Tasting Cultures: Thoughts for Food [1 ed.] 9781848884496

Citation preview

Tasting Cultures

Probing the Boundaries Series Editors Dr Robert Fisher

Lisa Howard

Advisory Board Simon Bacon Katarzyna Bronk John L. Hochheimer Stephen Morris Peter Twohig S Ram Vemuri

Ana Borlescu Ann-Marie Cook Peter Mario Kreuter John Parry Karl Spracklen Peter Bray

A Probing the Boundaries research and publications project. http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/ The Making Sense of Hub ‘Food’

2015

Tasting Cultures: Thoughts for Food Edited by

Maria José Pires

Inter-Disciplinary Press Oxford, United Kingdom

© Inter-Disciplinary Press 2015 http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing/id-press/

The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network for research and publishing. The Inter-Disciplinary Press aims to promote and encourage the kind of work which is collaborative, innovative, imaginative, and which provides an exemplar for inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary publishing.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of Inter-Disciplinary Press.

Inter-Disciplinary Press, Priory House, 149B Wroslyn Road, Freeland, Oxfordshire. OX29 8HR, United Kingdom. +44 (0)1993 882087

ISBN: 978-1-84888-449-6 First published in the United Kingdom in eBook format in 2015. First Edition.

Table of Contents Tastes and Cultures: Thoughts for Food Maria José Pires Part I

Shaping Cultures: Food, Identity and Community Italian Food in USA: It’s Fashion and into the Spotlight Giovanna Costantini

Part II

vii

3

Irreverence and Recreation of ‘Bacalhau’, the Portuguese Faithful Friend Maria José Pires

13

Colonial Food in Poetry: Hong Kong and Macau in Leung Ping-kwan’s Food Poetry Ames Siu, Yan-ho

27

Food Cultures and the Diaspora: Kerala Nurses in Brisbane Preetha Thomas, Lisa Schubert, Andrea Whittaker and Brigitte Sébastia

37

Constructing Tastes: Food, Representations and Control A Making Sense of New Food Technologies and Trust in Food (1960-1995) Filip Degreef

53

Designed Pleasure: How Advertising Is Selling Food as Drugs Oliver Vodeb

71

Living under Control: Social Representation of Dieting for Brazilian and Spanish Women Maria Clara de Moraes Prata Gaspar and Lis Furlani Blanco

81

Being Faceless in the Fear of Food Anne-Marie Gloster and Amber Leigh Thompson

91

The Common Oat as Food and Medicament in Greek Medical Treatises of Antiquity and Byzantium, II-VII c. AD. Maciej Kokoszko

99

Ham in Ancient and Byzantine Dietetics, Medicine and Gastronomy Zofia Rzeźnicka

115

Tastes and Cultures: Thoughts for Food Maria José Pires Food is an attitude. This could be the new thinking which allows for a world of fresh possibilities when researching in this area of knowledge – food studies. Just like any other area, researchers here breathe the present because they have already absorbed the past and can easily try to devise the future. The history of mankind is intimately connected with the history of food, production systems, and models of consumption. Accordingly, our history determines and is determined by diverse stories. These perceptions can be found in this eBook, as food for thought from thoughts on food. More than offering a snapshot, the aim is to portray readings on food and the way they connect. There has been some stress on the need for a canon of taste, similarly to other canons of our civilisation – those of literature, art, music, architecture, religion, and science. The argument is based on the assumption that there is currently what has been called a global palate and it is also held by the consequent ‘new willingness to cross-pollinate and revivify regional foodways – and even ways of staging food at the table’. 1 If this growing global movement tries to establish a culinary canon (as a phenomenon of cultural psychology) and seeks to restore the actual local ingredients that composed it, the changes in diet are definitely not a one-area concern. Shaping Cultures The thought of shaping entails the concept of creation or fashion in the sense that it brings about a source of conformity to a particular form. When we deal with specificities in cases where cultural heritage faces assimilation from other lifestyles, the question of authenticity and adaptability arises. In ‘Italian Food in USA: It’s Fashion and into the Spotlight’, Giovanna Costantini focuses on Italian immigrants’ pride on such cultural heritage when faced with the American way of life, their eagerness to ethnically distinguish themselves, and the way they have managed to preserve a unique identity. Nonetheless, the acculturation by Americanizing some of the flavours of Italian dishes, along with the cultural phenomenon of the diffusion of Italian-American institutions and a powerful presence in social networks, has recently proved more than a challenge on the legitimacy of the competition for a taste of the ‘authentic’ Italian culture when reaching for trendiness and distinctiveness. The same concern runs through the questions raised with reference to the Portuguese choice of ‘bacalhau’ as a national dish, since it has always been caught in foreign waters and the traditional cooking methods currently face some chefs’ irreverence. In view of that, the understood notion that we eat with our normative cultural DNA and the recognition that this is related to our cultural heritage are issues emphasised in ‘Irreverence and Recreation of “Bacalhau”, the Portuguese

viii

Tastes and Cultures

__________________________________________________________________ Faithful Friend’, by Maria José Pires. The chapter draws attention to the need for production to secure a social reproductive sphere, given that dishes, and not solely raw products, should be at the centre of reshaping food systems and local food networks. This is accounted for by researching references to ‘bacalhau’ in cookbooks through history and by witnessing the adjustment of the well-known axiom that we are what we eat to we are what we ate. The irreverence of recreation comes from the use of cooking methods unrelated to the original main ingredient, implicitly accentuating the gargantuan power of food as a symbol of the collective self. In a related manner, Ames Siu Yan-ho emphasises the transnational potential for culture to travel in a similar way to people and food in ‘Colonial Food in Poetry: Hong Kong and Macau in Leung Ping-kwan’s Food Poetry’. Diverse layers of relationships are without doubt identified in the case of Hong Kong’s TeaCoffee, read as a cultural integration of the East and the West, just as this integration and influx reflects in the neighbouring city of Macau. As a food poet Leung regarded food not only as a substance, but as a cultural phenomenon and was, thus, concerned about the fading culture and objectively documents the changes in the cultural environment – the example of the future loss of the African chicken flavour in Macau mirrors the diminishing Portuguese culture. In addition, the translation of the two poems in the appendix – ‘Tea-Coffee’ and ‘At Bela Vista’ from the end of the twentieth century – facilitates the perception of Leung’s poetics of food as it clarifies the transformation of the two cities. Still on the matter of integration but from traditional gender roles, religion and social class concerns, the case of migrants from South India since the beginning of the century brings about a view over the distinct food practices and the cultural identity of a group of nurses from Kerala and their families who moved to Brisbane, Australia. Preetha Thomas, Lisa Schubert, Andrea Whittaker, and Brigitte Sébastia base their anthropological and medical perspective upon interviews and ethnographic research in ‘Food Cultures and the Diaspora: Kerala Nurses in Brisbane’. These nurses’ daily negotiations bear in mind the Malayalee traditions and identity in this unique social network context and are shaped by a dietary acculturation, as well as a transnationalism and globalization, along with the desire to preserve tradition whilst facing change. Such a journey through their food practices brings about the processes through which these immigrants save and shape their cultural identity. Constructing Tastes If a single taste can resonate throughout an entire lifetime, just like Marcel Proust’s unequalled ‘madeleine’, how are tastes constructed? How do we measure the degree to which taste can be achieved in an objective way if not by comparing it to a reference one? Not only do food researchers invariably come across the power of representations, in deep association with culture and the society that

Maria José Pires

ix

__________________________________________________________________ produces them, but these researches face increasingly complex food systems bearing diverse layers of control. An example are current public conversation on healthy eating is saturated with Michael Pollan’s worldview and the perspectives of ‘many scientists, physicians, food activists, nutritionists, celebrity chefs, and pundits’. 2 According to Filip Degreef, the majority of the population lost control over the meaning of food because of the lack of direct contact with the food chain and that of production. In the chapter ‘A Making Sense of New Food Technologies and Trust in Food (1960-1995)’ he deals with the way representations and ideas of food safety and quality changed a propos food radiation and food additives, two highly contested technologies – even if Degreef’s focuses on the need for further research on more new technologies in the same period. As his research is built on the interaction of larger evolutions in society, technology, media, sub-politics and food from the theory of risk society by Ulrich Beck, it allows to better perceive the effects of those developments on the representation of expertise, products, and technologies. He does so by studying a Belgian newspaper and the publications of two consumer organisations. Another perception on constructed tastes that connects food, representations, and control is advertising and its strongly suggestive messages and means. Representations of heavily engineered addictive food and ways of consumption are brought to light by Oliver Vodeb’s chapter entitled ‘Designed Pleasure: How Advertising Is Selling Food as Drugs’. Along with rhetoric marketing discourse, chemical engineering plays an essential interdisciplinary partnership which facilitates the construction of a superficial culture of pleasure. In line with Vodeb’s research, such a pleasure driven advertising culture becomes a legitimate, commercially enforced, and legal drug culture. An additional image of control concerns the discourses and practices on eating behaviour and body. Combining a dietary, sociological, and anthropological knowledge, Maria Clara de Moraes Prata Gaspar and Lis Furlani Blanco analyse the discourse of sixty semi-direct interviews in ‘Living under Control: Social Representation of Dieting for Brazilian and Spanish Women’. They underline the way diverse factors blend while discussing the motivation(s) subjacent to the origin of food control as a complex phenomenon which carries other significations. The social representations of food control and the different experiences of the young women interviewed show how most feel judged by society over their incautiousness and lack of discipline, as they feel the need for more self-control. Moreover, when it comes to diets, these have a negative connotation and discipline also equals acceptance in both Brazil and Spain. The difficulty to deal with the need for approval and recognition is an additional effect of the human nature, for people gravitate to spaces that summon feelings of comfort and competence, unlike the kitchen, according to Anne-Marie Gloster and Amber Leigh Thompson in their chapter titled ‘Being Faceless in the Fear of Food’. Professionals, like culinary and food science instructors, are

x

Tastes and Cultures

__________________________________________________________________ consequently required to guide students in order to overcome their fear of the unknown. This educational approach on best practices concerning teaching food science and culinary arts brings about the need for students to lose their egos, in order to become faceless and be able to explore their creative side as they embrace their fears. Fighting the current culture of kitchen desertion also requires an increasing self-efficacy from each student, which is in line with Gloster and Thompson’s teaching and learning experiences. Drawing on other not so dissimilar research experiences that may be read as another perspective on the construction of tastes, we decided to include the two last chapters of the second part of the eBook on food history and health considerations. Such a choice lies on the thought that we build the future on our knowledge of the past and a taste of the past may also bring a taste of the future. Interested in the history of gastronomy and dietetics, Maciej Kokoszko’s research focal point lies not only on the common oat in terms of the range of its cultivation and dietetic characterization, but also on the culinary application and therapeutic uses in Antiquity and during the early Byzantine period. His chapter, titled ‘The Common Oat as Food and Medicament in Greek Medical Treatises of Antiquity and Byzantium, II-VII c. AD’, deals both with the perspectives of mass consumers and medical specialists on the cereal, i.e., as foodstuff and a medicament. Furthermore, as there is a concern about oat being used as a foodstuff in culinary procedures in medical writings, Kokoszko also presents a thorough account of the main ailments cured by means of oat itself and oat medicaments. Also attracted by the history of food and medicine, Zofia Rzeźnicka puts forward her research based on the weight of ham as food and medicine in Greek, Roman, and Byzantine sources in the last chapter, ‘Ham in Ancient and Byzantine Dietetics, Medicine and Gastronomy’. Her detailed study crosses time and place: from Greek and Byzantine medical authorities and ancient and medieval Europe and its ham curing, as well as Asia Minor, to writers on agriculture from the 1st c. AD and the 10th c. AD, and the only remaining ancient cookery book. Moreover, Rzeźnicka concludes that these same sources show the way ham production technology remained almost unchanged. If the previous chapters entail the notion of change, this last one confirms the taste of a case potentially opposed to the majority. Bringing about the precepts of food and cultural heritage, from an inherent rituality of conception to a variety of representations, has brought about readings of food production and consumption mainly as symbolic markers of identity and influentially structural acts. Food, as in other manifestations of the social life of different classes, has constantly been a vehicle of diverse meanings and this is made clear when one researches deeply the history of food traditions. From production to preparation and cooking and the consumption itself we find global and coherent systems that have been studied in detail. Even though all the chapters here discuss or simply suggest these stages, the former ones are in evidence in

Maria José Pires

xi

__________________________________________________________________ Degreef, Gloster and Thompson, Rzeźnicka, Thomas et al, and Vodeb’s chapters, whereas the latter are clearly approached in Costantini, Gaspar and Blanco, Kokoszko, Pires, and Siu and Yan-ho’s work. Accordingly, the multifaceted knowledge of such food phenomena proves to be based on the need for interdisciplinary looks from the humanities, the social and health sciences, and technology, reaching an intersection of knowledge.

Notes 1

Jill Neimark, ‘Canon of Taste: Can We Restore the World’s Culinary Masterpieces by Rescuing the Lost Ingredients and Flavours that Inspired Them?’ Aeon, 11 August 2015, viewed 15 August 2015, http://aeon.co/magazine/culture/why-we-should-add-food-to-the-cultural-canon/. 2 David H. Freedman, ‘How Junk Food Can End Obesity’, The Atlantic, July/August 2013, viewed 22 May 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/07/how-junk-food-can-endobesity/309396/.

Bibliography Freedman, David H. ‘How Junk Food Can End Obesity’, The Atlantic, July/August 2013. Viewed 22 May 2015. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/07/how-junk-food-can-endobesity/309396/. Neimark, Jill. ‘Canon of Taste: Can We Restore the World’s Culinary Masterpieces by Rescuing the Lost Ingredients and Flavours that Inspired Them?’ Aeon, 11 August 2015. Viewed 15 August 2015. http://aeon.co/magazine/culture/why-we-should-add-food-to-the-cultural-canon/.

Part I Shaping Cultures: Food, Identity and Community

Italian Food in USA: It’s Fashion and into the Spotlight Giovanna Costantini Abstract Since the first Italian immigrants landed in the USA, food has been the heart of the Italian-American experience. Original ingredients, home cooking and family were so meaningful to their traditions that the newcomers recreated the familiar atmosphere of Southern Italy in the new world by planting gardens and raising animals to cook for family dinners. Grocery shops, butcher shops, and street pushcarts spread throughout the Little Italies of New York. Sunday dinners, festivals, religious ceremonies, and educational manners became stronger and more popular than the homeland, representing two new underlying meanings: ethnic group identification and food abundance. Italian immigrants were so proud of their cultural heritage that they did not want to fully assimilate to American lifestyle. They adapted their habits, enriched their dishes with new available ingredients, and Americanized some of the flavours. But tenacity and authenticity have always distinguished this ethnic group from the others, even during food process industrialization. Italians have used food as a distinctive source of ethnic pride and this helped them to maintain a strong and unique identity until today. What is happening in recent years is a cultural phenomenon: Italian-American associations, clubs, and food experts are spreading all over the USA. With a strong presence on social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram, TV shows on Italian home cooking are followed by thousands of Americans. At present, one of the most famous Italians is MasterChef judge Joe Bastianich who runs several Italian-American restaurants after his own name. About 260 cookbook titles are being sold online, from chefs and authors such as John Mariani and Giada De Laurentiis. Hundreds of blogs, websites, and homemade videos are crowding the internet, where Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali are the stars of Italian-American food media and emporia. They’re all competing for a taste of ‘authentic’ Italy, which makes them fashionable and original. Key Words: Italian, American, home cooking, ethnic group, identity, culture, phenomenon, fashion. ***** 1. The Settlement of Italians in USA Food practices among populations have always represented a means of communication. The choice of ingredients, rituals, and habits show what we are and how we appear outside the ethnic group. Today, food, cooking and family are considered central components of Italian lifestyle: a matter of pride, a piece of identity, and a gathering point of community but it was not the same in the past. 1 In

4

Italian Food in USA

__________________________________________________________________ fact, from the 1880s to 1930s millions of Italians, mostly from Southern Italy, immigrated to the USA because of hunger. When they moved to America they found abundance of food at a low cost and they made the culture of cooking the focus of the Italian-American experience. 2 In the new world, new ingredients were available: meat, sugar, coffee, pasta, and milk, and they were introduced in the original and regional Italian recipes by changing them into Italian-American recipes. Some dishes were revised, reinvented and adapted with new ingredients that gave rise for example to Veal Parmigiana, Spaghetti and Meatballs, pizza (the current version), etc. Italians did not want to fully assimilate the American lifestyle because they were proud of their cultural heritage and they distrusted American customs. In fact, they were differentiated by the definition of their group identity and the affirmation of their ethnicity. As the historian Simone Cinotto cited in his book, Italian immigrants used ethnicity as strategies of power in two distinct situations: by occupying large spaces for food market in the streets of New York, and by educating their American born children to food culture. As for the former, the newcomers opened grocery shops, butcher shops, greengrocers, bakeries throughout the Little Italies of New York; moreover, pushcarts full of fruit and vegetables, bread and ice cream spread in every corner of Mulberry Street, Elisabeth Street, Prince Street, etc. What is more, Italians recreated the familiar atmosphere of Southern Italy in the new world by planting gardens everywhere: front yards, roofs, windowsills, and raising animals such as pigs, chickens, goats or rabbits in the kitchens or basement of tenement houses. As for the latter, they educated their children according to traditional familiar habits, such as food consumption and conviviality at home and during Sunday dinners or feast dinners in order to control them and not to allow them to get assimilated to the local culture. 3 2. From Sunday Dinners to Table d’Hote Most of Italians settled in New York or in the cities of the coast like Boston or Philadelphia. In the new world, cooking and family assumed a new meaning. Even if families were poor, food was always available there. Abundance of food represented the social conquest and the realization of the American dream, which is why they showed it excessively in any social occasion: at home, at Sunday dinners with relatives and friends, during feasts and family reunions, at funerals. Food became the symbol of their success and it had to be shared within the community in order to affirm that social conquest inside their identity group. This means that foreigners were not allowed to join family dinners because it was referring to the private sphere of Italianess, whereas habits and roles were well defined and shared by the whole community. The family was not the transposition of the family system of Southern Italy, as many might think. As Donna Gabaccia argues at the beginning of the 1880s, rural

