Food and Wine Pairing : A Sensory Experience

66 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 trav-

eling 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 fos-

tered nouvelle cuisine and other social movements.^1 General

research indicates that identity movements can have an evo-

lutionary and lasting impact on professions, professional

identity, and ultimately consumers’ expectations. Rao and col-

leagues 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. Institu-

tional logics and role identities in the culinary community

were refined from classical French traditions to nouvelle ex-

ploration. 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 larger-

than-life patrons of famous restaurants. Nouvelle cuisine fo-

cused 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 fea-

tured new ingredients and new cooking techniques and pre-

sented old ingredients / techniques in new ways. Archetypal

ingredients of classical cuisine include ‘‘high game, shellfish,

cream, poultry, [and] river fish,’’^4 while nouvelle cuisine fea-

tures ‘‘fruits, vegetables, potatoes, aromatic herbs, exotic in-

gredients, [and] sea fish.’’^5 The nouvelle movement moved the

chef to the center of operations, removing flambe ́ ing and

other tableside preparations from the role of the front of the

house. Finally, the organization of the menu became very nar-

row (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 dem-

onstrates 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 im-

portant factors for defining a cuisine and a culinary identity

movement. While a number of factors influence agri-food sys-

tems in societies,^6 the restaurant profession, and the logic of

institutional foodservice, this chapter focuses on a gastro-

nomic 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.