ their experiences and will critically appraise the products.

They will also have an appetite for the foods of such countries which are next on their list.

(c) It is to be hoped that there will always be a range of such foods which will remain relatively natural and as yet have not been ‘convenienced’.

(d) There may be an increased awareness that food as we know it now has a limited future which underlines the search for a wider range of foods upon which reliance can be made in the face of the disappearance of conventional foodstuffs.

(e) ‘Leisure’ as a purchasable commodity is on the increase and food is part of that leisure. The involuntary aspect of leisure in the form of reduced working hours and redundancy is another factor to be faced and will increase the time available for the preparation and completion of meals amongst other things.

The success of the liners Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary was in part due to the superlative cuisine provided to a captive clientele with an abundance of spare time.

Consider too the possible preoccupation with food witch a hungry but nevertheless bedridden hospital patient can ‘enjoy’.

It seems probable that there will be a wider interest in food as well as other leisure pursuits in the ’no-day’ work which some will be forced to endure.

6d
How can Gastronomy be studied?

This book makes no attempt to describe the preparation of paella, the making of macaroni or the cooking of countless concoctions of this or any other country. There are plenty of such books available.

There should be sufficient in this book for the General Studies teacher to cover the non-cookery aspects of Gastronomy and whereas the specialist lecturers in Departments of Culinary Arts and/or Hotel Management may consider to more technical components of Gastronomy as their domain this should not prevent everyone from making a contribution.

7a
The classical cuisine as included in the Culinary Arts curriculum may have omitted much of value from the area of cuisine paysanne and this may be a useful start in tackling the everyday dishes of the world.

7b
We should not be reticent in using the cooks of these other continents to come in and demonstrate their dishes within the Culinary Arts classroom. The specialist lecturers cannot specialise in everything but can show how the dishes can be produced to a different scale in the production kitchen the next day.

7c
The General Studies teachers can co-ordinate the discussion when someone less at ease has come to describe to Culinary Arts students the food and ways of his or her native land.

This notion can be extended to all with experience to offer and included foreign students and lecturers within reasonable proximity to the Culinary Arts Department as well as those who have been abroad.

7d
The word of caution which needs to be included here is that the specialist lecturer is the one to closely co-ordinate such inputs to maintain the learning flow and judge the efficiency and relevance of the input.

It is not advocated that having foreign experience is justification for standing in front of a group of students and producing a range of representative dishes.

It is possible that adequate supervision of the student preparing his own dishes can take place and is only a form of project work in which the whole practical group can be occupied.

7e
Consideration is needed relevant to the stage at which practical Gastronomy projects are included in the course and it would be appropriate to include them when the basics of cookery have been mastered and on an occasional rather than repetitive basis.

There remains the fundamental need for the student to be taught by someone with the appropriate level of competence.

With regard to the ad-hoc demonstration or even lecture from those outside teaching, the specialist lecturer may have a more difficult task in the face of unknown quantities but, with adequate planning and mise en place, the success of the input can reasonably be safeguarded.

7f
There is no apparent reason Gastronomy should not feature as a component of General Studies within any non-Culinary Arts course even if there is little or no food being used. The course can always conclude with a visit to a reputable establishment with something to offer the curriculum.

The student following a Gastronomy course will be particularly interested in how he will be assessed, how frequently and the balance between course work, tests, syndicate projects, essays and examinations both practical and theoretical.

He will also be interested in the literature and other material which are of benefit to him. In Section 4 there are chapters on these aspects: it is hoped that others will find these of interest even if not following a course in Gastronomy.

7g
The lecturer has the duty to introduce the course, its approach and philosophy, the scope of the subject and the reasons for choosing the course material from the vast range of subject matter. He should indicate the balance between practical and theory.

From time to time there may be visiting lecturers with specialist knowledge of other countries or contribution disciplines: the food-based lectures may give an account of the countries’ everyday food patterns and conclude with a demonstration and tasting.

7h
It would be useful if, at the start of the course, the students receive a programme of demonstrations, lectures, tutorials, tastings, submission dates for work set, student practicals and any other events. In some courses the students may be involved in a high proportion of preparation of the dishes themselves.

8a
The lecturer will need to describe the projects in general terms at the initial stage and indicate when the project material will be available. Of special interest to the student will be the ratio of assessments to examinations in any final percentage which is recorded against his name for the subject.

8b
It is the theme of this book that Gastronomy is everybody’s subject and in this context it might be a useful exercise for the students to answer some questions which are set in figure 0.1.
In the last session of the course, these sheets could be returned to the students for comparison and discussion.

Having completed the questions at the start of the course, the student might like to know about the contribution which he can make to the success of the course in terms of the special experience he might have of travelling or living abroad and the special perspective which he has as an individual of some of the more speculative aspects on the subject.

8c
The student will want to know in the opening stages of the course whether the tests will occur with some regularity.

The examination(s) will be a function of ‘the house style’ e.g. a two hour theory examination and a three-hour practical examination for all subjects with a practical and theoretical content, or within the format dictated by the examining body, where appropriate.

The examination(s) will reflect the philosophy of the course and it is probable that with a high practical aspect to the course that some kind of practical assessments will be made.

