Exploring the Culinary Landscape

This book is a culmination of the efforts put into organizing the national conference on Food and Culture: Transforming Perspectives and Paradigms, inspired by the dedication of scholars and faculty from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology. I am immensely grateful to the Director, Registrar, and Deans for providing infrastructure and financial support, which made this conference possible. I owe much to the collaboration of academics from across India in bringing this collection into existence.

I thank Prof. Meena T. Pillai, who first proposed the publication and guided me along the journey. Special thanks are due to my dear friend, Dr. Babitha Justin, whose encouragement and support were crucial for bringing out this conference and this publication.

I thank my scholars Amalu Shaji and Shyam Prasad for their support as illustrators, which has enriched this work. I cannot express my indebtedness to my scholars and good friends who dreamed with me, dedicated their valuable time, and made it their priority to bring forth this anthology: Jorlin Jose, Bismi Nizar, Sukanya V Mohan, Maria Philip and Mridula Robert.

I would also like to thank Dr. Sayan Dey and Dr. Gurpinder for their encouragement and for giving me the opportunity to publish this book. My special thanks to Ms. Indrani Dutta, Acquisitions Editor, and Kayalvizhi Saravanakumar, Publishing Success Manager for being very patient and motivating throughout the process.

Finally, to my family: their patience and understanding have helped me to power through this endeavor. This book is but a testimony to the invaluable contribution of each of you.

In Tampopo (1985), an iconic film within food cinema, the introduction to the practice of savouring ramen is both ritualistic and revelatory. An elderly mentor has spent forty years studying ramen; he guides a younger man through a meditative process to appreciate ramen. He says, ‘Express affection’, prompting his student to focus on each aspect of the meal: the smell, the shine of the menma stalks, the seepage of the colour of nori 1, and the hidden thin slices of pork. This act transforms ramen from a meal to a character with a spiritual and profound consciousness, carrying the knowledge in itself (Tampopo, 1:00-5:17).

The universal theme of food in a cinematic context has been something that films around the globe have known for a very long time. Movies like Tampopo (1985), Babette’s Feast (1987), and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) are excellent examples through which film can represent the sensory and symbolic quality of food. In Tampopo, the audience experiences the ritualistic process of consuming ramen with the characters, whereby the respect and reverence afforded to it create a sense of bonding. Here, ramen is not only a source of sustenance, or a crucial agent that sets the tone for the mise en scène, but also a spiritual guide.

Cultural studies scholars have analyzed food manifestations and symbolism across different contexts. In Food and Cultural Studies, Bob Ashley, Joanne Hollows, Steve Jones, and Ben Taylor discuss how culinary settings and performances express social values. Discussing Mike Leigh’s Life is Sweet (1991), they note how a comic menu in a bistro comments on the then-contemporary dining trends through food as satire of cultural excess and pretension. Food media and popular culture thus provide complex sites for analysis of representations of social class, cultural capital, and identity.

According to one of the most renowned voices in food studies, Fabio Parasecoli, the presence of food in everyday life makes it politically and ideologically meaningful but invisible in its naturalized role. He writes, ‘The ubiquity of the cultural elements connected to food tends to make their ideological and political relevance almost invisible because it is buried in what is considered to be ‘natural’ and self-evident everyday life’ (Parasecoli 2011: 275). This concept falls in line with the critical thoughts of different authors such as Claude Lévi-Strauss, Roland Barthes, Pierre Bourdieu, Marvin Harris, and Michel de Certeau, who were interested in food through its structural, post-structural, and socio-cultural practices. Their critique gives expression to the functions food fulfills in reflecting changes and the distribution of power, class, gender, ethnicity, and cultural memory.

In examining the complex ways food and film intersect with cultural identity, Feasting Our Eyes: Food Films and Cultural Identity in the United States by Laura Lindenfeld and Fabio Parasecoli offers an interesting look into ‘food films’, a genre deeply entrenched within American cultural contexts. This genre brings out not only the sensory pleasures of food but also integrates food into storytelling and character development (Lindenfeld & Parasecoli, 2017).

Parasecoli says that for a long time, some foods have been attributed masculinity through historical and cultural contexts. For instance, those foods which are in general said to be hearty or savoury, like red meat and barbecue, are associated with the masculine traits men are often said to exhibit. Such foods represent strength, muscle, and virility and thus sometimes enforce gender roles perceived by cooks. Foods in categories that most people consider as feminine, like a salad or dessert, tend to have been characterized as being weaker or less desirable choices. Paraseccoli argues that cooking contains a relation to masculinity. Though the stereotype holds that cooking is a woman’s job, a ‘chef’ is a typical example of a masculine figure, more so in a professional sense. Men fill most roles in culinary media and often personify ideals of control and mastery which contradict the popular imagination of gender. Parasecoli traces how these dynamics play out in different arenas—from professional kitchens to home cooking and even culinary competitions.