Giovanna Costantini

5

__________________________________________________________________ families of Mezzogiorno did not form a harmonious group to be active for the common good, envy, jealousy, and suspicion could be included. La familia was a product of emigration and of a new life in the States. It was an adaptive response to socio- economic contingencies and to the needs and anxieties related to the migration process. At a time of instability, the family and the group were the most stable and reliable sources of material and emotional support. In this entourage, food defined the position of the family in the group of identity, created and strengthened ties in the group of relatives in the community, it served to keep alive the relations between the families who lived far. 4 Home cooking and its consumption became the symbol of Italian-American ceremonies. Naturally, Italian women had to make adjustments to their cooking habits because not all the foodstuffs which they had access to in Italy were available in the United States. Other adjustments were made, for example, poor dishes were enriched by meat, such as spaghetti with meatballs; meat of any kind and pasta were consumed daily. Barley coffee was replaced by black coffee and water by wine, while sugar was used for sweets. Home cooking was the feeding for lots of single Italian labourers who emigrated without family, in search of better living conditions. These men lived in the boarding houses which were houses rent by enterprising Italians that would open these establishments to meet the demand of single workers, by providing them with a bed and a daily meal at a low cost. Here, the whole family or the single woman offered a meal for the boarders made up of meat, pasta, cheese, fish and vegetables. When single men returned to Italy or were joined by their families after World War I, these establishments did not survive. Some converted to family-run inns which represent the first rudimentary forms of the Italian restaurant industry. The inns were located in the front rooms of Italian accommodations on the ground floor, while in the back side the owners’ family had their beds. All male and female members of the family prepared and sold homemade food to people in search of an exotic taste. It was cheap and varied and managed by a friendly staff. These inns were small and simple because they addressed male immigrant workers, and not to rich Americans. The local residents considered these houses inappropriate for the American upper class, the only social class which could afford eating out at dinner. But, with the development of industry and the rise of middle class, the proliferation of artists and English-American rebels against Victorian formalism, the Italian-American inns attained a great success. The bohemians were the first clients of the proto Italian-American eateries: they enjoyed the European cultural diversity of their neighbours and the friendly staff to welcome them. The massive presence of artists, students, and later office employees inside the Village changed the image of the area. From a land of immigrants and poverty, that district became a land of comfort and entertainment. Inns changed to table d’hôte with a set menu lunch which attracted the new middle

6

Italian Food in USA

__________________________________________________________________ class for lots of reasons: low prices, exotic taste, and friendly staff recently emigrated from Italy. 5 The staff was completely Italian because owners wanted only people from their own identity group, either a sign of distinction from the clients or as a confirmation of the own ethnicity in the new country. Italian manners and home cooking were the main attractions of ItalianAmerican restaurants. In order to meet the demand of American people, some regional dishes were replaced by approved and stereotyped few Italian dishes, as for example spaghetti and ravioli, and some flavours were Americanized because they were considered inconvenient and unpleasant to America palates. This led to the strategic hybridization of Italian dishes into Italian-American ones. They were Italian in the content, in terms of style and recipes, and American in the form because they were abundant and excessive. What is more, Italian entrepreneurs took advantage from the years of Prohibition between 1919 and 1933 to sell their homemade wine and alcohol in general in false cans, thus increasing the number of their American clients. At the beginning of the 1930s, Italian-American restaurants of New York welcomed famous Italian opera singers, who were used to eat and to perform by singing. 6 This typical Italian taste for art and culture in general, the exotic atmosphere, the stereotypical image of creative chefs, waiters, and maitre d’hote of being Italian, together with good home cooking, were the response to the expectations of American clients. Italian-Americans increased their success by transforming their restaurants in beautiful, adorned and attractive Roman villas. In this way, Italian-American restaurants became the emblem of the food in America and the ethnic pride for Italian immigrants. Italian restaurants and pizzerias spread all over the country, some of them are still open today. 3. The Raise of Food Industry and the Food Business The process of industrialization between XIX and XX century transformed food supply and the daily feeding of Americans. Food production, preservation, distribution and mass communication led Americans to alter their cooking habits by consuming prepared and processed food, in a can, for example, or frozen food. This meant that women had much more free time than ever because they did not need to cook. Italian women did not assimilate to this new culture; on the contrary, they kept planting gardens, raising animals, and cooking with traditional methods. It is during this time of revolution that Italian food and home cooking underwent the process of Americanization, by becoming Italian-American. 7 The making of some Italian food was so easy-to-do, as for example pasta with tomato sauce that entered lots of American houses. This spread was possible thanks to the process of industrialization that created new Italian-American products, for example canned tomato paste, tuna in olive oil, or canned prepared pasta. Food was easier to make with these prepared ingredients or to eat in cans;

Giovanna Costantini

7

__________________________________________________________________ even flavours were more familiar than ever, that is why Americans appreciated Italian-American food. On the contrary, Italian immigrants were sceptical about consuming prepared food: they were used to go to the market and buy fresh food every day, and often to produce it by their own. These practices took on the meaning of a collective ritual of ethnicity rather than a material need. Since they landed in America, Italians were interested in using food and ethnicity in their economy; in fact they opened grocery stores, bakeries, greengrocers, pasta laboratories, and hired pushcarts. When New York was urbanized and Little Italy open markets were removed, Italians opened chain stores, shops, and run covered markets. With the advent of the process of industrialization, they had to find a new way to make business with food and to affirm again their ethnicity. In this new socio economic scenario, the second generation of Italian-Americans, raised and educated in the new world, transformed the small family business in big ones. Some Italians opened new food companies because they understood that, in a time of evolving market, they might have achieved a decisive alchemy: to produce industrialized food with an Italian brand at the Italian style. Italian-Americans had their know-how and ethnic skills to afford it. They did not need manufacturing or to import original products from Italy anymore, because they could do it at a cheaper price. During that time, several Italian-American companies emerged on the American and international market, for example Ronzoni Macaroni Co and Chef Boyardee for pasta. 8 4. The Evolution of Italian-American Food After the success of Italian-Americans in the food business, American hands tried to make Italian food by acquiring promising companies from ethnic owners. Pizza-Hut and Taco Bell are two examples of ethnic fast food. Several non-ethnic industrials entered the pasta industry, while non-Italian consumers introduced it in the domestic consumption. This caused an increasing success of Italian food and a ‘ethnic cross-over’, as stated by Donna Gabaccia. 9 In the years to come, some dishes were invented as Italian or Italian-American, but they have nothing to do with Italy, except for the origin of the name. It is the case of Chicken Alfredo or Caesar Salad. Other dishes were crippled by adding inappropriate ingredients or completely different ones, for instance lasagne or braciole. 10 From a social point of view, the end of assimilation emergency opened a new era of reflection on the customs of ethnic food. In fact, in the years to follow, the phenomenon of economic globalization and immigration from South America led to the food globalization. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Latin restaurants were spreading all over the country, making Americans aware of new foods and flavours. In the last fifty years, Italian-American cuisine, as it was known until that moment, began to decline and a new era of Italian cuisine would come.

8

Italian Food in USA

__________________________________________________________________ 5. The New Trends After years of stereotyped food, messed up and invented Italian-American dishes, thirty years ago, GRI association (Gruppo Ristoratori Italiani) started to promote the Italian genuine food and culture in Ney York and the rest of USA. Their goal is to open a dialogue with American consumers and to teach them the real, authentic, and traditional Italian food. It is necessary to conquer again the public and to satisfy its demand in order to eat in as many restaurants as possible, thus promoting the interest in this cuisine. Today, 800 restaurants are members of the association, most of them are located in New York. GRI joined Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò in order to plan a series of lectures, presentations, meetings, about Italian food and wine culture. The two GRI founders and restaurateurs, Tony May and Gianfranco Sorrentino, observe that the magic ingredients and secrets of Italian cooking are the raw materials. Although expensive and difficult to find, they are essential to the success of the recipe. Tony May added that education is necessary in matter of food. 11 As John Mariani suggests in his last book ‘How Italians conquered the world’, 12 the new cuisine, inspired to real and authentic food, appeared in US at the beginning of 1970s, with the opening of the Italian restaurant Valentino in Santa Monica by the Sicilian entrepreneur Piero Selvaggio. He brings modern and highly refined Italian food and wine in Southern California. Three years later, Silvano Marchetto opens Da Silvano in NYC. It becomes the first chic trattoria to attract the downtown arts and music crowd as well as uptown fashionistas. In the years to follow, several Italian restaurants opened throughout the country, all of them sharing elegance, modernism, original Italian taste, (or a supposed one), a refined cuisine, and authenticity. Only in recent years, with a better social position of third and fourth generations of Italian-Americans, the Italian cuisine became more educated, refined, and elaborated. Time to show a new position and a higher social status has come: the new Italian-Americans do it through food, their business card. Quality of life and Made in Italy are a recent evolution, or better rediscoveries. But that was not possible if the foundation was not made of hard work, macaroni, spaghetti with meatballs, etc accomplished by early Italian immigrants, and nonItalians later. What is happening in very recent years is a cultural phenomenon: ItalianAmerican associations, clubs, and food experts are spreading all over the USA. With a strong presence on social networks such as Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram, TV shows on home cooking are followed by thousands of Americans. Cooking is no longer seen as a domestic drudgery; it is now a form of entertainment and a way to connect: one can talk about food, read about food, eat food, and watch food being cooked, because anyone can necessarily participate in it to some degree. At present, American people spend more time watching food TV shows than cooking food, in fact the public watches home cooking shows then goes out for pizza. While the Food Network still dominates the cooking show

Giovanna Costantini

9

__________________________________________________________________ medium, Bravo, the Travel Channel, the Public Broadcasting Station (PBS), The Learning Channel (TLC), the network television stations, and the recently launched Cooking Channel (sister station to the Food Network) all fight for viewership. But it is not just images of delectable dinners that entice us to sit in front of the television instead of at our kitchen tables; many viewers tune in because they want to see what their favourite celebrity chef is cooking up for dinner. 13 One more time, in matter of food, Italian-Americans have taken advantage of this situation by joining TV shows, reaffirming their ethnicity and their pride of being Italian. At present, one of the most famous Italian food showman is MasterChef judge Joe Bastianich who runs several Italian-American restaurants after his own name. The last season 2013 winner of the cooking reality show is the Italian Luca Manfè. Top Chef, whose judge is the Italian-American Tom Colicchio, is another food reality show debuted in 2006. The winners of seasons 6 and 11 are respectively Michael Voltaggio and Nicholas Elmi. Some of the winners of the cooking show Iron Chef are the Italian-American Marc Forgione in 2010 and Alex Guarnaschelli in 2012. Giada De Laurentis is the ‘queen’ of television. She is an Italian-born American chef, writer, television personality, the host of the current Food Network television program Giada at Home, and a contemporary celebrity. Mary Ann Esposito is an Italian-American chef and the television host of Ciao Italia, which started in 1989 and is the longest-running television cooking program in America. To switch from TV to publishing, about 280 cookbook titles are selling online. Hundreds of blogs, websites, and homemade videos are crowding the internet, where Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali are the stars of Italian-American food media and emporia. They are both celebrity chefs, television hosts, cookbooks authors, and at present they are running Eataly of New York and Chicago. Eataly is a multi-level, warehouse-sized Italian food emporium, full of grocery stores, cookbooks stores, cooking class centre, 14 etc. Italian-Americans caught this last food trend, as they did in the past, and made it the current hallmark of their ethnic group. They were able to follow every style in food. At the moment, food represents fashion and entertainment and Italian-Americans are fashion and funny in the kitchen. What is the next trend? Will they be able to adapt to the next custom? We will see.

Notes Will Levit, ‘From Family Meals to Four Stars: The Establishment of ItaliaAmerican Cuisine in New York City’ (BD diss., Wesleyan University, 2012). 2 Ibid. 3 Simone Cinotto, Una Famiglia che Mangia Insieme (Torino: Otto Editore, October 2001), 18. 1

10

Italian Food in USA

__________________________________________________________________ Donna Gabaccia, From Sicily to Elisabeth Street (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984), 59. 5 Cinotto, Una Famiglia che Mangia Insieme, 366. 6 Ibid., 387-388. 7 Levit, ‘From Family Meals to Four Stars’. 8 Cinotto, Una Famiglia che Mangia Insieme, 269-299. 9 Ibid., 292. Printed in Donna Gabaccia, We Are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998). 10 ‘Italian-American Cuisine’, Wikipedia, viewed on 1 July 2014, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_American_cuisine. 11 Alessandra Grandi, ‘È la Cucina Italiana Vittima del Suo Stesso Successo?’, iItaly, December 14, 2009, viewed on 2 July 2014, http://www.i-italy.org/12168/la-cucina-italiana-vittima-del-suo-stesso-successo. 12 John F. Mariani, How Italians Conquered the World (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillian, May 2012), 167-187. 13 Malen M. Devon, ‘Accessorizing with Food: Cooking Shows and Cultural Values’ (Degree of Masters of Art diss., University of Washington DC, April 2011), 5-6. 14 Levit, ‘From Family Meals to Four Stars’. 4

Bibliography Barretta, Valentina. ‘Genuinamente Italiano. Il Giusto Peso all’ Alimentazione e al Gusto’. i-Italy. 5 May 2010. Viewed 2 July 2014. http://www.i-italy.org/14171/genuinamente-italiano-il-giusto-pesoallalimentazione-e-al-gusto. Bastianich, Joseph. Restaurant Man. Milano: Rizzoli, 2012. Cinotto, Simone. The Italian American Table. Chicago, Illinois (USA): University of Illinois Press, 2013. Cinotto, Simone. Una Famiglia che Mangia Insieme. Torino: Otto Editore, 2001. Devon, M. Malene. ‘Accessorizing with Food: Cooking Shows and Cultural Values’. Degree of Masters of Arts in Public Communication Dissertation, Washington DC, 2011. Esposito, Mary Ann. Ciao Italia. Viewed 11 July 2014. http://www.ciaoitalia.com/.

Giovanna Costantini

11

__________________________________________________________________ Gabaccia, Donna R. From Sicily to Elisabeth Street: Housing and Social Change among Italian Immigrants, 1880-1930. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1984. Gabaccia, Donna R. We Are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998. ‘Giada De Laurentiis’. Wikipedia. Viewed 10 July 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giada_De_Laurentiis. Grandi, Alessandra. ‘È la Cucina Italiana Vittima del Suo Stesso Successo?’ iItaly, 14 December 2009. Viewed 10 July 2014. http://www.i-italy.org/12168/lacucina-italiana-vittima-del-suo-stesso-successo. Iannace, Biagio C. The Discovery of America: An Autobiography. West Lafayette, IN: Bordighera Press, 2000. ‘Iron Chef America’. The Food Network. Viewed on 10 July 2014. http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/iron-chef-america.html. Levenstein, Harley. Revolution at the Table: The Transformation of the American Diet. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Levit, Will. ‘From Family Meals to Four Stars: The Establishment of ItaliaAmerican Cuisine in New York City’. BD Dissertation, Wesleyan University, 2012. Mariani, John F. How Italians Conquered the World. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillian, 2011. Masterchef. Produced by PBS, Arlington, Virginia (USA). Broadcasted in Italy on Sky Uno, 2013. Top Chef. Produced by Magical Elves Production, Los Angeles, California (USA). Broadcast in Italy on Sky Uno. 2013. Valastro, Buddy. Il Boss delle Torte. Milano: Antonio Vallardi Editore, 2012. Giovanna Costantini is an English teacher of language and culture of English speaking countries at Secondary public schools. While involved in the course of

12

Italian Food in USA

__________________________________________________________________ Luxury Goods and Made in Italy at International University of Studies in Rome, currently her research and writing is devoted to American and Italian-American food and culture.

Irreverence and Recreation of ‘Bacalhau’, the Portuguese Faithful Friend Maria José Pires Abstract From early times food had in its preparation and consumption a breath of creation and art, because food is not just raw matter, but processed material. Although Portuguese cuisine is recognized by fresh fish and shellfish, its national dish ‘Bacalhau’ is dried and salted codfish. Such a passion goes back to 1497, when Portuguese fishing boats reached Newfoundland and were responsible for introducing it first in terms of diet. Being durable, affordable and having a flavour more enjoyable than the other salted fish, cod immediately became part of the Portuguese culture. As the world largest consumer, Portugal claims to know 1001 ways of preparing ‘bacalhau’. Accordingly, it was incorporated into people’s cooking habits and consecrated as the ‘faithful friend’ (‘fiel amigo’). Moreover, religion came to play a relevant part in the way ‘bacalhau’ went on to have a close connection with the Portuguese culture and the Christian tradition. Cooking methods are equally relevant and have been further developed in this century by some of Lisbon Chefs’ irreverence. The case presented refers to the traditional expression ‘à Brás’ from the original Portuguese specialty ‘Bacalhau à Brás’ – shredded codfish fried in olive oil with onion, straw potato, eggs, chopped parsley and decorated with black olives. Its unique taste depends on the ratio of the recipe components, but the method now combines different ingredients. Therefore, if production needs to secure a social reproductive sphere (with the implied notion that we eat with our normative cultural DNA and acceptance is related to our cultural heritage) dishes, and not solely raw products, should be at the centre of reshaping our food systems and local food networks. We move beyond food metaphors to explore the more subtle methods that professionals employ toward refining and elevating the experience of creation, but are we not what we ate? Key Words: ‘Bacalhau’, society, culture, identity, history, authenticity. ***** In the old kitchen, the family groups around the table and the glow of the fireplace. The old men and women, remote sculptures blackened and decayed by time; the children who were absent and managed to come and those still in dippers growing. The faithful friend, with cabbages and potatoes, is the tradition; the wealthier ones also fry their rabanadas. The wine flows, pink, transparent, especially at the time of magus when the chestnuts pop in the fire. 1

