Tasting an Imagined Thailand

Folk 267: Food and Culture

Once again…Tourism is a quality of experiencing, not a particularbehaviourThe focus is on othernessThe intensity of that experience is correlated to itsauthenticity“Authenticity,” the idea of what is “genuine,” is itself aconstruct, a judgment by the experiandSimultaneously, as an industry, tourismcultivates/constructs/anticipates the tourist’sexpectations of “authenticity”There is a process of negotiation by the experiand(the tourist, the audience, etc.) on the authenticity ofthe experienceWhat is authentic, and why do we / should we care?

Molz and “Tasting an Imagined Thailand”

Ethnic Restaurants Urry: “People are much of the timetourists”• Often employing the tourist gaze:deliberately seeking/seeing otherness asleisure activity Eating out as a form of “identity work”• The restaurant becomes “a theater forthinking and fashioning a self” Restaurant as “symbolic stage”

Front- and backstage Front: where one performance team(staff) adopts a ‘script’ for encounter withanother performance team (clientele) Back: where the script can be droppedand the performance of the staff can besuspended, outside of the view of theother performance team• (My Louisbourg example is an extremeversion of this)

“Performance of authenticity” “Restaurant owners and designersobviously realize and attempt to cater totheir customers’ desire for an authenticexperience.” (cf. Long’s strategies of negotiation)

The Menu Explicit statement that food is authenticor original, or ingredients and cookingtechniques adhere to traditional recipes,as do styles of serving and eating Inclusion of famous ethnic dishes, orinclusion of slightly obscure with framingdevice of authenticity Silent omission of other dishes(sometimes available by request)

The Ingredients Claims to inclusion of authenticingredients Silent substitution with local ingredientswhen (a) original not locally availableand/or (b) when original consideredunpalatable Again, silent omission of certainingredients altogether

The Décor “Use native artwork, decorations, andmusic to suggest that the restaurantreally is an enclave of […] culture.” Also, costume (of staff), table settings,color palette, etc.

“Negotiating Authenticity” CLAIM: the restaurant is a prepared “text”and a performance of authenticity by theperformance team of the staff/owners• By virtue of it being a performance, it is not“authentic” BUT: this “text” is not passively receivedbut actively interpreted by the performanceteam of the clientele• SO: the “authenticity” of the text is negotiated

The dilemma What is important? The tourist having anauthentic experience, or the touristinterpreting their experience asauthentic? Is “authenticity” a fixed, quantifiable,ontological thing, or is it alwaysemergent, negotiated, and constructed?

The restaurant Owners stage authenticity based ontheir expectations, perceptions andanticipations of what their intendedaudience understands as authentic Clientele measure and negotiate theauthenticity of their experience based ontheir expectations, perceptions, andanticipations of authenticity• Clientele construct a set of criteria formaking that judgment

Esoteric and Exoteric 1 st level (direct)• Esoteric: how we understand ourselves• Exoteric: how we understand others 2nd level (reflexive)• Esoteric: how we understand theirunderstanding of us – what we think theythink about us• Exoteric: how we understand theirunderstanding of our understanding ofthem – what we think they think we thinkabout them

Esoteric, exoteric, and culinarytourism Restaurant owners frame an experienceon their reflexive esoteric understanding• Thai owner: “What I think they think isauthentically [Thai].” Clientele judge that experience on directand reflexive esoteric understanding• North American client: “What I think isauthentically Thai; what I think they think Ithink is authentically Thai.”

Criteria Clientele who have travelled to Thailanduse their travel experiences to setcriteria Those who haven’t base expectationson media images, etc. “Spiciness” as comparative measure(between two restaurants, e.g.) Perceived ethnicity of staff and otherclientele

Criteria (cont.) Some reluctant to judge authenticity atall Thus is created an implicit, sometimesexplicit, hierarchy of authenticity arbiters Whether judged “authentic” or not,personal criteria of (relative) palatabilitybecomes critical determining factor forreturn

Negotiated identity Voluntary participation in theexperiencing of Otherness through(culinary) tourism is as much about theOther as it is about reaffirming the Selfin relation to the larger, global culturalmatrix

“Levels” of tourist Existential – maintains a rigid set ofexpectations for judging authenticity (to getlost in the Other) Experimental – Looking for truly Other Experiential – Wishes for intensedistinction from everyday Recreational – More interested in pleasurethan “authentic experience” Diversionary – unconcerned withauthenticity of their experiences

Post-Tourist Delights in the inauthenticity of theexperience

Go away now. For next class: Pilcher’s “From‘Montezuma’s Revenge’ to ‘MexicanTruffles’”