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Chapter 4 Gastronomic Identity II: Food and Cuisine
INTRODUCTION
Whether tourists are described as ‘‘visitors in their own
region’’ or by the more traditional concept of someone traveling
to a new area for business or leisure, local cuisine is
frequently as an important factor for tourists, especially those
interested in wine or culinary tourism. A growing industry
trend over the past two or three decades has been an interest
in regional foods, cultural diversity, culinary tourism, and the
idea of gastronomic identity. The Aperitif featuring Chef John
Folse demonstrates how this interest is being capitalized on
in the business world. In the foodservice industry, whether the
identity is based on the firm location or the overriding theme
of a restaurant concept, a determination and definition of the
gastronomic identity of the location of interest provides an
important area of differentiation for the firm or unit.
This general trend appears to be in part a continuation
of the ‘‘identity movement’’ of the 1960s and 1970s that fostered
nouvelle cuisine and other social movements. 1 General
research indicates that identity movements can have an evolutionary
and lasting impact on professions, professional
identity, and ultimately consumers’ expectations. Rao and colleagues
described the French nouvelle cuisine movement of
the 1970s as a social reaction that followed similar movements
in the theater, film, and art communities of the time. Institutional
logics and role identities in the culinary community
were refined from classical French traditions to nouvelle exploration.
Rao and colleagues described five dimensions that
changed during this process: culinary rhetoric, the rules of
cooking, archetypal ingredients, the role of the chef, and the
organization of the menu. 2
The main defining characteristic of culinary rhetoric is
a change in the name of dishes from the classical methods to
the nouvelle. The culinary rhetoric of the classic period utilized
names based on places or on names of nobles and largerthan-life
patrons of famous restaurants. Nouvelle cuisine focused
on the use of poetry, imagination, and innovation in
menu language based on a theory of ‘‘exceptions, nuances,
[and] refinements.’’ 3 The rules of cooking during the classical
period focused on conformity to the principles of Escoffier.
The rules of cooking in the nouvelle cuisine movement featured
new ingredients and new cooking techniques and presented
old ingredients/techniques in new ways. Archetypal
ingredients of classical cuisine include ‘‘high game, shellfish,
cream, poultry, [and] river fish,’’ 4 while nouvelle cuisine features
‘‘fruits, vegetables, potatoes, aromatic herbs, exotic ingredients,
[and] sea fish.’’ 5 The nouvelle movement moved the
chef to the center of operations, removing flambéing and
other tableside preparations from the role of the front of the
house. Finally, the organization of the menu became very narrow
(even going so far as the elimination of the menu) and
focused on the cuisine of the market or season to maximize
the emphasis on freshness.
To me, the nouvelle cuisine identity movement demonstrates
that a cuisine, dining habits, recipes, and etiquette
are entrenched in tradition. Changes in what, how, when,
where, and why a society eats and drinks can be evolutionary
or revolutionary (as was the case for nouvelle cuisine).
Danhi as well as Rao and colleagues identify many important
factors for defining a cuisine and a culinary identity
movement. While a number of factors influence agri-food systems
in societies, 6 the restaurant profession, and the logic of
institutional foodservice, this chapter focuses on a gastronomic
identity perspective in describing food characteristics
of a region. This chapter uses the framework presented in
Chapter 3 (see Figure 3.2) to contemplate relationships and
their impact on the what, how, where, when, and why of local
eating, using both Old World and New World examples. This
framework can be a useful model for gastronomic tourism
strategic planning as well as restaurant concepts centered on
regional and local cuisine.