14 Irreverence and Recreation of ‘Bacalhau’, the Portuguese Faithful Friend __________________________________________________________________ If rabanadas, the fried bread soaked in milk, sugar, and cinnamon – also known as Douradas or Fidalgas due to their golden colour and their connotation with gentry – have always been related to the celebration of Christmas in Portugal, so has bacalhau, the ‘faithful friend’. This is a designation, current even today, that clearly illustrates the association of bacalhau with the Portuguese culture and consumption. Even if we have to bear in mind distinguished culinary patterns around the country, bacalhau is guaranteed. 2 Still, its consumption in Portugal does not limit itself to festivities, but to daily practices, likewise – though the major consumption of fish has been in the areas of the principal seaports historically involved in the fishing and commercialization of bacalhau (Porto, Viana, Aveiro, and Lisbon). 3 Thus, it is clear the religious weight in this tradition, since Christmas Eve was a period of abstinence when meat was forbidden and it was the perfect food for Lent, as well. 4 Nevertheless, whereas in Porto, the second most important city, the main meal was before the Christmas Eve Mass, with the most rigorous demand for fish (bacalhau), in the capital city, Lisbon, it was Christmas lunch when turkey ruled. 5 All the same, it was the northern choice of bacalhau that ‘ended up forming the main representation of the most important celebrating meal […] in Portugal’. 6 This reflection is just an example of how we question authenticity and the power of heritage when it comes to seeing the interdisciplinary facets of food as cultural aspects in the project on Literary and Cultural Tourism being developed by the University of Lisbon Centre for English Studies (ULICES/CEAUL), since it brings together multidisciplinary fields including food-cultural studies. As Sobral and Rodrigues recently reminded us when analysing cookbooks, 7 whereas the first books addressed the elite (dominated by a cosmopolitan cuisine rooted in the French hegemony since the eighteenth century) 8 in the following century, these books were meant for a somewhat wider audience (with the middle class) who could read, as they ‘reserve[d] an ever bigger space for a culinary that claim[ed] the national qualifier and bacalhau brands in the nationalizing effort’. 9 However, when one considers the case of cod in terms of the national-culinary canon of Portugal, one comes to see it as part of the international tendency – as is the case of Japan, Mexico or Russia – since it reflects a reaction against the dominant French rooted cuisine, served specially in the most relevant social events. 10 In fact, according to cod historian Mark Kurlansky, by the middle of the sixteenth century ‘60 percent of all fish eaten in Europe was cod’. 11 Even though the practices are not exclusive from Portugal, what is defined as national has included for many centuries the ‘Mediterranean triade of bread, olive oil and wine, sardine, the use of garlic, and sweets’. 12 Because we are referring to the Portuguese cuisine as a historical product, we are implicitly dealing with changes, with the ‘invention of tradition’. 13 When one looks back a century ago, Portugal was primarily as an agricultural country – 78.5% of the surface was productive, according to figures for 1912. 14 On

Maria José Pires

15

__________________________________________________________________ the other hand, in April 2014 a short article called the attention to Portugal as the ‘the jelly fish nation’, since Portugal would be considered 97 per cent water. 15 Such article questioned the proposed extension the continental shelf which reveals the new territorial dimension of Portugal, which includes the seabed and subsoil beyond the 200 nautical mile limit. This proposal was had been presented to the UN in 2009 through the project ‘Portugal é Mar’ (Portugal is Sea) and in April 2014 over 44.000 of this new map of the country was symbolically hanged on the wall of many schools. What this new map tries to stress is how Portugal is mostly sea: whereas the land surface is 92.000 square kilometres, the territorial waters reach almost four millions square kilometres. From early times, food had in its preparation and consumption, a breath of creation and art, since food is not just raw matter, but processed material. In terms of consumption, each Portuguese consumes an average of 60kg of fish a year, from which 7 kg is bacalhau. Although Portuguese cuisine is recognized by fresh fish and shellfish, mainly because of its privileged geographical location, the national dish ‘Bacalhau’ is dried and salted codfish. 16 More precisely, the large cod is a member of the order Gadiformes and of the Gadidae family and it is a sub-brachian malacopterygian – a fish with an elongated powerful body, bony skeleton, very pronounced ventral fins beneath the pectoral fins, and a large head. Considering that ‘cod is as prolific as it is greedy [and every] female lays just under ten million eggs’ and until the nineteenth century it was more usually sold salted and dried, cod can be described as a universal food with eighty percent protein. 17 Nowadays, salted cod is most popular in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, and in Latin American and African countries that were under colonial influence. 18 Indeed, the presence of salted and dried fish in the cuisines of several ex-colonies of the Portuguese empire is proof of the continuity of the association between bacalhau and the Portuguese culture 19 – even though there are cases, like the cod from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, north of Newfoundland and Labrador: ‘the best grade was sent to Spain; the worst fed the slaves in the west Indies’. 20 In the Iberian Peninsula the specialist shops that offer a large choice of salted cod (bacalao in Spanish), sell it by the cut usually labelled with the dish it might be used in and European cod is much preferred to the Newfoundland one. 21 That was not the case when the Portuguese fishing boats reached Newfoundland in 1497 and were then responsible for introducing the bacalhau first in terms of diet. In fact, history refers the Basques whalers as the first who noticed the extraordinary abundance of cod making for the St. Lawrence Estuary around the year 1000, turning themselves in the first to set eyes on the new world… but they actually kept it a secret to protect their source of profit! The contemporaneous authors who argue this supremacy, after a Viking establishment, 22 also mention the Portuguese nation as ‘mainly fishing’ and a school for the ‘fearless sailors’ of its discoveries and conquests. 23 No wonder Jules Michelet states that ‘The cod alone has created colonies and founded trading stations and towns’. 24 Besides, the

16 Irreverence and Recreation of ‘Bacalhau’, the Portuguese Faithful Friend __________________________________________________________________ historical relation between Portugal and bacalhau made the former a worldwide reference in terms of its consumption and business. Apart from the ever common policy of protection of the species, along the diverse proposals to develop the fishing by the Portuguese, it was only during the nineteenth century (particularly in the last decades) that private business owners promoted fishing for cod. 25 Moreover, even if it has never been enough to supply the demand and there was always a need for imports, the peak of fishing took place under the Estado Novo (1933-1974), the dictatorship period. In fact, as Moutinho states, because in the mid-1920s the national production of dried salted cod represented only about ten percent of what was consumed 26 and it was considered an important source of protein for the population, there was an investment at the end of the decade that helped to create structures dedicated to the development of their fisheries. 27 This was the policy that managed to reduce the weight of imported fish, since it encouraged the fishing industry, although it did not manage to substitute imports. 28 Still, from the mid twentieth century, Portugal was the first world producer of dried salted cod (with 59,826 tn.) even though it was necessary to import 25,370tn. 29 At this time, it became the second import value, after cereals (the basis of the main food, bread), 30 During the Roman domination great areas of wheat were cultivated in this section; but today there are vast stretches of waste land, and grain must be imported and today what the Portuguese fleet captures does not exceed 4% of national consumption – as a consequence of the exhaustion of the Newfoundland Banks and the protective measures taken by countries with cod. 31 In other words, since the 1990s the country went through a changing process and the reduction of its fleet lead to the importation of most of the fish consumed. On the other hand, the beginning of that decade also witnessed a growth in the industry of transformation of bacalhau – as companies perfected methods like the ‘rented drying places’ to increase their productive capacity. Yet, if modern tunnels to dry the fish came to replace the image of the past when it was done naturally outdoors, there is still an attempt to preserve this heritage. Being durable, affordable and having a flavour more enjoyable than the other salted fish, bacalhau immediately became part of the Portuguese culture and being the world largest consumer, Portugal claims to know 1001 ways of preparing it, 32 for it was incorporated into people’s cooking habits and consecrated as the ‘faithful friend’ (‘fiel amigo’). As also seen above, religion came to play a relevant part in the way bacalhau went on to have a close connection with the Portuguese culture and the Christian tradition. Actually, Sobral and Rodrigues highlight the way the relation between the consumption of cod and the Christian precepts of penance and purification is well documented in Portugal. On the other hand, the heritage in terms of cookbooks show that for a long time there were only scant references to bacalhau and these were intended for the elite. Following the research on these references by Consiglieri and Abel, 33 and more recently by Sobral and Rodrigues, it is easy to see how codfish is missing from, for example, the manuscript Livro de

Maria José Pires

17

__________________________________________________________________ Cozinha da Infanta D. Maria 34 and the first cooking book printed in Portuguese Arte de Cozinha, by Domingos Rodrigues, the cook of the royal house (2010 [1680]). 35 There is finally a reference in the works of Francis Henriques Borges (1715) Receitas de milhores doces e de alguns guizados to the preparation entitled ‘pans cod’, which apparently resembles the current ‘Bacalhau à Braz’, and a ‘sauce cod’. 36 It was only another royal cook from the following century, Rigaud Lucas, in Cozinheiro Moderno ou Nova Arte de Cozinha (1999 [1780]), who presented three recipes for cod, ‘the Provençal, ‘the béchamel’ and ‘grilled in charcoal’. 37 By the end of the next century one can find only a little more than a dozen dishes of bacalhau in the Arte de Cosinha by João da Mata (1876). 38 Still, at the beginning of the twentieth century, whereas Cosinheiro Popular dos Pobres e Ricos 39 already presented twenty-two recipes of bacalhau, Tratado Completo de Cozinha e Copa 40 offered twenty-six recipes, and Cosinha Portugueza ou Arte Culinária Nacional (the first book in which a cuisine is explicitly linked to nationality, from 1902 by a group of ladies) found more than three dozen recipes, most, if not all, of the fifteen recipes with bacalhau presented by Paulo Plantier in the 1905 edition of the important cookbook Cozinheiro dos Cozinheiros (first published in 1870) had a French source. Moreover, the preferences of the author went for fresh cod, since he felt the salted one, which was more affordable, difficult to digest. As Sobral and Rodrigues well point out this author was meant to be, without a doubt, the authority that defined the dominant canon in matters of culinary taste – due to the collaboration of influential writers like Fialho de Almeida, João da Câmara, aristocrats and artists, like Rafael Bordallo Pinheiro. Such emphasis of the superiority of French cuisine comes later with the seventeen dishes of bacalhau in Arte de Bem Comer (1929). It was in the already mentioned period of the Estado Novo, a period when nationalism was promoted, that we witnessed the consecration of bacalhau in the literature of this area, mainly with Culinária Portuguesa (1936) by António de Oliveira Maria Bello – better known as Olleboma, a major industrial man connected to tourism, one of the founders of the Society of Propaganda of Portugal in the early twentieth century, and Chair of the Portuguese Society of Gastronomy. 41 Afterwards, with greater intensity after the establishment of a democratic regime in 1974 an example of success was Cozinha Tradicional Portuguesa (1999 [1981]) by Maria de Lourdes Modesto, who emphasizes the relevance of bacalhau. After this we reached more recently 500 ways of cooking bacalhau by Vítor Sobral (As Minhas Receitas de Bacalhau: 500 Receitas) in 2012. Cooking methods are equally relevant and have been further developed in this century by some of Lisbon Chefs’ irreverence. The case presented refers to the traditional expression ‘à Brás’ from the original Portuguese specialty ‘Bacalhau à Brás’ – shredded bacalhau fried in olive oil with onion, thinly sliced garlic cloves, bay leaf, fried straw potato, beaten eggs, chopped parsley and decorated with black olives – from the sea-washed province in which Lisbon is located. It is a dish

18 Irreverence and Recreation of ‘Bacalhau’, the Portuguese Faithful Friend __________________________________________________________________ widely consumed in Portugal and also in Macau and its unique taste depends on the ratio of the components of the recipe, mainly the amount of onions in relation to cod and olive oil used to make this dish. Besides the bacalhau and the black olives, the combination of garlic, olive oil, and bay leaves is recognizably present in the Portuguese cuisine. Let us not forget that the identification of these food products has also passed through their incorporation by taste, by evoking memories of smells and flavours. 42 Albeit the origin of the recipe of ‘Bacalhau à Brás’ is still uncertain, it is believed to have been created by a landlord of the Bairro Alto named Brás (or Braz, since it was written this way at the time). Bairro Alto is an old and picturesque quarter in central Lisbon, built in an orthogonal plane from the early sixteenth century, with narrow cobbled streets, centuries-old houses, small traditional shopping places, restaurants and an intense nightlife. Nonetheless, the growing popularity led that landlord to cross the border into Spain and it is often possible to also find this dish in Spanish menus under headings such as ‘revuelto de bacalao a la Portuguese’ or ‘bacalao dorado’. Historically, there had been strong reasons for some of the products used in ‘Bacalhau à Brás’, as Tannahill explains in his chapter ‘On the expanding world 1492-1789’, for example: The foods of both Spain and Portugal were mirrors of trade and conquest. The cooking medium, olive oil, had been introduced from the eastern Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. Production of salt and dried fish had been greatly expanded to meet the demands of Rome. 43 In view of that, as mentioned above, it was with the assertion of national identities in the nineteenth century that the construction of a Portuguese national cuisine had its beginnings. Moreover, this creation and encoding of recipes obtained a considerable strengthening with the Estado Novo, widening up now under the democratic regime and such ideologies and political initiative found a deep echo in the repeated consumption of food, which, according to Sobral and Rodrigues, contributed to the making of the Portuguese, corporate and national culinary habitus. But clearly the culinary status of cod changed and it became a sophisticated dish, subjected to very elaborate preparations and cosmopolitan inspiration. 44 To value the role of bacalhau in the Portuguese identity one has to understand the way its consumption is part of what Mark Swislocki termed culinary nostalgia: ‘the recollection or purposive evocation of another time and place through food [taking many forms]’. 45 Accordingly, we would reformulate the well-known axiom that we are what we eat 46 to ask whether we are not what we ate. 47 Thus, when we try one of the many ‘à Brás’ dishes that share the cooking method, are we just witnessing the irreverence of recreation by using unrelated main ingredients – like chicken or vegetables – or are these recreations that highlight the gargantuan power of food when it comes to confer symbolic power,

Maria José Pires

19

__________________________________________________________________ as a national metaphor. Food is indeed a powerful symbol of the collective self. 48 As such, do we have to understand the origin of the recipe to truly appreciate these new ‘à Brás’ dishes? In other words, we have to take into account the way bacalhau became a symbol of Portuguese national belonging: may it be essentially due to its role in everyday life for centuries, because it guarantees what Skey termed ‘ontological security’ in a constantly varying transnational framework, 49 and also due to being seen as something festive – the longed animal protein that allowed a poor diet based on agricultural products to vary. Moreover, we should also bear in mind the effects of all the discursive production already mentioned, along with the ideological and figurative construction that has celebrated bacalhau as a national symbol. 50 Bearing in mind that a language is an object of transmission, so are recipes and practices which mirror that same language, despite the latter’s propensity for recreation. Similarly, human behaviour has evolved partly as interplay between eating behaviour and cultural institutions and ‘cultural traits, social institutions, national histories and individual attitudes cannot be entirely understood without an understanding also of how these have meshed our varied and peculiar modes of eating’. 51 As producers and consumers we have become more knowledgeable, experienced, and sophisticated in our tastes. Experiencing implies here tasting both food and emotions and, consequently, food is considered a particular genre of material culture, a vibrant matter. 52 But one can ask, as Melissa Caldwell, what is the taste of a nation? 53 What does a nation taste like? Moreover, where does that ‘taste’ exist? In the soil, palate, gut, imagination, relationships; or could ‘taste’ exist in something else? It is a difficult task to answer these questions, since the irreverence and recreation of food, like bacalhau, may be considered less about eating enough to survive, and more about social meanings – Bourdieu’s reflection on food as a means of expressing ‘distinction’, for instance, is a way of studying the evolution of both the production and the consumption of bacalhau. 54 Therefore, if production needs to secure a social reproductive sphere (with the implied notion that we eat with our normative cultural DNA and acceptance is related to our cultural heritage) dishes, and not solely raw products, should be at the centre of reshaping our food systems and local food networks.

Notes ‘Nas velhas cozinhas, em redor da mesa e ao fulgor da lareira, agrupa-se a família. Os velhos e as velhas, remotas esculturas enegrecidas e cariadas pelo tempo; os filhos que estavam ausentes e que puderam vir e os que ainda andam fraldiqueiros a crescer. O fiel amigo, com couves e batatas, é da tradição; quem tem mais posses, frita, também, a sua rabanada. O vinho corre, rosado, transparente, sobretudo à hora do magusto, quando as castanhas estalam no fogo’. Ferreira de Castro, Os Fragmentos (Lisboa: Círculo de Leitores, 1985), 45-48.