The practical examination in Gastronomy is unwarranted. There is sufficient scope for the practical examination in other parts of most Culinary Arts courses which have the purpose of testing specific and general skills in the subjects concerned.

8d
The practical cookery lessons will have the student sufficient to enable him to attempt foreign dishes at the level at which he has capabilities.

The Gastronomy lecturer, with his wider experience, will be able to help the student in difficulty in the practical situation; that he will himself experience some difficulties with completely new dishes has to be recognised, a point which could be brought out in the first lecture without it sounding like a caveat to cover his own deficiencies.

If the practical skills of cookery are being learned elsewhere, they should be examined elsewhere.

If the insistence is that an examination shall be held then it could focus on the preparation and service of dishes of a specified country. The question of choice by the student in this respect is a matter for the college concerned.

8e
An important part of the examination could well be the service of the foods, if not to customers at least ‘to’ a table laid in the appropriate style of the country concerned.

The diversity of approaches to examinations, assessments etc. is wide and influences of examining bodies apart, colleges/universities are free to adopt their own style.

The few words offered here together with those in Section 4 are given to help those who are faced with operating Gastronomy courses for the first time and to the student in order to open up further avenues of thought.

8f
With such ideals in mind let us appraise the views of others on the subject of Gastronomy.

10
Other People’s Views of Gastronomy

10a
The definition of the art of Gastronomy until now has been to prepare food in a pleasant way but without any regard for the health of the individual’ . . . .

‘The ancient definition of Gastronomy – to prepare food not just in a pleasant way but a healthy way too’ . . . . . ; Eating has become a debased act, whether it be from the point of view of excess, or from the opposite point of view – that of negligence’ . . . ‘Society builds itself around the way in which it produces an consumes its foodstuffs’. . . . We do not want to suppress the pleasure in eating – for in this way there would be no Gastronomy’. (Senderens, 1977).

These views of Gastronomy are not seen as being in conflict with what has been written above. The interesting thing about Monsieur Senderens’ article is that he is able to relate Gastronomy, per se, to modern society.

10b
‘Is Gastronomy relevant to caterers and to their professional body?’ . . . . ‘Securing serious consideration for Gastronomy in our profession is made doubly difficult because of British inhibition about the enjoyment of dining linked with Gastronomy’s disability of not being a subject traditionally studied’ . . . .

.......‘Caterers may well speculate about whether or not the ‘discipline’ may be woefully incomplete if it excludes ‘Gastronomy’ . . . . ‘Certainly, Gastronomic studies must be concerned with the criteria of dining appreciation and with the diner as critic, either amateur or professional . . . .

.......Finally, ‘Gastronomy’ means concern for excellence and joy: it can invest the job of cate ring with significance and satisfaction. (J. Fuller, 1972).

The dimension raised by Professor Fuller hitherto undebated, is that of the improved quality of life which Gastronomy can bring. Implicit within his article in the Journal of the Hotel Catering and Institutional Management Association (title changed to “Hospitality” in January, 1980) is a plea for a completely integrated subject of Culinary Arts.
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If one change of title was not enough, the "Institutional" word was subsequently replaced by "International". What future for "Catering"?

Discuss.

10e
This book on Gastronomy is offered as the integrating factor, the cement which will bind the bricks of the individual subjects such as cookery, food, service, nutrition, applied economics, applied sociology, etc., according to the course which the Culinary Arts student is taking. The Culinary Arts student need not be following a component of any course entitled Gastronomy nor even following an elective as a more formalised part of his course.

This book has been designed for either situation; if the student is studying the matter of Gastronomy it is hoped that all that is set out within these few pages will be of direct use to him. If, however, the Culinary Arts student does not study Gastronomy as a formal part of his course then, it is submitted, all the more reason for him ‘digesting’ the principal chapters within this exposé of Gastronomy.

10f
Those who are not Culinary Arts students, but who are within the customer contact situations of food and/or beverage contact situations . . . this book has been written on the ‘buckshot approach’ basis, i.e., an extensive range of material has been included, enough to reach all within range.

For anyone within the Hospitality industry, in whatever section, this book has been written with the ‘greater professionalism’ in mind. It is written for those with a dedication to both their job and to the industry and will probably not appeal to those with less than a strong interest in what they are doing.

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Fig. 0.1 Gastronomy Option

First Term Week 1

A brief summary of what you know about Gastronomy before the course starts may well be regarded by a look at (review of) what you have written today when it is over.

List here the countries that you have visited with the main national foods and dishes that you noticed.

Countries National Foods and Beverages

If you have not been abroad list here some European countries and what you know of their national foods and dishes.

British or ……. National Foods and Beverages

List some of the British national and regional dishes (or those of your own country if you are not British).
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Not stated in the book, it follows that those who complete the questionnaire work in pairs after and question each other for a final plenary or reportng-back session. Asking those from abroad to give their impressions of British (or the home nation's) Gastronomy can be included in the questionnaire.
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This is particularly useful when there are several or many different nationalities represented.

The Study of Gastronomy

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Friday, 12 December 2008

The Study of Gastronomy