1

20 Irreverence and Recreation of ‘Bacalhau’, the Portuguese Faithful Friend __________________________________________________________________ Since at least the mid nineteenth century, bacalhau garnished with potatoes and cabbages is described as a central ingredient at Christmas Eve dinner in the north, the ‘family feast’. Ferraz Júnior, ‘Recordações do Minho – Festas Populares: O Natal, as Janeiras, os Reis’, Archivo Pittoresco IX (1866): 315-316. 3 Álvaro Garrido, O Estado Novo e a Campanha do Bacalhau (Lisboa: Círculo de Leitores, 2004), 310-311. 4 Linda Civitello, Cuisine and Culture: A History of Food and People (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2011), 158. 5 Francisco Viterbo, Cem Artigos de Jornal (Lisboa: Typografia Universal, 1912), 163-164. 6 José Sobral and Patrícia Rodrigues, ‘O “fiel amigo”: o bacalhau e a identidade portuguesa’, Etnográfica 17.3 (2013), viewed 22 February 2014, http://etnografica.revues.org/3252; DOI: 10.4000/etnografica.3252. 7 Ibid. 8 Priscilla Fergunson, Accounting for Taste: The Triumph of French Cuisine (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2004). 9 Sobral and Rodrigues, ‘O “fiel amigo”’. 10 José Sobral, ‘Cozinha, nacionalismo e cosmopolitismo em Portugal (séculos XIX-XX)’, Itinerários: A Investigação nos 25 Anos do ICS, ed. Villaverde Cabral, K. Wall, S. Aboim and F. Carreira da Silva (Lisbon: Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, 2008), 99-123; José Sobral, ‘The High and the Low in the Making of a Portuguese National Cuisine (19th-20th Centuries)’, Food Consumption in Global Perspective: Essays in the Anthropology of Food in Honour of Jack Goody, eds. Jakob Klein and Ann Murcott (Houndsmills and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014); Alison Smith, ‘National Cuisines’, The Oxford Handbook of Food History, ed. Jeffrey Pilcher (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2012). 11 Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World (London: Vintage, 1999 [1997]), 51. 12 Sobral and Rodrigues, ‘O “fiel amigo”’. 13 Eric Hobsbawm, ‘Introduction: Inventing Traditions’, The Invention of Tradition, ed. Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 1-14. 14 Annuaire International de Statistique Agricole. 1913 et 1914, Rome, pp. 13-15. 15 Frank Jacobs, ‘652 – Jellyfish Nation: Portugal Is 97% Water’, Big Think, Viewed 28 February 2014, http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/652-nil-jellyfish-nation-portugal-is-97-water. 16 Known in France as morue, it must not be confused with stockfish, which is simply dried cod. 17 Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, A History of Food, trans. Anthea Bell, 2nd new expanded edition (Massachusetts and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009 [1987]), 288. 2

Maria José Pires

21

__________________________________________________________________ Nicola Hill, executive ed., New Concise Larousse Gastronomique, Revised and Updated English Edition (London: Hamlyn, 2007 [2000]), 1023. 19 Sometimes the recipes are similar, but in others there is a distinct development from local culinary matrices, as stressed by Sobral and Rodrigues when they refer several examples from Timor, Goa and mainly Brazil (‘O “fiel amigo”’). Still going back to the importance of cod for the celebration of Christmas Eve, inhabitants of Portuguese-speaking countries do use it, despite being an expensive food. 20 Civitello, Cuisine and Culture, 81. 21 Hill, Larousse Gastronomique, 1023. 22 Kurlansky, Cod, 17-26. 23 Sobral and Rodrigues, ‘O “fiel amigo”’. 24 Toussaint-Samat, A History of Food, 288. 25 Mário Moutinho, História da Pesca do Bacalhau: Por Uma Antropologia do ‘Fiel Amigo’ (Lisbon: Editorial Estampa, 1985), 24-33; Sobral and Rodrigues, ‘O “fiel amigo”’. 26 Moutinho, História da Pesca do Bacalhau, 69. 27 As Sobral and Rodrigues pin point, these fisheries ‘were active between 1934, when a policy of protectionism on fishing was instituted’ and 1967 ‘when it ends, with the liberalization of imports’ (‘O “fiel amigo”’). 28 Garrido, Campanha do Bacalhau, 297-306. 29 Ibid., 297, 299. 30 Ibid., 51. 31 Ibid., 29. 32 The New Concise Larousse Gastronomique mentions the many recipes that use salt codfish and adds that ‘Portugal alone has hundreds’. Hill, Larousse Gastronomique, 1023. 33 Carlos Consiglieri and Marília Abel, O Bacalhau na Vida e na Cultura dos Portugueses (Lisbon: Academia do Bacalhau de Lisboa, 1998), 164-165. 34 Giacinto Manuppella, Livro de Cozinha da Infanta D. Maria (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional / Casa da Moeda, 1986). 35 Domingos Rodrigues, Arte de Cozinha: Dividdida em Tres Partes (Madrid: Teran Libros, 2010 [1680]), as cited in Sobral and Rodrigues, ‘O “fiel amigo”’. 36 Francisco Borges Henriques, Receitas de milhores doces e de alguns guizado, as cited in Sobral and Rodrigues, ‘O “fiel amigo”’. Borges Henriques’ manuscript is originally from 1715 with no information on a publisher given. 37 Lucas Rigaud, Cozinheiro Moderno ou Nova Arte de Cozinha (Lisbon: L. da Silva Godinho, 1785), as cited in Sobral and Rodrigues, ‘O “fiel amigo”’. 38 Sobral and Rodrigues, ‘O “fiel amigo”’ gives several examples from that century – from the Cozinheiro Imperial (1843[1840]) which does not add any other bacalhau recipes, to the half a dozen recipes in Arte do Cosinheiro e do Copeiro 18

22 Irreverence and Recreation of ‘Bacalhau’, the Portuguese Faithful Friend __________________________________________________________________ (1841) by Visconde de Vilarinho de São Romão – this author defines the common ‘potatoes with bacalhau’ as ‘food for the poor’. Reference to Visconde de Vilarinho de São Romão is found on Microfilm, with more information available at World Cat, Lisboa: Sociedade Propagadora dos Conhecimentos Uteis. Viewed on 29 November 2015, http://www.worldcat.org/title/arte-do-cosinheiro-e-docopeiro/oclc/78437886/editions?referer=di&editionsView=true. 39 Michaela Brites de Sá Carneiro, O Cosinheiro Popular dos Pobres e Ricos ou o Moderno Thesouro do Cosinheiro (Porto: José Maria da Costa Livreiro editor, 1901). 40 Carlos Bento da Maia, Tratado Completo de Cozinha e Copa (Lisboa: Guimarães e C., 1904). 41 The members of the Portuguese Society of Gastronomy were from the aristocracy and the gentry, included university professors, lawyers and literati who claimed the monopoly of taste and knowledge in the culinary field. Sobral and Rodrigues, ‘O “fiel amigo”’. 42 Ibid. 43 Reay Tannahill, Food in History (New York: Crown Publishers, 1988 [1973]), 241. 44 Ibid. 45 Mark Swislocki, Culinary Nostalgia: Regional Food Culture and the Urban Experience in Shanghai (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2009), 1. 46 The famous gastronome Anthelme Brillat-Savarin had written in Physiologie du Gout, ou Meditations de Gastronomie Transcendante (1826): ‘Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es’. – ‘Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are’. 47 Warren Belasco, Food (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2008), 25. 48 Kenji Tierney, Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, ‘Anthropology of Food’, The Oxford Handbook of Food History, ed. Jeffrey M. Pilcher (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 121. 49 Michael Skey, National Belonging and Everyday Life: The Significance of Nationhood in an Uncertain World (Houndsmills and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 22-25. 50 Sobral and Rodrigues, ‘O “fiel amigo”’. 51 Ronald Tobin, ‘Thought for Food: Literature and Gastronomy’, University of California Television, 19 November 2008, viewed 12 January 2010, http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=16255; Ronald Tobin, ‘Qu’est-ce que la Gastrocritique?’ Dix-Septième Siècle 217 (2002/2004): 623. Viewed 12 January 2010, http://www.cairn.info/revue-dix-septieme-siecle-2002-4-page-621.htm.

Maria José Pires

23

__________________________________________________________________ J. Bennett, ‘Edible Matter’, New Left Review 45 (May-June, 2007): 133-145. David Evans also presented such a perspective as a key lecturer at Foodscapes: Conference ‘Access to Food – Excess of Food’. David Evans, ‘Placing Surplus, Materializing Waste: Thrift, Hygiene and the Disposal of Excess Food’ (paper presented at Foodscapes: Conference ‘Access to Food – Excess of Food’, University of Graz, Austria, 2013). 53 These questions were raised by Melissa Caldwell in her key presentation ‘Beyond Human Rights: Food, Nation, and Citizenship in Russia’ (Paper presented at Foodscapes Conference ‘Access to Food – Excess of Food’, University of Graz, Austria, 2013). 54 Bourdieu shows how eating habits convey class differences and how tastes in food also depend on the idea that ‘each class has of the body and of the effects of food on the body […] and on the categories it uses to evaluate these effects some of which may be important for one class and ignored by another’. Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, trans. Richard Nice (London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984 [1979]), 190. 52

Bibliography Belasco, Warren. Food. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2008. Bennett, J. ‘Edible Matter’. New Left Review 45 (May-June, 2007): 133-145. Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984[1979]. Brillat-Savarin, Jean Anthelme. ‘Introduction by Alphonse Karr’. Physiologie du Gout, ou Méditations de Gastronomie Transcendante, Illustrated edition, Paris: Gabriel de Gonet, 1848 (1826), i-x. Freely licensed copy hosted on the Bibliothèque nationale de France’s digital library, Gallica. Viewed 30 July 2010. ftp://ftp.bnf.fr/010/N0106369_PDF_1_-1DM.pdf. Carneiro, Michaela Brites de Sá. O Cosinheiro Popular dos Pobres e Ricos ou o Moderno Thesouro do Cosinheiro. Porto: José Maria da Costa Livreiro editor, 1901. Civitello, Linda. Cuisine and Culture: A History of Food and People. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2011.

24 Irreverence and Recreation of ‘Bacalhau’, the Portuguese Faithful Friend __________________________________________________________________ Consiglieri, Carlos, Marília Abel. O Bacalhau na Vida e na Cultura dos Portugueses. Lisbon: Academia do Bacalhau de Lisboa, 1998. Fergunson, Priscilla. Accounting for Taste: The Triumph of French Cuisine. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2004. de Castro, Ferreira. Os Fragmentos. Lisboa: Círculo de Leitores, 1985. Ferraz Júnior. ‘Recordações do Minho – Festas Populares: O Natal, as Janeiras, os Reis’. Archivo Pittoresco. IX (1866): 315-316. Garrido, Álvaro. O Estado Novo e a Campanha do Bacalhau. Lisboa: Círculo de Leitores, 2004. Hill, Nicola, executive ed. New Concise Larousse Gastronomique. Revised and Updated English Edition. London: Hamlyn, 2007[2000]. Hobsbawm, Eric. ‘Introduction: Inventing Traditions’. The Invention of Tradition, edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, 1-14. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Jacobs, Frank. ‘652 – Jellyfish Nation: Portugal Is 97% Water’. Big Think. Viewed 12 June 2014. http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/652-nil-jellyfish-nation-portugal-is-97-water. Kurlansky, Mark. Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World. London: Vintage, 1999[1997]. Maia, Carlos Bento da. Tratado Completo de Cozinha e Copa. Lisboa: Guimarães e C., 1904. Manuppella, Giacinto. Livro de Cozinha da Infanta D. Maria. Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional / Casa da Moeda, 1986. Moutinho, Mário. História da Pesca do Bacalhau: Por Uma Antropologia do ‘Fiel Amigo’. Lisbon: Editorial Estampa, 1985. Skey, Michael. National Belonging and Everyday Life: The Significance of Nationhood in an Uncertain World. Houndsmills and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Maria José Pires

25

__________________________________________________________________ Smith, Alison. ‘National Cuisines’. In The Oxford Handbook of Food History, edited by Jeffrey Pilcher, 444-460. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Sobral, José and Patrícia Rodrigues. ‘O “fiel amigo”: o bacalhau e a identidade portuguesa’. Etnográfica 17.3 (2013): 619-649. Viewed 22 February 2014. http://etnografica.revues.org/3252; DOI:10.4000/etnografica.3252. Sobral, José. ‘Nacionalismo, culinária e classe: a cozinha portuguesa da obscuridade à consagração (séculos XIX-XX)’. Ruris 1.2 (2007): 13-52. Sobral, José. ‘Cozinha, nacionalismo e cosmopolitismo em Portugal (séculos XIXXX)’. Itinerários: A Investigação nos 25 Anos do ICS, organised by Villaverde Cabral, K. Wall, S. Aboim and F. Carreira da Silva. Lisboa: Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, 2008. Sobral, José. ‘The High and the Low in the Making of a Portuguese National Cuisine in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries’. Food Consumption in Global Perspective: Essays in the Anthropology of Food in Honour of Jack Goody, edited by Jakob Klein and Ann Murcott, 108-134. Houndsmills and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. Sobral, Vítor. As Minhas Receitas de Bacalhau: 500 Receitas. Alfragide: Casa das Letras, 2012. Swislocki, Mark. Culinary Nostalgia: Regional Food Culture and the Urban Experience in Shanghai. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2009. Tannahill, Reay. Food in History. New York: Crown Publishers, 1988[1973]. Tierney, Kenji and Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney. ‘Anthropology of Food’. The Oxford Handbook of Food History, edited by Jeffrey M. Pilcher, 117-134. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Tobin, Ronald. ‘Qu’est-ce que la Gastrocritique?’ Dix-Septième Siècle 217 (2002/2004). Viewed 12 January 2010. http://www.cairn.info/revue-dix-septieme-siecle-2002-4-page-621.htm. ———. ‘Thought for Food: Literature and Gastronomy’. University of California Television, 19 November 2008. Viewed 12 January 2010. http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=16255.

26 Irreverence and Recreation of ‘Bacalhau’, the Portuguese Faithful Friend __________________________________________________________________ Toussaint-Samat, Maguelonne. A History of Food. Translated by Anthea Bell. 2nd New Expanded Edition. Massachusetts and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009 [1987]. Viterbo, Francisco. Cem Artigos de Jornal. Lisboa: Typografia Universal, 1912. Maria José Pires currently teaches at Estoril Higher Institute for Hotel and Tourism Studies, coordinating the MA in Innovation in Culinary Arts. She has been a researcher at ULICES and she is involved in the MA in Tourism and Communication (University of Lisbon). Her main interests are Literature, Culture and Food Studies.

Colonial Food in Poetry: Hong Kong and Macau in Leung Ping-kwan’s Food Poetry Ames Siu, Yan-ho Abstract The Hong Kong writer Leung Ping-kwan (Ye Si, 1949-2013) loves to use worldwide food as elements of his different stylistic works. There are many dietrelated elements in Leung’s poems; some of them use the dishes from different places as the theme to describe the colonies in different aspects. It is worth to research on the food elements used and the implication presented. This chapter attempts to analyse the food poetry related to Hong Kong and Macau, in order to explore how he finds the characteristic of the dishes in order to expound the phases of the colonies. Poem ‘Tea-coffee’ themed with the unique drink tea-coffee, explores the impact on Hong Kong as a British colony as well as the conglomeration of the eastern and western cultures. Poem ‘At Hotel Bela Vista’ mentions the African Chicken, a famous main course in Portugal cuisine, which highlights the import of Portugal culture to Macau as a colony. Leung narrates the fading colonial characteristic of Portugal in Macau through the change of flavour of this famous dish. Before Hong Kong and Macau return the sovereignty to China, through food poetry, Leung objectively documents the change to the cultural environment, and at the same time, expresses his worry about the future, his feelings about the fading culture. Key Words: Leung Ping-kwan (Ye Si), food poetry, colonization, Hong Kong, Macau, tea-coffee, African chicken. ***** 1. Introduction Colonization brings about complicated regional exchange in which food plays an important part. Food culture spreads to foreign lands along with people’s diaspora. Food traverses geographic borders and brings about the counter of cultures. The reception and resistance of the recipient culture can reflect the merge and the negotiation between different food cultures. Leung Ping-kwan (Ye Si, 1949-2013) was a Hong Kong writer who explored the cross-cultural quality of different regions through creative work of different genres. Transnational narratives, in which food plays a crucial role, can be found in Leung’s collection of prose, The Moon of the Border, 1 his book of short stories, Postcolonial Affairs of Food and the Heart, 2 and last but not least his volume of poems, The Politics of Vegetables. 3 For Leung, food is not only the raw material for culinary art, but also inspiration for his creative work in which he shows the many relationships between

28

Colonial Food in Poetry

__________________________________________________________________ food and people. Leung writes in his essay ‘Food, City, Culture: Epilogue of East West Matters’: Food is an essential component of daily life. Solid yet splendid, food has its place in people’s relationships and social activities, through which our sense of beauty and set of values are exposed and linked to our bias and desire. 4 Food is associated with many cultural sectors. Food was a frequent subject matter in Leung’s poems written around 1997. In collaboration with the artist Lee Ka-sing, he staged the exhibition ‘Foodscape: Poetry and Photography’, in Vancouver in the same year, and took the opportunity to bring together poetry, photography, food, and culture. Poetry is the form of expression that enables food to manifest its richness in meanings and its relation to culture. Leung writes, ‘In food connect society and culture, private memories and individual’s desire. It is rich in layers’. 5 His food poetry not only tells about people’s linkages, but also shows the picture of the food culture of different regions. Mapping people and food, one can easily discover that both can be transnational. Leung continues, ‘The travel of food is the travel of culture’. 6 People and food travel, so does culture. Transnational people, food, and culture are interrelated and their relationships are complicated. Through his food poetry, Leung expresses his concern about cross-cultural phenomena. Particularly Leung explores the hybridity and integration of cultures in his poems about the food of two (post-)colonial cities, Hong Kong and Macau. Leung, as a Hong Kong writer, was much sympathetic with Macau’s handover in 1999. He wrote most of his poems about the multicultural food of Hong Kong and Macau in the eve and wake of the handover. 7 This chapter analyses two of Leung’s poems, ‘Tea-coffee’ and ‘Hotel Bela Vista’, written respectively on the subject of the handover of Hong Kong and Macau. It discusses how Leung shows the cultural hybridity of these two cities through the poems about food, and the influence of colonization on people and culture. 2. Hong Kong’s Tea-Coffee: Cultural Integration of the East and the West People and regions have many layers of relationships. The colonist brings about cultural impact on the colony, and changes the local people’s traditional culture, food, taste, and moreover their mind-set. The culture of each (post-)colonial region is unique, as their colonist and local cultures are different from each other. Leung writes, Hong Kong culture cannot be discussed without its colonial background. Hong Kong, as a colonial city, is different from India, Vietnam or Korea. The knowledge of history and culture

Ames Siu, Yan-ho

29

__________________________________________________________________ do not come from the book, but rather they are from life experience. 8 Leung explored further into the cross-cultural colonial activity by way of combining colonial experience and local food culture. In so doing Leung was able to present the cultural visage of different regions. The colonist invasion expanded the territory of the colony and imposed strict control over local people’s religion, trade, culture and education, in order to strengthen its governance. Colonial rules of different regions affected the local culture differently. Confronting cultural crash, colonies reacted in different ways. Hong Kong was handed over to China in 1997. The influence of colonial culture was also attributed to the handover significance. Leung grew up in Hong Kong. His care for Hong Kong and his sensitivity to the matters about the city were unmistakable. In the time when Hong Kong was experiencing a turning point in history, Leung tried to address austere political matters and expressed his concerns through his poetry about the food in everyday life. ‘Tea-coffee’, a poem written in 1997, is about the handover of Hong Kong. The poet used the beverage tea-coffee to describe the prehandover situation of Hong Kong. After the Opium War in the 19th century, Hong Kong was ceded to the British Empire and became a colony of the British Empire. Since then Hong Kong has been influenced by Western culture. After the handover, Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. Hong Kong’s relation to the Mainland China seemed to have strengthened; Hong Kong started being exposed to traditional Chinese culture in a larger scale, as the exchange between Hong Kong and the Mainland China quickened. The influx of Eastern and Western cultures in Hong Kong is like the making of tea-coffee. Tea-coffee is a local beverage, a mixture of coffee and tea. Tea was originated in China, while coffee was introduced to Hong Kong along with Western culture. Leung thus tells about his own poem, ‘This poem starts from the mixture of two different things. Hong Kong has always been considered the venue where East meets West. But in what way?’ 9 Experiencing the mixture of cultures, Leung tries to uncover the process of the encounter of the two cultures: Pour the tea into a cup of coffee, will the aroma of one interfere with, wash out the other? 10 In the poem, tea symbolizes East; coffee West. Hong Kong, a city once dominated by Western culture, started receiving the inflow of Eastern culture after the handover. Hong Kong on the one hand inherits traditional Chinese culture; on the other accommodates colonial culture left by Britain. How are the two cultures related to each other? The poet asks. Will tea wash out the scent of coffee? Will

30

Colonial Food in Poetry

__________________________________________________________________ East wash out West? He worries, just like Hong Kong people once worried about the post-handover situation. Although the future is undecided, Leung in the second half of the poem points out that East and West can coexist. Tea-coffee, the mixture of coffee and tea, takes on a new flavour. Coffee and tea are both crucial to the beverage tea-coffee; one cannot do without the other, just like Hong Kong culture that comprises East and West. It cannot be without either. It is such hybridity that makes possible the ‘indescribable taste’ of Hong Kong, an ineffable taste that can be reduced to neither East nor West. In the poem Leung also mentions Hong Kong people’s temperament: ‘mixed with a dash of daily gossips and good sense, / hardworking, a little sloppy…’, giving the reader room for interpretation. 3. African Chicken in Macau: The Diminishing Portuguese Culture The influx and integration of East and West triggered by the handover nurtures the uniqueness of Hong Kong culture. Its neighbouring city, Macau, also needed to face the handover in 1999. In his poem ‘Hotel Bela Vista’, written in 1998, Leung already started to explore the possible changes incurred by the handover. Hotel Bela Vista was the oldest hotel in Macau. The change in use of this building evoked a feeling of nostalgia in Leung’s poem, ‘this time next year, after the handover / it’ll be the Portuguese Consul’s residence / no more drinks on the porch’. After the handover, the building became the permanent residence of the Portuguese Consul. Leung writes in the essay, We heard about this last year [1998] not without regret. Over the colonial dishes, we sat in the table on the porch and watch the sea, as if tasting layers and layers of history. 11 History, culture, hotel, and dishes, mentioned in his poem and essay, are all in close relation to colonial culture. After the handover, they took different paths. Hotel Bela Vista became the residence of the Portuguese Consul. It was more than a change in use. It symbolizes the disappearance of colonialism in Macau. In the colonial period, the Portuguese were the ruling colonists. After the handover, their political power shrunk to minimal, confined within the old building; even ‘the flavour of African Chicken will too be lost’. The Portuguese brought this dish to Macau. Later the local people adjusted its taste. What the dish lost was not the taste itself, but rather its colonial significance. As the sovereignty of Macau was transferred back to China, Chinese culture started to wash out the colonial legacy of Portuguese culture. Hong Kong scholar Chan Chi-tak points out, In the past, people’s idea and practice of merging East and West was a unique ramification in the history of Macau. But now people can only see the present and deny the past, attaching

Ames Siu, Yan-ho

31

__________________________________________________________________ importance to the return, wiping out the history of collaboration between East and West’. 12 One can find the echo between the phenomenon that Chan describes and the narrative in ‘Hotel Bela Vista’. People fixate on ‘today’s movie’ and enjoy ‘applause and kisses round a birthday cake’, in search of ‘their own vision’. However, the colonial buildings, culture and history hidden behind the grandeur are dimming into oblivion. Leung and ‘the elder sitting in the opposite side’ might be those nostalgic for the past. The handover brought change to every aspect of Macau, but the Macanese cuisine is well preserved. Portugal used to be a colonial empire which had colonies in Africa, Asia and South America. In the colonial period, though under the rule and control of Portugal, it nonetheless connected Macau with other regions and other cultures of the world. Macanese cuisine is thus mixed with the cuisine of other cultures: The Macanese cuisine has a history of four hundred years. As colonization imported the cultures of other regions, the Macanese cuisine became a rich and complex mixture of the culinary art of South China and Portugal, as well as that of India and Malaysia, even that of Africa and Brazil. Local people also adjusted it and so it developed into a unique cuisine. 13 The culinary art of various cultures was assimilated into the Macanese cuisine in the process of colonization. It was nurtured by colonization, but didn’t end along with it. Instead it was hidden among the lanes and the local people who ushered it through the handover: only new dishes of hotchpotch stews made from old recipes bean stew Brazilian style, squids Mozambique in coconut juice in the end it is that remain. Keeping them company on the table a simple drink made from sugar canes 14 Both Brazil and Mozambique used to be colonies of the Portuguese empire. The maritime activities of the Portuguese brought the culinary art of Brazil and Mozambique to the food culture of Macau. Adapted by the local people, the exotic culinary art became part of Macanese cuisine, and tuned down the coloniality therein. Therefore, in the shifting political situation, food culture is able to keep a safe distance, as Leung says, ‘Food remains like those people deprived of political power’. 15

32

Colonial Food in Poetry

__________________________________________________________________ 4. Conclusion Between 1997 and 1999 when Hong Kong and Macau were handed over to China, Leung expressed his personal ideas and feelings in ‘Tea-coffee’ and ‘Hotel Bela Vista’. But the approaches of these two poems are different. In ‘Tea-coffee’, the tenors and vehicles of the metaphors are clear enough, representing the merge of East and West in the Hong Kong culture. In ‘Hotel Bela Vista’, the diminishing Portuguese culture is metaphorized as African Chicken. On the other hand, the bean stew Brazilian style, squids Mozambique in coconut juice represent the localization of the colonial culinary art of other regions. Facing the handover of Hong Kong and Macau, Leung expresses in both poems his worries about the undecided future. The poet has asked many questions in the poems. 16 However, food culture survives the handover, because it is adaptable to local culture and unaffected by politics and regional divides. Leung’s poems in a way record the historical moments of Hong Kong and Macau, and discuss the serious topics such as political cultural changes in relation to the quotidian entities such as food. Leung’s poetics of food not only ease the weight of history and politics, but also explicate the transformation of these two cities.

Notes Leung Ping-kwan, The Moon of the Border (Hangzhou: Zhejiang Literary Press, 2000). 2 Leung Ping-kwan, Postcolonial Affairs of Food and the Heart (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2009). 3 Leung Ping-kwan, The Politics of Vegetables (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2006). 4 Leung Ping-kwan, ‘Food, City, Culture: Epilogue of East West Matters’, East West Matters (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2000), 167. 5 Leung Ping-kwan and Lo Kwai-cheung, ‘Dialogue between Leung Ping-kwan and Lo Kwai-cheung’, The Politics of Vegetables (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2006), 142. 6 Tang Siu-wa, ‘Individuals in History, Detour or Return: A Dialogue with Leung Ping-kwan’, Today: Ten Years of Hong Kong, ed. Yip Fai (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2007), 26. 7 In the year 1997 when the sovereignty of Hong Kong was handed over to China, Leung wrote the poem ‘Tea-coffee’. On the eve of the Macau handover, he wrote the poem ‘Hotel Bela Vista’ with the setting in Macau in 1998. 8 Leung Ping-kwan, ‘Wontons and Molecular Gastronomy (Epilogue)’, Postcolonial Affairs, 256. 9 Leung Ping-kwan, Ye Si’s Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Joint Publishing, 2005), 157. 1

Ames Siu, Yan-ho

33

__________________________________________________________________ Leung Ping-kwan, ‘Tea-Coffee’, Travelling with a Bitter Melon, trans. Martha P.Y. Cheung (Hong Kong: Asia 2000, 2002), 216-217. Full version in the appendix. 11 Leung, ‘Food, City, Culture’, 169. 12 Chan Chi-tak, ‘Diaspora, Migration and Exile: A Selective Reading of Leung Ping-kwan’s East West’, The Coffee Was Not Finished: On Hong Kong Poetry (Hong Kong: Association of Studies of Modern Poetry, 2006), 109. 13 Leung, ‘Food, City, Culture’, 168. 14 Leung Ping-kwan, ‘Hotel Bela Vista’, Travelling with a Bitter Melon, trans. Martha P.Y. Cheung (Hong Kong: Asia 2000, 2002), 260-265. Full version in the appendix. 15 Leung, ‘Food, City, Culture’, 169. 16 There are three interrogative sentences in the poem ‘Tea-Coffee’, six in ‘Hotel Bela Vista’. 10

Bibliography Chan, Chi-tak. ‘Diaspora, Migration and Exile: A Selective Reading of Leung Ping-kwan’s East West’. The Coffee Was Not Finished: On Hong Kong Poetry, edited by Chan, Chi-tak and Xiaoxi, 108-111. Hong Kong: Association of Studies of Modern Poetry, 2006. Leung, Ping-kwan (Ye Si). East West Matters. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2000. ———. Postcolonial Affairs of Food and the Heart. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2009. ———. The Moon of the Border. Hangzhou: Zhejiang Literary Press, 2000. ———. The Politics of Vegetables. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2006. ———. Ye Si’s Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing, 2005. Leung, Ping-kwan. Travelling with a Bitter Melon, edited by Martha P.Y. Cheung. Hong Kong: Asia 2000, 2002. Leung, Ping-kwan and Lo Kwai-cheung. ‘Dialogue between Leung Ping-kwan and Lo Kwai-cheung’. The Politics of Vegetables, by Ping-kwan Leung, 134-143. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2006.

34

Colonial Food in Poetry

__________________________________________________________________ Tang, Siu-wa. ‘Individuals in History, Detour or Return: A Dialogue with Leung Ping-kwan’. Today: Ten Years of Hong Kong, edited by Fai Yip, 8-34. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2007. Ames Siu, Yan-ho is a lecturer at Lingnan University. He was a chef and enjoys food and wine. Currently his research and writing is devoted to food literature and culture.

Appendix Tea-coffee Tea fragrant and strong, made from five different blends, in cotton bags or legendary stockings － tender, all-encompassing, gathering － brewed in hot water and poured into a teapot, its taste varying subtly with the time in water steeped. Can that fine art be maintained? Pour the tea into a cup of coffee, will the aroma of one interfere with, wash out the other? Or will the other keep its flavour: roadside foodstalls streetwise and worldly from their daily stoves mixed with a dash of daily gossip and good sense, hard-working, a little sloppy… an indescribable taste. 1997 Translated by Matha Cheung At Bela Vista I look at the traffic on the bridge, a glass of wine in hand next year today, after the hand-over home of the Portuguese Consul this hotel will become no more parties on the veranda for us the flavour of African Chicken will too be last? An elder friend across the table reminisces about the fifties

Ames Siu, Yan-ho

35

__________________________________________________________________ the days the bridge linking up the islands was not yet built scenes of Taipa Island half-hid in morning mist the days when hotel waiters in uniforms neatly starched served languid guests from abroad Someone remembers it used to be a refugee camp during the war providing shelter from catastrophes. Like in a disaster film? men and women splendidly dressed argue about this season’s box-office hit I turn round to look at the elegant colonnades, renovated many times Let’s not forget the ghost of history Who plays the lead in this scene? the imposing walls of the seventeenth century fortress had crumbled at the deserted well in the courtyard servants had gathered to wash clothes before me now people embrace and applaud in front of a birthday-cake As always we play walk-ons in historic scenes Sitting at this long table tonight, we sail as if on a luxurious liner towards the twenty-first century Will these stairs vanish? Will the restaurant, forsaken, sink deep into the ocean of oblivion? I sit here drinking in silence, listening to but not hearing any dramatic explosions Behind the bela vista one sees are the boa vistas everyone imagines for himself. Candlelight dinners never match one’s imagination. Beyond the music one hears, another music plays on This place had seen the nights of our youth, the time we first explored tirelessly those narrow alleys, watching people make their humble living along the streets, and at night we checked in － a mere grotty hotel then And now I’ve brought my travel-wearied friends along, amidst flowers and glorious props we chat, tossing up ideas about how to write a transnational spa story. My melancholic friend you have the melancholic look of a Portuguese poet watching the sea My wine-loving friend, let’s have one more glass of champagne In this little town south of China with south European ambience we try Macanese and Cantonese food, which change with time

36

Colonial Food in Poetry

__________________________________________________________________ Local wisdom will not easily disappear Buildings the British and the French had fought to purchase Bear witness to the rise and fall of different masters, and now on this stretch of land newly reclaimed, pagodas and towers may rise to attract tourists. Who plays the lead in this scene? There are no more waiters in uniforms neatly starched only new dishes of hotchpotch stews made from old recipes bean stew Brazilian style, squids Mozambique in coconut juice In the end it is they that remain. Keeping them company on the table a simple drink made from sugar cane Macau. February 1998 Translated by Matha Cheung

Food Cultures and the Diaspora: Kerala Nurses in Brisbane Preetha Thomas, Lisa Schubert, Andrea Whittaker and Brigitte Sébastia Abstract Australia’s need for skilled workers has seen a prodigious increase in the numbers of migrants from South India since the early 2000s, employed mainly in the education, health and IT sectors. As a means of understanding change and continuity, in this chapter we discuss the distinct food practices and cultural identity of a group of nurses from Kerala and their families now living in Brisbane, based upon interviews and ethnographic research. This group of nurses has a number of very distinct characteristics. Their social networks are based, not around the larger Kerala community in Brisbane, but with fellow sojourners – other nurses and their families who choose to migrate together, whose migration journey is unique and distinct from that of other voluntary migrants. Their mainly femaledriven migration has taken this group, from the places they have trained in India to countries in the Middle East, then to the UK and onto Australia over a period of 10-15 years. While usually the primary income earner, these women continue to retain traditional gender roles and relations, including being responsible for family food provisioning. They negotiate everyday food practices that are consistent with maintaining their Malayalee traditions and identity in this unique social network context. The food practices of Kerala nurses’ families provide an illustration of the transnational diasporic spaces that contemporary migrants inhabit. The food practices of contemporary voluntary migrants are informed and shaped, not so much by dietary acculturation, as by transnationalism and globalization and the desire to maintain tradition while dealing with change. These processes enable immigrants to maintain their cultural identity in terms of culinary tradition and food practices while living in another cultural environment. Key Words: Kerala nurses, dietary acculturation, transnationalism, globalisation, food practices, identity, community. ***** 1. Introduction Literature related to migrant food practices has emphasised the centrality of food in migrant home-building practices, 1 its role in maintaining social and cultural ties to pre-migrant lives, 2 as a marker of collective ethnic identity, 3 and an avenue of nostalgia and connectedness with the past. 4 In health literature, where the incidence of diet-related chronic disease among migrant groups was observed to be significantly higher than in host populations, food practices have often been studied through the lens of dietary acculturation, 5 an approach which assumes a

38

Food Cultures and the Diaspora

__________________________________________________________________ somewhat unidirectional assimilation to the food culture of the host population. The concept of acculturation has long been used in a number of disciplines to explain the process of socio-cultural change experienced by individuals, groups or societies when there is contact between cultures. However, the emergence of a globalised, transnational culture in recent years has led to a hitherto unexperienced scale and pace of intensified economic and communication networks and flows of people where transnational migrants live and work across cultures in a cosmopolitan space, providing a far more dynamic model of cultural contact and change than that suggested by acculturation alone. 6 This chapter on the food practices of Kerala nurse-migrants and their families is a case study, part of focused ethnographic exploration of dietary practices of South Indians living in Brisbane. In this study, the term ‘transnational’ refers to immigrants whose ties to their country of origin remain stable and whose cultures are composite and hybrid and a product of their travels to their country of origin and their moorings. This case study allows us to reflect upon the limitations of current approaches which explore changing dietary practices among migrants with an implied inevitable, even tacitly desirable shift to the dominant food culture. 7 This is a tale of how this group of families, through their multiple migratory journeys, retains a strong sense of identity and community through food; a story of how gender, religion and social class all shape their food practices. 2. The Migration Trajectory of Kerala Nurses The health care needs of an increasingly ageing population in Western countries together with a shortage of local skilled professionals has led, in recent years, to the active recruitment of nurses from countries in the Global South. 8 India is a source country for the recruitment of English-speaking trained nurses, after the Philippines, constituting the second largest community of nurses working in international settings. Private hospitals in a number of Indian cities offer targeted nurse training and (English) language proficiency courses to facilitate nurse migration and serve as recruitment hubs for international nurses. 9 Over 90% of Indian nurses overseas are from Kerala. 10 Kerala’s Christian community has traditionally dominated the nursing profession in India. 11 The nursing profession in India as it exists today is due partly to British missionary nurses who formalised nursing education in India 12 in colonial times, and partly to the influence of nuns in Catholic institutions, one probable reason for the continued large number of nurses from the Christian community. 13 Hindu caste restrictions and cultural and religious taboos associated with touching people of other castes and of the opposite sex, and polluting tasks such as dealing with body fluids often precluded women from both Islam and Hinduism from taking up nursing as a profession. The perception of nursing as involving ‘menial’ tasks and associations

Preetha Thomas, Lisa Schubert, Andrea Whittaker and Brigitte Sébastia

39

__________________________________________________________________ with immorality 14 conferred low status on the profession in India where it continues to be relatively poorly paid and undervalued. 15 Some of the drivers for large scale nurse migration from India include low wages and prevalent social conditions regarding the perception of nursing as a low status job in India, and Indian government policy of ‘reservation quotas’ 16 which favours education and job opportunities for specific socially disadvantaged castes, resulting in the exclusion of Kerala Christians from long-term job progression. 17 Nurse migration from India, apart from being prompted by an economic imperative, is also dictated by the need to be accepted as a professional and respected caregiver. This resultant migration is predominantly and uniquely 18 female-driven. 19 The Kerala nurses in this study have followed a transnational work pattern with similar trajectories – training and working in a number of cities in India, before working 12 years in Middle Eastern countries, moving to the UK 20 for 2-3 years further and finally moving to Australia. 21 Active recruitment drives post-2006 by Federal and State government health and private health care sectors in Australia saw a substantial increase in the number of Indian nurses in Australia. In 2011-2012, approximately 35% of internationally recruited nurses were from India, up from 7% in 2005-2006. 22 3. Methods Qualitative data was gathered through interviews, photo-elicitation and observation. The semi structured interviews were open ended, and conducted mainly in Malayalam. The findings in this chapter are based on data gathered from six nurses who were interviewed over two visits. Each interview lasted 90 to 100 minutes. Respondents were followed up via telephone and social media with follow-up questions and for clarification. Information was also obtained during informal conversations and observations during encounters at other venues. Thematic analysis has been used to order the data. 4. Brisbane’s Malayalee Nurse-Families A. The Community While there are Indian nurse-families from several Christian denominations as well as Hindus in Brisbane, the group that is referred to in this case study is Catholic. Appadurai’s concept of the term ‘ethnoscape’ expresses the global cultural flows brought with immigrants: The landscape of persons who constitute the shifting world in which we live: tourists, immigrants, refugees, exiles, guest workers, and other moving groups and individuals constitute an essential feature of the world… 23

40

Food Cultures and the Diaspora

__________________________________________________________________ In this case the nursing community has brought with it its own cultural landscape through close networks and shared histories. Though the nurses commenced their migratory journeys together as single women, they continued to maintain their social networks after marriage, and chose to migrate together to Brisbane, along with their husbands and young children, creating an instant community. In Brisbane, these families live in close geographic proximity to each other, enabling a shared reinforcement of cultural norms. These families have no feelings of loneliness; they have each other, creating a ‘cultural migratory capital’ 24 forged by family and friendship bonds in the host country. They support each other in a number of ways – sharing the child-minding, vegetable gardening, 25 where self-sufficiency of produce from their own gardens enables a steady supply of vegetables which is shared between the families; they also have giant satellite dishes in their gardens via which they watch Malayalam television - their lives in Brisbane being a microcosm of life in Kerala. There is a uniformity in which domestic spaces 26 in their houses are arranged, further facilitating and enhancing inter-personal and inter-familial comfort. Interestingly, limited interaction with the larger Malayalee community in Brisbane further enhanced their own closeness as a community. 27 The role of husbands as income earners is secondary to the woman nurses, though this was not explicitly stated by any of the respondents. This situation creates interesting power dynamics at home where the men contribute actively to home and family responsibilities, while continuing to operate within a seemingly patriarchal system outside the home. Scholarship indicates that these migrant nurses, though financially empowered, remain constrained by patriarchal attitudes that characterise their roles in their India. 28 Despite being the primary earner, traditional gender roles dictate that the women’s economic employment fit in with household duties, such as childcare, cleaning and cooking. For instance, the women often worked on night-shifts, or arranged their work patterns around their husbands’ work. The women bear prime responsibility for family food provisioning; the men help with household chores, and gardening is their domain. B. Their Food The relative lack of engagement with Brisbane’s people, except for fellow nurses at work or through their children at school, has resulted in a strong reinforcement of cultural continuities resulting in the retention of inherited food habits that have not been hybridized despite contact with new cultures. For the adults, homeland identities remain strong and there appears little observable evidence of being impacted by their stay in different countries around the world. With food being a central element of cultural identity, the notion of a national cuisine has come to represent the imagined community of a nation. 29 Dietary acculturation, in its reference to migrants adopting host cultural eating patterns relies on the existence of a national cuisine. Contemporary Australian cuisine is

Preetha Thomas, Lisa Schubert, Andrea Whittaker and Brigitte Sébastia

41

__________________________________________________________________ eclectic and is shaped by the diversity of the Australian population. Early British and Southern European food tradition and the more recent influences of Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese and Indian styles of cooking and ingredients have all combined to contribute to contemporary Australian food culture. Many culinary traditions have been indigenized and are considered ‘Australian’, particularly Italian food; multinational fast food companies are also a part of the Australian foodscape. 30 For these Malayalee nurse-families, the occasional barbeque (based on suitably spiced meat and fish), a trip to McDonalds for their children to eat ‘snack’ food, or providing a store bought ready-to-bake lasagne appear to be the only concessions that have been made to ‘Western’ food. While short-cuts during food preparation, facilitated by the availability of conveniently packaged ingredients and condiments, appears to be common practice in all these households, the food that is prepared in these homes on a daily basis is traditional central-Kerala fare. Regular church attendance reinforces their Catholic faith, and religious proscriptions with regards to food at special times such as Lent were strictly upheld by the women, reinforcing a traditional past, though no such strictures were imposed on the men or the children. There is slight evidence of the adoption of some food practices from other countries that these families have imbibed through their sojourning – the inclusion of the Middle-Eastern ‘khubz’, available as ‘Lebanese bread’ as a substitute for traditional Indian breads is one example, or the introduction of salad which they learned while living in the UK. There appears to be little reason to be nostalgic for ‘imagined’ food – the combined culinary skills of the women of the community, the availability of most ingredients through the local Indian grocers, their homegrown vegetables and communication networks through the telephone and the profusion of websites showcasing regional Kerala cuisine ensures that any craving or longing for a particular food is quickly satisfied. These women had not learnt to cook from their mothers, they had left home far too early for that; remembered tastes and online recipes are their culinary aides. In addition, frequent travel to India at different times of the year by different families within this community enables a steady supply of snacks. 31 Food choice for this group of relatively young families is not particularly driven by health concerns; preferences of the men-folk, taste and convenience are among the primary considerations. Rice is one exception, with nearly all the women associating its consumption to weight gain; nevertheless, the centrality of rice at meal-times is stressed. ‘I can’t live without rice’ ‘I must eat rice at least once a day’ ‘I don’t feel full till I’ve eaten rice’ 32 were common observations. There is also agreement that the consumption of meat, described as ‘not healthy, but we eat anyway’ is far greater after arriving in Brisbane; this is accompanied with a somewhat reduced consumption of fish. This is a significant change for these families for whom the consumption of fish is central to everyday eating in Kerala. Despite being health professionals, there was little engagement with

42

Food Cultures and the Diaspora

__________________________________________________________________ Australian public health discourse about healthy eating, and almost all health concerns were situated around weight gain. Their understanding and knowledge of healthy eating was either remembered wisdom, or from popular media. In contrast to previous findings which describe breakfast as being the ‘least culture laden’ meal for migrants 33 and therefore the first to change, for this group at least, breakfast is perhaps the most reluctantly relinquished meal – transition to western-style breakfast is almost entirely for convenience and adults eat cereal 34 rarely and only ‘if there’s nothing else’. Similar to their native Kerala, subtropical Brisbane for much of the year is hot, sunny and humid providing the right conditions for effortless fermentation of batter required to make breakfast dishes such as idlis, dosas, puttu and appam; 35 having the batter ready-to-go facilitates a relatively quick breakfast. For the adults, rice and its accompaniments are almost always the preferred options for lunch as well as dinner. Left-overs are often taken to work, or rice 36 is eaten when they returned home, regardless of the time. Almost all the adults regard anything else eaten outside as a snack, including if they eat a meal outside, rice being stated as the only food which provided satisfaction. Food is usually cooked in substantial quantities and refrigerated, but rarely frozen; any food that was frozen was described as ‘not tasty’. Bulk-cooking when the women had spare time ensured the constant availability of preferred homecooked food irrespective of the women’s long working hours – their husbands would warm up food, serve the children and clear up if the women were not at home. In addition, the women found it particularly easy for themselves If the food is there it’s easy, as soon as I come back from work, I can heat it up and it’s ready; much better to spend some time getting everything ready now. 37 The children in most of these families are under the age of ten; they liked the food that was cooked in their homes; apart from sandwiches, they also took leftover breakfast food like idlis or chapattis 38 for school-lunch. They had a rice meal as soon as they got back from school. Older children however preferred to have ‘light’ food for both breakfast and lunch. The women acknowledged that the children expressed a liking for foods like pasta and noodles; these were provided as snacks when the children returned from school, either cooked at home, or purchased ready-prepared from the supermarket. Traditional snacks, 39 whether purchased from specialist grocery shops, homemade or brought from India by family and friends or themselves were preferred to Western-style snack such as crisps, chocolates or cakes, particularly by the adults. These families share meals regularly, help in each other’s kitchen 40 and grow a range of vegetables so they have a variety to share. The women take turns while arranging care-taking leave during their children’s school holidays, so they can

Preetha Thomas, Lisa Schubert, Andrea Whittaker and Brigitte Sébastia

43

__________________________________________________________________ share in the child-care. The sense of community and food practices that this group displays offer a striking difference to that of other Malayalee participants in this study who, unlike the nurse-families, appear to lead a more ‘nuclear’ existence, and have a more eclectic cuisine, regularly cooking or eating food from other cultures, regardless of length of time lived in Brisbane. An ingrained ‘class’ distinction is still evident in attitudes of other Malayalees in Brisbane, similar to that observed in India; this reinforces the way in which the nurse-families remain grounded in their own community and surroundings. 5. Conclusion Despite living in number of different contexts, or perhaps because of it, retaining traditional food practices as far as possible grounds and locates these families in the new context. At the same time, frequent visits ‘home’ and exposure to contemporary eating patterns in modern India locates them in that reality as well. Theoretical constructs of dietary acculturation do not entirely capture the reality of the ways in which food tradition is re-imagined in today’s globalised transnational multiple migratory contexts. The food practices of these families challenge these notions: they eat Kerala food almost exclusively and globalisation enables migrants to access the food of their homeland though the global movement of food and services, including recipes via the internet; the mobility offered by transnationalism defies any potential loss of original cultural patterns. In the context of migration and globalisation today, and the turn towards post-modern ways of thinking, there is greater appreciation of the fact that food-based identities are fluid, indeterminate and constantly changing and that it is necessary to consider the complexities that contribute to the creation of food cultures.

Notes 1 Ghassan Hage, ‘At Home in the Entrails of the West: Multiculturalism, Ethnic Food and Migrant Home-Building’, Home/World: Space, Community and Marginality in Sydney’s West, ed. Helen Grace et al. (Sydney: Pluto Press, 1997). 2 Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food (New York: Free Press, 2002). 3 Claude Fischler, ‘Food, Self and Identity’, Social Science Information 27.2 (1988): 275-292; Krishnendu Ray, The Migrants Table - Meals and Memories in Bengali-American Households (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004). 4 Uma Narayan, ‘Eating Cultures: Incorporation, Identity and Indian Food’, Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture 1.1 (1995): 63-86; Parvathi Raman, ‘“Me in Place, and the Place in Me”’, Food, Culture and Society 14.2 (2011): 165-180.

44

Food Cultures and the Diaspora

__________________________________________________________________ Jessie Satia-Abouta, ‘Dietary Acculturation: Definition, Process, Assessment, and Implications’, International Journal of Human Ecology 4.1 (2003): 71-86; Steven Vertovec, Transnationalism (Florence, KY, USA: Routledge, 2009). 6 As a consequence of a globalized, highly mobile employment network and the relative low cost and ease of travel in recent times, many immigrants live their lives across borders and maintain close ties to ‘home’ irrespective of the distance between their countries of domicile and their country of origin. Schiller et al termed this immigrant experience ‘transnationalism’; transnational migrants neither cut off ties to their countries of origin, nor do they fully assimilate to the new culture of their host nation. Contemporary transnational networks enable members of these communities to be both ‘here’ and ‘there’. Nina Glick Schiller, Linda Basch, and Cristina Blanc-Szanton, ‘Towards a Definition of Transnationalism’, in Towards a Transnational Perspective on Migration, ed. Nina Glick Schiller, Linda Basch, and Cristina Blanc-Szanton (New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1992). 7 J. Lawton et al., ‘“We Should Change Ourselves, but We Can’t”: Accounts of Food and Eating Practices amongst British Pakistanis and Indians with Type 2 Diabetes’, Ethnicity and Health 13 (2008): 305-319. 8 Álvaro Alonso-Garbayo and Jill Maben, ‘Internationally Recruited Nurses from India and the Philippines in the United Kingdom: The Decision to Emigrate’, Human Resources for Health 7.37 (2009), viewed on 6 March 2015, http://www.human-resources-health.com/content/7/1/37. 9 Bhinod Khadria, ‘International Nurse Recruitment in India’, Health Services Research 42.3 (2007): 1429-1436; John Aggergaard Larsen et al., ‘Overseas Nurses’ Motivations for Working in the UK: Globalization and Life Politics’, Work, Employment and Society 19.2 (2005): 349-368. 10 Margaret Walton-Roberts, ‘Contextualizing the Global Nursing Care Chain: International Migration and the Status of Nursing in Kerala, India’, Global Networks 12.2 (2012): 175-194. 11 Marie Percot and S. Irudaya Rajan, ‘Emigration from India: Case Study of Nurses’, Economic and Political Weekly 42.4 (2007): 318-325. 12 Elizabeth B. Simon, ‘Christianity and Nursing in India’, Journal of Christian Nursing 26.2 (2009): 88-94. 13 The Catholic Church continued to provide a safe avenue for young women to migrate within the churches network. 14 Related to working at night or working with men. 15 Percot and Rajan, ‘Emigration from India: Case Study of Nurses’. 16 Kerala Christians are officially classified as belonging to the ‘Forward’ community; communities that are classified as ‘backward’ BC, OBC, or belonging to ‘scheduled castes and tribes SC, ST have preferential treatment in the fields of 5

Preetha Thomas, Lisa Schubert, Andrea Whittaker and Brigitte Sébastia

45

__________________________________________________________________ education and employment. Many Christians and Muslims are over-classified, and have limited access to the reservation quotas). 17 P. Thomas, ‘The International Migration of Indian Nurses’, International Nursing Review 53 (2006): 277-283. 18 Migration of qualified nurses is highly regulated, unlike the poorly regulated migration of low paid domestic workers, also mostly women. 19 Marija Ivković, ‘International Nurse Migrations – Global Trends’, Journal of the Geographical Institute ‘Jovan Cvijić’ 61.2 (2011): 53-67. 20 Nurses usually work on contract in the Middle East for 1-2 years; visa restrictions that preclude inclusion of other family members, and social and religious restrictions prompt their move to other countries once they have gained the experience. 21 Praveena Kodoth and Tina Kuriakose Jacob, International Mobility of Nurses from Kerala (India) to the EU: Prospects and Challenges with Special Reference to the Netherlands and Denmark, ed. CARIM-India (San Domenico di Fiesole (FI): European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, 2013). 22 Health Workforce Australia, Australia’s Health Workforce Series – Nurses in Focus (Adelaide, 2013). 23 Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large; Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, vol. 1, ‘Public Worlds’ (Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), 33. 24 R. R. Reynolds, ‘An African Brain Drain: Igbo Decisions to Immigrate to the US’, Review of African Political Economy 92 (2002): 279; 273-284. 25 A number of familiar Indian vegetables is grown by these families – bitter gourd, snake gourd, snake beans, varieties of spinach, tapioca, brinjal, chillies and herbs like curry leaves. 26 The arrangement of kitchen furniture and dining tables in the respondents houses were of a similar style; during the interviews, the other women and children who were present all showed a familiarity with the use of these spaces. 27 Partly as old biases expressed by class snobbishness continued to be reiterated among the larger Malayalee community in Brisbane. 28 Sheba Mariam George, When Women Come First (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005). 29 Arjun Appadurai, ‘How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 30.1 (1988): 324. 30 Felicity Newman and Mark Gibson, ‘Monoculture Versus Multiculinarism’, in Ordinary Lifestyles - Popular Media, Consumption and Taste, ed. David Bell and Joanne Hollows (Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2007).

46

Food Cultures and the Diaspora

__________________________________________________________________ Snacks could be homemade or purchased and included both sweet and savoury; Australia’s strict quarantine laws prohibit the import of a number of food items, which limits the type of food that can be brought into the country. 32 Participants 10, 11 and 14. 33 Tahire Koktürk, ‘Structure and Change in Food Habits’, Scandinavian Journal of Nursing 39 (1995): 2-4. 34 Cereals were always referred to as ‘cornflakes’ by respondents – referring to pretrade liberalisation period in India, when locally made cornflakes was the only breakfast cereal available 35 All these rice-based dishes are made from batter which is fermented and is dependent on warm room temperature. Idlis are savoury steamed rice and lentil cakes; the same batter, thinned down is cooked like a crêpe to make dosas; both are popular breakfast dishes in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Appam and puttu are eaten more commonly in Kerala. All homes have electric grinders brought from India. 36 A reference to rice in this instance is synonymous with an entire meal. 37 Participant 11. 38 Indian wheat flat-bread. 39 Traditional snacks include savoury deep fried banana chips, murukku, jackfruit crisps, milk sweets, halvas, battered plantains. 40 Even on casual visits to each other’s homes, if there is any food-work being done, the visitor will also join in the activity. 31

Bibliography Alonso-Garbayo, Álvaro, and Jill Maben. ‘Internationally Recruited Nurses from India and the Philippines in the United Kingdom: The Decision to Emigrate’. Human Resources for Health 7.37 (2009).Viewed on 6 March 2015. http://www.human-resources-health.com/content/7/1/37. Appadurai, Arjun. ‘How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India’. Comparative Studies in Society and History 30.1 (1988): 3-24. ———. Modernity at Large; Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Vol. 1, ‘Public Worlds’. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1996. Aminuzamman, Salahuddin M. ‘Migration of Skilled Nurses from Bangladesh: An Exploratory Study’. Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty University of Sussex 2007. Viewed 5 July 2014. http://www.migrationdrc.org/publications/research_reports/Migration_of_Skilled_ Nurses_from_Bangladesh.pdf.

Preetha Thomas, Lisa Schubert, Andrea Whittaker and Brigitte Sébastia

47

__________________________________________________________________ Beyers, Leen. ‘Creating Home: Food, Ethnicity and Gender among Italians in Belgium since 1946’. Food Culture and Society 11.1 (2008): 8-27. Chapman, Gwen E. and Brenda L. Beagan. ‘Food Practices and Transnational Identities’. Food, Culture and Society 16.3 (2013): 367-386. Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food. New York: Free Press, 2002. Fischler, Claude. ‘Food, Self and Identity’. Social Science Information 27.2 (1988): 275-292. George, Sheba Mariam. When Women Come First. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. Gill, Reema. ‘Nursing Shortage in India with Special Reference to International Migration of Nurses’. Social Medicine 6.1 (2011): 52-59. Hage, Ghassan. ‘At Home in the Entrails of the West: Multiculturalism, Ethnic Food and Migrant Home-Building’. In Home/World: Space, Community and Marginality in Sydney’s West, edited by Helen Grace, Ghassan Hage, Lesley Johnson, Julie Langsworth and Michael Symonds, 99-147. Sydney: Pluto Press, 1997. Health Workforce Australia. Nurses in Focus. Australia’s Health Workforce Series. Adelaide, 2013. Ivković, Marija. ‘International Nurse Migrations – Global Trends’. Journal of the Geographical Institute ‘Jovan Cvijić’ 61.2 (2011): 53-67. Khadria, Bhinod. ‘International Nurse Recruitment in India’. Health Services Research 42.3 (2007): 1429-1436. Kodoth, Praveena, and Tina Kuriakose Jacob. ‘International Mobility of Nurses from Kerala (India) to the EU: Prospects and Challenges with Special Reference to the Netherlands and Denmark’. CARIM-India RR 2013/19, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, San Domenico di Fiesole (FI): European University Institute, 2013. Technical Report. Viewed 5 July 2014. http://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/29481/CARIM-India-2013%20%2019.pdf?sequence=1.

48

Food Cultures and the Diaspora

__________________________________________________________________ Koktürk, Tahire. ‘Structure and Change in Food Habits’. Scandinavian Journal of Nursing 39 (1995): 2-4. Larsen, John Aggergaard, Helen T. Allan, Karen Bryan, and Pam Smith. ‘Overseas Nurses’ Motivations for Working in the UK: Globalization and Life Politics’. Work, Employment and Society 19.2 (2005): 349-368. Lawton, Juila, Naureen Ahmad, Lisa Hanna, Margaret Douglas, Harpreet Bains, and Nina Hallowell. ‘We Should Change Ourselves, but We Can’t: Accounts of Food and Eating Practices amongst British Pakistanis and Indians with Type 2 Diabetes’. Ethnicity and Health 13 (2008): 305-319. Narayan, Uma. ‘Eating Cultures: Incorporation, Identity and Indian Food’. Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture 1.1 (1995): 63-86. Newman, Felicity, and Mark Gibson. ‘Monoculture Versus Multiculinarism’. In Ordinary Lifestyles - Popular Media, Consumption and Taste, edited by David Bell and Joanne Hollows, 82-98. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2007. Percot, Marie, and S. Irudaya Rajan. ‘Emigration from India: Case Study of Nurses’. Economic and Political Weekly 42.4 (2007): 318-325. Raman, Parvathi. ‘Me in Place, and the Place in Me’. Food, Culture and Society 14.2 (2011): 165-180. Ray, Krishnendu. The Migrants Table - Meals and Memories in Bengali-American Households. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004. Reynolds, R. R. ‘An African Brain Drain: Igbo Decisions to Immigrate to the US’. Review of African Political Economy 29.92 (2002): 273-284. Satia-Abouta, Jessie. ‘Dietary Acculturation: Definition, Process, Assessment, and Implications’. International Journal of Human Ecology 4.1 (2003): 71-86. Schiller, Nina Glick, Linda Basch, and Cristina Blanc-Szanton. ‘Towards a Definition of Transnationalism’. In Towards a Transnational Perspective on Migration, edited by Nina Glick Schiller, Linda Basch and Cristina Blanc-Szanton, ix-xiv. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1992.

Preetha Thomas, Lisa Schubert, Andrea Whittaker and Brigitte Sébastia

49

__________________________________________________________________ Simon, Elizabeth B. ‘Christianity and Nursing in India’. Journal of Christian Nursing 26.2 (2009): 88-94. Thomas, P. ‘The International Migration of Indian Nurses’. International Nursing Review 53 (2006): 277-283. Vertovec, Steven. Transnationalism. Florence, KY, USA: Routledge, 2009. Walton-Roberts, Margaret. ‘Contextualizing the Global Nursing Care Chain: International Migration and the Status of Nursing in Kerala, India’. Global Networks 12.2 (2012): 175-194. ———. ‘Student Nurses and Their Postgraduate Migration Plans: A Kerala Case Study’. In India Migration Report 2010, edited by S. Irudaya Rajan, 196-216. New Delhi, 2010. Preetha Thomas is a PhD candidate and Associate Lecturer at the School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, Australia. Lisa Schubert is a Lecturer in Public Health Nutrition at the School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, Australia. Andrea Whittaker is a Medical anthropologist, an ARC Future Fellow Anthropology in the School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Brigitte Sébastia is an anthropologist researcher affiliated to the programme ‘Medicines and Societies in South-Asia’ in the Social Sciences Department of the French Institute of Pondicherry in India.

Part II Constructing Tastes: Food, Representations and Control

A Making Sense of New Food Technologies and Trust in Food (1960-1995) Filip Degreef Abstract Whilst academic research on trust in food proliferated after the food scares of the 1990s limited attention has been given to the evolution of perception of food safety and quality preceding these scandals. This chapter will focus on how representations and ideas of food safety and quality changed during the post-war era with respect to new food technologies. Building on the theory of risk society put forward by Ulrich Beck this study looks at how larger evolutions in society, technology, media, sub-politics and food interacted. In doing so, the research contributes to the understanding of the effects these changes had on the representation of expertise, products and technologies. In order to understand how new food technologies were represented and fit within a cultural framework, a Belgian newspaper and the publications of two consumer organisations are studied during 35 years, using the methodology of framing. The focus lies on two highly contested technologies: food radiation and food additives. This research shows that both the newspaper and the consumer organisations used specific emotionally guided framed to inform readers. The findings of this study offer a starting point for further studies on food quality and safety whilst providing a framework in which these issues can be viewed, understood and compared to. It also contributes to grasping the historical foundations of frameworks in which food and technology are interpreted. Key Words: Food technology, risk society, framing, representation, modern media, consumer organisations, food security, expert advice, industrialisation, mediation. ***** 1. Making Sense of Technology and Food in a Changing World The post-war Western world is seen as being obsessed with hazards and food scandals despite increased regulation and control. 1 This is attributed to a lack of trust in an industrialised and rationalised production system. 2 The acceptability of novel food technologies and its usage in these evolutions is interwoven with the public perception and representation of both specific technological developments and the changing nature of the food chain itself. 3 Existing research on novel food technologies tends to focus on contested issues that have already been subjected to a large degree of rejection by the public. 4 Examining other novel applications could however nuance this view of a public resisting most types of new application. 5 To understand how new technologies were represented in a changing

54

Making Sense of New Food Technologies and Trust in Food (1960-1995)

__________________________________________________________________ world, this chapter will focus on how new applications were framed by media and consumer organisations. Researchers have shown that acceptability of new food technologies depends on perceived risks, perceived benefits and perceived naturalness, showing that individual interpretations guide social approval of technology. 6 Since knowledge about technology remains a credence attribute for most, the public is dependent on others for information and guidance on how to judge innovations. JoAnn Jaffe and Michael Gertler interpret this as the result of a process of consumer’s deskilling. Due to a lack of direct contact with the food chain and an increasingly complex system of production, the majority of the population lost control over the meaning of food. 7 The concept of relative deskilling focuses attention on changes in the appropriation of knowledge. Information concerning which foodstuffs are suited for consumption, both culturally and on a biological level, increasingly became a public affair. Two main forces are seen as having a profound effect on the evolution of deskilling. Firstly, there is the rationalised, globalised and marketed food chain. Secondly, many scholars point to the diminishing of traditional family structures, which negatively affected traditional methods of passing down knowledge of food. 8 Hence, food choice became increasingly individualised. This process has been documented in many studies, but was defined differently by researchers (examples are: menu pluralism, customised diets or narratives of risk). These show that consumers developed new ways of dealing with insecurities. They use perceived risks in their choice process. 9 These selections are often founded on very simplified ideas of what can be trusted. 10 Although family remains the main source for knowledge, the public increasingly relies on systems of experts and external sources to aid personalised decisions processes. 11 2. New Food Technologies in the Risk Society A second essential notion within this research will be the concept of risk society. Ulrich Beck’s risk society theory is often mentioned in studies focusing on the relationship between food and technology. 12 Beck witnesses a significant change in the nature of modern society in the post-war era from an industrial society to the late modernity. It creates an accumulation of risks and hazards that are not restricted in time, space or class and which are created by human actions inside the systems of scientific progress and industrialised production. These risks, as he sees it, have succeeded in escaping our control; hence the progress of society will inevitably lead to self-destruction. This increase in risks becomes characteristic for the society as a whole in which risks become a systematic element of life, which are often debated. This fight for symbolic hazards creates a discontinuation in the belief of progress, science and politics. Also crucial to Beck’s theory is the idea of individualisation. He observes a distancing from historically grown social forms, which means people lose

Filip Degreef

55

__________________________________________________________________ traditional securities in ideas, culture and norms. This required re-embedding, which entails new forms of social appropriation and commitment. Freedom and destandardisation entail a force of choice, which results in shopping around for expertise throughout different media. 13 The similarities with the mentioned evolutions are apparent. The theories and research specific to the field of food studies show how perception of food and technological properties used in the food chain are affected by the development of the risk society. 3. Source Material This research uses a newspaper and two consumer organisations from Belgium as source material. Both sources have proven important in the study of consumers’ sources of information. Consumers have indicated the importance of newspapers for information on consumer products and consumer organisations are found to be highly trusted sources for information on food quality and safety. 14 The selected newspaper is the regional newspaper Het Belang van Limburg 15 from the province of Limburg in the northeast of Belgium. This region is characterised by a strong presence of agricultural production. Up to the 1960s there was rapid industrialisation due to the construction of coalmines but in the 1980s industrial production shifted to new branches, like transportation and the manufacture of automobiles. The population density of the region remains low compared to other Belgian regions. 16 The choice for this newspaper is a pragmatic one, since it is the only digitised Belgian newspaper for the period 1960–1995. The newspaper is generally moderate in stance and populist, yet it must be emphasised that the difference between elitist and popular newspapers is less profound in Belgium. HBVL had a continuous growth, and almost doubled in editions. Readers are evenly distributed with regards to age and income, although with a small overrepresentation of the lower social class. 17 Relevant articles are found through the usage of search terms, which would have been impossible for any other Belgian newspaper. Two Belgian consumer organisations were selected for this research: TestAankoop/Test-Achats and VIVEC/UFIDEC. 18 Both institutions were bilingual and thus published the same content in both French and Dutch. TA started small in 1957 but grew to 100,000 members in 1969 to circa 300,000 members during the late 1970s, stabilizing thereafter. It was, and still is, the largest consumer organisation in Belgium. VIVEC was founded in 1959 with support from the socialist women’s organisation and the cooperative organisations, yet it remained independent and neutral. Its membership also grew during the 1960s (from 7,000 in 1962 to 85,000 in 1969) but expansion lessened afterwards (reaching a maximum of 120,000 in 1978). VIVEC did not remain financially viable and the organisation ceased to exist in 1984. The organisations’ income came from the sale of their magazine, books and membership fees.

56

Making Sense of New Food Technologies and Trust in Food (1960-1995)

__________________________________________________________________ Both organisations saw consumer information, education and protection as their core business. Direct political action remained limited, although the organisations did try to act as a consumer’s spokesperson. They are mostly known for their comparative testing and dissemination of reports on products in their magazines which are the main source used for this chapter. 19 TA published eleven editions per year from 1963 onwards, whilst VIVEC changed its circulating from 6 to 10 yearly issues in 1970. A survey executed by TA in 1970 shows that its members were mostly white-collar middle class. 20 4. Methodology: Framing Research Framing research has shown its usefulness in understanding which factors influence coverage on a specific issue. A frame is seen as a broader idea that is culturally defined and easily recognised in society. Both the readers and writers of the text use it to grasp the meaning of the issue at stake. Facts alone are considered to have no intrinsic meaning, but once they have been embedded in specific stories or interpretations, a frame arises in which the text needs to be interpreted. The frame works through principles, structures and symbols that can be visible in the text. The actual frame itself is however an abstract concept. 21 Through framing research it is possible to find patterns of dominant interpretations in texts and thereby ‘discover’ meaning. A quantitative framing approach can thus have the advantage of finding internal coherences within these series of publications, which would otherwise have possibly gone unnoticed. 22 This method has been used for studying new food technologies, but only for contemporary issues. 23 The focus in this lied mostly on the study of biotechnology. 24 This research uses an inductive approach to find which variables are relevant within inductively developed framework. Some theoretically relevant questions were added, yet current results show that these were of limited importance. Frames were located through principle factor analysis with Varimax rotation. Relevant frames were selected using both Kaiser Normalization and Cronbach’s alfa to measure the internal consistencies of the variables within frames. 5. Results: Food Irradiation and Food Additives Food irradiation was developed as part of the ‘atoms for peace’ project. This technology uses ionizing radiation to kill bacteria in order to reduce risks of harmful infections and lengthen food preservation. The technology was extensively tested from the 1950s onwards, but usage remains limited. Belgium approved ionisation during the 1980s, yet limited its application. 25 Food irradiation is often seen as a strongly contested technology. Fear of poisoning, unnatural food and a generalised disapproval of all applications of nuclear technologies are mentioned as reasons why the public rejects ionisation. 26 Analysis of the three sources however tells a different story. VIVEC never gave any attention to the issue and

Filip Degreef

57

__________________________________________________________________ TA published only three small articles (1967, 1983 and 1986). The latter regarded the technology as having many advantages. TA mentioned its improvement compared to other preservation techniques and the fact that irradiation makes the usage of food additives unnecessary. Despite some fears over possible deception of consumers, TA considered food ionisation to be a harmless technology. Graph 1 shows that the newspaper also published only a few articles on the issue (N=31). The content of the articles also show a tendency towards being in favour of food irradiation. Approval from different institutions (scientific research institutions, consumer organisations, state) was mentioned much more often than disapproval. The technology was seen as an improvement without leaving any residues of radiation. 27 These results are striking, when compared to the perception of a hesitant public. Despite its potential to be seen as a technology with high risk and unnaturalness, food ionisation received only limited, and mostly positive, attention. The lack of coverage of a contested technology demonstrates that it was considered to be of only low importance and this is seen to have a positive effect on the acceptability of a new technology. 28

10 8 6 4

HBVL

2 0

Graph 1: Presence of Articles on Food Irradiation (N=31) in Het Belang van Limburg © 2014. Courtesy of Filip Degreef. Additives in food are not specific to the second half of the twentieth century. However, in this period, new applications became widespread due to scientific progress and the industrialisation of the food chain. 29 Graph 2 shows the frequencies of articles in which food additives are mentioned. This shows that additives remained an important issue, especially compared to food ionisation. 30

58

Making Sense of New Food Technologies and Trust in Food (1960-1995)

__________________________________________________________________ Table 1: Principal Axis Factoring of Food Additives (Consumer Organisation) (N=334) Item Frame 1: Human Interest Disapproval from consumer organisation Not suited for consumption Properties product are worse Advice against usage Additives are chemicals/poison Health dangers No additives is better Additives are unnecessary Producers are bad

Rotated Factor 0,462 0,506 0,736 0,670 0,421 0,408 0,607 0,547 0,423

Frame 2: Scientific Disapproval Disapproval from scientific community Disapproval from scientific institution Needs further testing Negative effects scientifically proven

0,823 0,755 0,558 0,602

Frame 3: Risk Protection Disapproval from consumer organisation Lack of control Needs stronger laws/Demand legal action Consumers need to be informed/protected

0,408 0,591 0,675 0,513

Frame 4: Seal of Approval Approval from consumer organisation Suited for consumption Additives solve problems Harmlessness scientifically proven

0,628 0,621 0,607 0,625

Frame 5: Pat on the Back Good producers No additives found in test

0,703 0,785

% of Variance 19,242

Cronbach’s alfa 0,819

8,855

0,782

6,526

0,717

5,618

0,670

3,829

0,733

Descriptive analyses of the results show that both consumer organisations clearly opposed the usage of food additives. In more than half of the articles a clear advice against the usage of food additives could be found. Table 1 shows the results of the principle factor analysis for the consumer organisations. 31 Factors loading higher than 0.40 are considered to be a relevant part of the frame. 32 When factors load higher than 0.60 they are seen as being highly relevant to the frame. The first frame is identified as ‘Human Interest’. It shows that within this frame the consumer organisations strongly advised against the usage or eating of additives since they mean a loss of quality for the food. Additives were considered to be unhealthy chemicals. Producers were shamed when they use additives. The results

Filip Degreef

59

__________________________________________________________________ of the descriptive analysis show that this framework was strongly present throughout the period under research. The second frame shows the usage of scientifically supported disapproval. Negative side effects of additives are considered to be scientifically proven or need to be tested further. The third frame is considered to describe the idea of ‘Risk Protection’. Appeals for more stringent laws, consumer protection and information and general disapproval are combined with a fear of lack of control over the presence of additives. Frame 4 shows that the organisations also gave their ‘Seal of Approval’ for some additives in which these products were considered to be suited for consumption and a benefit for the food. This approval also seems to be intertwined with a need for scientific proof of harmlessness (especially since we see that all factor load higher than 0.60). This shows that the consumer organisations were inclined to uphold their neutral and scientific stance when giving consent for an additive. However, the first frame shows that disapproval did not require specific scientific proof. 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

HBVL TA VIVEC

Graph 2: Presence of Articles Containing Information on Food Additives in Het Belang van Limburg, Test-Aankoop/Test-Achats: Magazine and VIVEC © 2014. Courtesy of Filip Degreef. The last frame demonstrates that the consumer organisations gave producers that did not use any additives a ‘Pat on the Back’. Remaining within legal limits for additives in products (which was coded separately) did not suffice. Producers were

60

Making Sense of New Food Technologies and Trust in Food (1960-1995)

__________________________________________________________________ complimented only when additives were untraceable. Descriptive analyses show that the frames ‘Human Interest’, ‘Risk Protection’ and ‘Pat on the Back’ (in descending order) were clearly much more present than ‘Scientific Disapproval’ and ‘Seal of Approval’. This shows that the consumer organisations used a generalised and emotionally charged disapproval of food additives. Table 2: Principal Axis Factoring of Food Additives (Het Belang van Limburg) (N=354) Item

Rotated Factor

Frame 1: Risk Protection Additives are unnecessary Lack of control Needs stronger laws/Demand legal action Consumers need to be informed/protected

0,498 0,676 0,645 0,471

Frame 2: Disapproval Not suited for consumption Additives are chemicals/poison Health dangers Negative effects scientifically proven Scientific disapproval of additives

0,473 0,631 0,689 0,547 0,542

Frame 3: Approval Suited for consumption Harmlessness scientifically proven Scientific approval of additives

0,499 0,727 0,595

Frame 4: Consumer Deception Disapproval from consumer organisation Deception of consumers Properties product are worse Producers are bad

0,411 0,629 0,499 0,474

Frame 5: Promotion naturalness No additives is natural No additives is better Disapproval from (small) organisations

0,595 0,676 0,456

% of Variance

Cronbach’s Alfa

12,542

0,665

9,147

0,723

7,261

0,662

2,189

0,666

1,923

0,700

The newspaper HBVL shows a more balanced picture, yet it is clear that this source also disapproves of the usage of additives. Table 2 presents the results from the principle factor analysis. The first frame was also identified as the ‘Risk Protection’ frame showing clear similarities with the consumer organisations. The only difference is that the newspaper demonstrates a general feeling of additives being unnecessary (which can be considered to be interchangeable with the disapproval from the consumer organisation). The second frame is defined as ‘disapproval’. This frame clearly mixes elements from the ‘Human interest’ and

Filip Degreef

61

__________________________________________________________________ ‘Scientific Disapproval’ frames from the consumer organisations. There is a general disposition in this frame against additives but it appears that the newspaper requires scientific support for the reasons behind the criticism. 33 The same is the case for when additives were approved (frame 3). The fourth frame is characterised by ‘Consumer Deception’. This frame is used when producers are seen to be deceiving consumers and delivering products of poorer quality. Strikingly, this frame is linked with the variable ‘disapproval from consumer organisation’. Media coverage of consumer organisations is linked here with scandals in which the organisations are able to show that consumers are being cheated. The last frame shows the link between small organisations (which was interpreted in the coding as small producers and other small NGOs) and a perception of the lack of additives being better and more natural. This could be found in articles where, for example, artisanal manufacturers stated that their products were better because of a lack of additives. It is clear that the newspaper required some form of ‘frame sponsoring’ to assess the usage of food additives. Descriptive analysis of the presence of these frames in the articles shows that the only frame in favour of these types of products is less present. 6. Conclusions This research shows that there is a strong link, both theoretically and in practice, between the acceptability or usage of new food technologies and framing in media and by sub-political groups. Despite the positioning of both consumer organisations to be neutral and scientific, the results of the framing analysis of food additives show that emotional triggers were used in critiquing their application. The newspaper bases its framing on specific frame sponsors, but the nature of news coverage in favour of scandals pushes many more negative frames forward than positive. The two examples both confirm and disprove Beck’s risk society theory. Firstly, the issue of food irradiation; despite its potential for being a much-debated risk, received limited attention, which was fairly positive in nature. The frames for food additives, however, clearly fit within a feeling of a lack of control, risks and a need for consumer protection. Further research on more new technologies and on evolutions within the time frame is required to understand more clearly how new technologies were represented and how they fit within the theory of risk society.

Notes Karin Zachmann and Per Østby, ‘Food, Technology, and Trust: An Introduction’, History and Technology 27.1 (2011): 1-10; Robert Rochefort, La Société des Consommateurs (Paris: Odile Jacob, 1995), 1-267. 2 Claude Fischler, ‘La “Macdonaldisation” des Moeurs’, Histoire de l’Alimentation, eds. Jean-Louis Flandrin, and Massimo Montarani (Paris: Fayard, 1

62

Making Sense of New Food Technologies and Trust in Food (1960-1995)

__________________________________________________________________ 1996), 859-879; Michiel De Korm and Annemarie Mol, ‘Food Risks and Consumer Trust’, Appetite 55 (2010): 671-678. 3 Harvey Levenstein, ‘Diététique contre Gastronomie: Traditions Culinaires, Sainteté et Santé dans les Modèles de Vie Américains’, Histoire de l’Alimentation, eds. Jean-Louis Flandrin, and Massimo Montarani (Paris: Fayard, 1996), 843-878; Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997), 1-256; Daniel Block, ‘Food Systems’, A Cultural History of Food in the Modern Age, ed. Amy Bentley (London, New Delhi, New York, Sydney: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012), 47-68. 4 George Gaskell and Martin W. Bauer, eds., Biotechnology 1996 – 2000: The Years of Controversy (London: London Science Museum, 2001), 1-339; Martin W. Bauer and George Gaskell, eds., Biotechnology: The Making of a Global Controversy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 1-277; Frances Elizabeth DeRuiter and Johanna Dwyer, ‘Consumer Acceptance of Irradiated Foods: Dawn of a New Era?’, Food Service Technology 2.2 (2002): 47-58. 5 Alexandra Lobb, ‘Consumer Trust, Risk and Food Safety: A Review’, Acta Agriculturae Scand Section C 2 (2005): 3-12; Lynn J. Frewer et al., ‘Consumer Response to Novel Agri-Food Technologies: Implications for Predicting Consumer Acceptance of Emerging Food Technologies’, Trends in Food Science and Technology 22 (2011): 442-456; Zachmann and Østby, ‘Food, Technology, and Trust’, 1-10. 6 Michael Siegrist, ‘Factors Influencing Public Acceptance of Innovative Food Technologies and Products’, Trends in Food Science and Technology 19 (2008): 603-608. 7 Fischler, ‘La “Macdonaldisation” des Moeurs’, 859-879; JoAnn Jaffe and Michael Gertler, ‘Victual Vicissitudes: Consumer Deskilling and the (Gendered) Transformation of Food Systems’, Agriculture and Human Values 23 (2006): 143162. 8 Fischler, ‘La “Macdonaldisation” des Moeurs’, 859-879. 9 Alizon Draper and Judith Green, ‘Food Safety and Consumers: Constructions of Choice and Risk’, Social Policy and Administration 36.6 (2002): 610-625; Wendy van Rijswijk and Lynn J. Frewer, ‘Consumer Perceptions of Food Quality and Safety and Their Reaction to Traceability’, British Food Journal 110.10 (2008): 1034-1046. 10 Alan Beardsworth and Teresa Keil, Sociology on the Menu. An Invitation to the Study of Food and Society (London: Routledge, 1997), 1-277; Svein Ottar Olson, ‘Extending the Prevalent Consumer Loyalty Modelling: The Role of Habit Strength’, European Journal of Marketing 47.1/2 (2013): 303-323. 11 Unni Kjaernes, Mark Harvey and Alan Warde, Trust in Food. A Comparative and Institutional Analysis (Houndsmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave

Filip Degreef

63

__________________________________________________________________ Macmillan, 2007), 1-228; Daniel Powels and William Leis, Mad Cows and Mother’s Milk (Montreal: McGill Queen’s University Press, 1997), 1-452. 12 Armando Salvatore and Roberta Sassatelli, ‘Trust in Food. A Theoretical Discussion’, Consumer Trust in Food – A European Study of the Social and Institutional Conditions for the Production of Trust (Working Paper, Bologna: University of Bologna, 2004), 4-36. 13 Ulrich Beck, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (London: Sage, 1992), 1260; Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim, Individualization: Institutionalized Individualism and Its Social and Political Consequences (London: Sage, 2002), 1-222; Anthony Elliot, ‘Beck’s Sociology of Risk: A Critical Assessment’, Sociology 36.2 (2002): 293-315. 14 Unni Kjaernes, Trust in Food, 1-228; Alexandra Lobb, ‘Consumer Trust, Risk and Food Safety’, 3-12; Commission of the European Communities, Eurobarometer. European Consumers. Their Interests, Aspirations and Knowledge on Consumer Affairs (Brussels: Commission of the European Communities, 1976), 1-197. 15 Referenced in text as HBVL. 16 V. Neesen, ‘Demografie’, Limburg 1950 – 1975, ed. Anon. (Hasselt: Bestendige Deputatie van de Provincie Limburg, 1975), 13-42; V. Neesen, ‘De Economische Ontwikkeling’, Limburg 1950 – 1975, ed. Anon. (Hasselt: Bestendige Deputatie van de Provincie Limburg, 1975), 71-136; R. Van Ballaer and L. Van Hilst, ‘Omschakeling en Diversifiëring van de Economie’, Limburg 1975 – 1995, eds. J. Ackaert and L. Albrechts (Hasselt: Bestendige Deputatie van de Provincie Limburg, 1995), 46-117. 17 Els De Bens and Karin Raeymaeckers, De Pers in België. Het Verhaal van de Belgische Dagbladpers Gisteren, Vandaag en Morgen (Leuven: Lannoo Campus, 2010), 283-496. 18 Test-Aankoop/Test-Achats (referenced in text as TA); VIVEC/UFIDEC (referenced in text as VIVEC). 19 Hans B. Thorelli and Sarah V. Thorelli, Consumer Information Handbook: Europe and North America (London: Praeger, 1974), 1-525; Jacqueline Poelmans, L’Europe et les Consommateurs (Brussels, Paris: Fernand Nathan, Editions Labor, 1978), 1-172; Matthew Hilton, Prosperity for All, Consumer Activism in an Era of Globalization (New York: Cornell University Press, 2009), 1-285. 20 Anon., ‘Wie Zijn Wij?’, Test-Aankoop: Magazine 102 (1970): 324-328. 21 Maxwell E. McCombs and Salma I. Ghanem, ‘The Convergence of Agenda Setting and Framing’, Framing Public Life. Perspectives on Media and Our Understanding of the Social World, eds. Stephen D. Reese et al. (New York: Routledge, 2001), 67-82; Gaye Tuchman, Making News: A Study in the Construction of Reality (New York: Free Press, 1978), 1-244; William A. Gamson,

64

Making Sense of New Food Technologies and Trust in Food (1960-1995)

__________________________________________________________________ Talking Politics (New York, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 1272. 22 Stephen D. Reese, ‘Framing Public Life: A Bridging Model for Media Research’, Framing Public Life. Perspectives on Media and Our Understanding of the Social World, eds. Stephen D. Reese et al. (New York: Routledge, 2001), 7-32; Karen S. Johson-Cartee, News Narratives and News Framing. Constructing Political Reality (Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto, Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2005), 1-359. 23 Catherine E. Crawley, ‘Localized Debates of Agricultural Biotechnology in Community Newspapers: A Quantitative Content Analysis of Media Frames and Sources’, Science Communication 28 (2007): 314-346; Pieter Maeseele, ‘On Neoluddites Led by Ayatollahs: The Frame Matrix of the GM Food Debate in Northern Belgium’, Environmental Communication 4.3 (2010): 277-300; Pieter Maeseele, ‘On News Media and Democratic Debate: Framing Agricultural Biotechnology in Northern Belgium’, The International Communication Gazette 73.1/2 (2011): 83105. 24 Gaskell and Bauer, eds., Biotechnology 1996 – 2000, 1-339; Bauer and Gaskell, eds., Biotechnology, 1-277; Mathew C. Nisbet and Bruce V. Lewenstein, ‘Biotechnology and the American Media: The Policy Process and the Elite Press, 1970 to 1999’, Science Communication 23.4 (2002): 359-391. 25 Food ionisation is allowed for potatoes, strawberries, unions, shrimps, frog legs, poultry and a specific list of spices. 26 DeRuiter and Dwyer, ‘Consumer Acceptance of Irradiated Foods’, 47-58; Toby A. Ten Eyck, ‘Shaping a Food Safety Debate: Control Efforts of Newspaper Reporters and Sources in the Food Irradiation Controversy’, Science Communication 20 (1999): 426-447; Toby Ten Eyck, ‘The More Things Change…: Milk Pasteurization, Food Irradiation, and Biotechnology in the New York Times’, The Social Science Journal 41 (2004): 29-41; Karin Zachmann, ‘Atoms for Peace and Radiation for Safety – How to Build Trust in Irradiated Foods in Cold War Europe and Beyond’, History and Technology 27.1 (2011): 6590. 27 Further research on the issue through factor analysis or framing analysis shows no results due the low number of cases. 28 Nick Pidgeon, Roger E. Kasperson and Paul Slovic, The Social Amplification of Risk (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1-448. 29 The concept of ‘food additives’ is used for all products that could be used to alter properties of food products through preparation or in processing, whether legally or illegally. For example, the usage of sulphite (sulphur dioxide) by butchers to colour prepared meats red is included, but the application of (synthetic) hormones in cattle breeding is not included since this takes place in the production (and not preparation or processing) of the meat itself.

Filip Degreef

65

__________________________________________________________________ Relevant articles were selected when more than 2 elements from the coding scheme were present within the text. 31 The data for VIVEC and TA was combined for the factor analysis since the number of cases was too low to allow for a separate analysis. 32 Crawley, ‘Localized Debates of Agricultural Biotechnology’, 314-346; Gamson, Talking Politics, 1-272. 33 The variables for approval and disapproval from the scientific community and scientific institutions were recoded into a single variable for the database of the newspaper. 30

Bibliography Anonymous. ‘Wie Zijn Wij?’ Test-Aankoop: Magazine 102 (1970): 324-328. Bauer, Martin W. and George Gaskell, eds. Biotechnology: The Making of a Global Controversy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Beardsworth, Alan and Teresa Keil. Sociology on the Menu. An Invitation to the Study of Food and Society. London: Routledge, 1997. Beck, Ulrich. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage, 1992. Beck, Ulrich and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim. Individualization: Institutionalized Individualism and Its Social and Political Consequences. London: Sage, 2002. Block, Daniel. ‘Food Systems’. A Cultural History of Food in the Modern Age, edited by Amy Bentley, 47-68. London, New Delhi, New York, Sydney: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012. Commission of the European Communities. Eurobarometer. European Consumers. Their Interests, Aspirations and Knowledge on Consumer Affairs. Brussels: Commission of the European Communities, 1976. Crawley, Catherine E. ‘Localized Debates of Agricultural Biotechnology in Community Newspapers: A Quantitative Content Analysis of Media Frames and Sources’. Science Communication 28 (2007): 314-346. De Bens, Els and Karin Raeymaeckers. De Pers in België. Het Verhaal van de Belgische Dagbladpers Gisteren, Vandaag en Morgen. Leuven: Lannoo Campus, 2010.

66

Making Sense of New Food Technologies and Trust in Food (1960-1995)

__________________________________________________________________ De Korm, Michiel and Annemarie Mol. ‘Food Risks and Consumer Trust’. Appetite 55 (2010): 671-678. DeRuiter, Elizabeth F. and Johanna Dwyer. ‘Consumer Acceptance of Irradiated Foods: Dawn of a New Era?’ Food Service Technology 2.2 (2002): 47-58. Draper, Alizon and Judith Green. ‘Food Safety and Consumers: Constructions of Choice and Risk’. Social Policy and Administration 36.6 (2002): 610-625. Elliot, Anthony. ‘Beck’s Sociology of Risk: A Critical Assessment’. Sociology 36.2 (2002): 293-315. Fischler, Claude. ‘La “Macdonaldisation” des Moeurs’. Histoire de l’Alimentation, edited by Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montarani, 859-879. Paris: Fayard, 1996. Frewer, Lynn J., Karin Bergmann, Mary Brennan, Rene Lion, Audrey Rowe, Martin Siegrist and Carel Vereijken. ‘Consumer Response to Novel Agri-Food Technologies: Implications for Predicting Consumer Acceptance of Emerging Food Technologies’. Trends in Food Science and Technology 22 (2011): 442-456. Gamson, William A. Talking Politics. New York, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Gaskell, George and Martin W. Bauer, eds. Biotechnology 1996 – 2000: The Years of Controversy. London: London Science Museum, 2001. Giddens Anthony. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997. Hilton, Matthew. Prosperity for All, Consumer Activism in an Era of Globalization. New York: Cornell University Press, 2009. Jaffe, JoAnn and Michael Gertler. ‘Victual Vicissitudes: Consumer Deskilling and the (Gendered) Transformation of Food Systems’. Agriculture and Human Values 23 (2006): 143-162. Johson-Cartee, Karen S. News Narratives and News Framing. Constructing Political Reality. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto, Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2005.

Filip Degreef

67

__________________________________________________________________ Kjaernes, Unni, Mark Harvey and Alan Warde. Trust in Food. A Comparative and Institutional Analysis. Houndsmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Levenstein, Harvey. ‘Diététique contre Gastronomie: Traditions Culinaires, Sainteté et Santé dans les Modèles de Vie Américains’. Histoire de l’Alimentation, edited by Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montarani, 843-858. Paris: Fayard, 1996. Lobb, Alexandra. ‘Consumer Trust, Risk and Food Safety: A Review’. Acta Agriculturae Scand Section C 2 (2005): 3-12. Maeseele, Pieter. ‘On Neo-Luddites Led by Ayatollahs: The Frame Matrix of the GM Food Debate in Northern Belgium’. Environmental Communication 4.3 (2010): 277-300. Maeseele, Pieter. ‘On News Media and Democratic Debate: Framing Agricultural Biotechnology in Northern Belgium’. The International Communication Gazette 73.1/2 (2011): 83-105. McCombs, Maxwell E. and Salma I. Ghanem. ‘The Convergence of Agenda Setting and Framing’. Framing Public Life. Perspectives on Media and Our Understanding of the Social World, edited by Stephen D. Reese, Oscar H. Gandy Jr. and August E. Grant, 67-82. New York: Routledge, 2001. Neesen, V. ‘Demografie’. Limburg 1950 – 1975, edited by Anon., 13-42. Hasselt: Bestendige Deputatie van de Provincie Limburg, 1975. Neesen, V. ‘De Economische Ontwikkeling’. Limburg 1950 – 1975, edited by Anon., 71-136. Hasselt: Bestendige Deputatie van de Provincie Limburg, 1975. Nisbet, Mathew C. and Bruce V. Lewenstein. ‘Biotechnology and the American Media: The Policy Process and the Elite Press, 1970 to 1999’. Science Communication 23.4 (2002): 359-391. Olson, Svein Ottar. ‘Extending the Prevalent Consumer Loyalty Modelling: The Role of Habit Strength’. European Journal of Marketing 47.1/2 (2013): 303-323. Pidgeon, Nick, Roger E. Kasperson and Paul Slovic. The Social Amplification of Risk. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

68

Making Sense of New Food Technologies and Trust in Food (1960-1995)

__________________________________________________________________ Poelmans, Jacqueline. L’Europe et les Consommateurs. Brussels, Paris: Fernand Nathan, Editions Labor, 1978. Powels, Daniel and William Leis. Mad Cows and Mother’s Milk. Montreal: McGill Queen’s University Press, 1997. Reese, Stephen D. ‘Framing Public Life: A Bridging Model for Media Research’. Framing Public Life. Perspectives on Media and Our Understanding of the Social World, edited by Stephen D. Reese, Oscar H. Gandy Jr. and August E. Grant, 7-32. New York: Routledge, 2001. Rochefort, Robert. La Société des Consommateurs. Paris: Odile Jacob, 1995. Salvatore, Armando and Roberta Sassatelli. ‘Trust in Food. A Theoretical Discussion’. Consumer Trust in Food – A European Study of the Social and Institutional Conditions for the Production of Trust. Working Paper, Bologna: University of Bologna, 2004. Siegrist, Michael. ‘Factors Influencing Public Acceptance of Innovative Food Technologies and Products’. Trends in Food Science and Technology 19 (2008): 603-608. Ten Eyck, Toby A. ‘Shaping a Food Safety Debate: Control Efforts of Newspaper Reporters and Sources in the Food Irradiation Controversy’. Science Communication 20 (1999): 426-447. Ten Eyck, Toby A. ‘The More Things Change…: Milk Pasteurization, Food Irradiation, and Biotechnology in the New York Times’. The Social Science Journal 41 (2004): 29-41. Thorelli, Hans B. and Sarah V. Thorelli. Consumer Information Handbook: Europe and North America. London: Praeger, 1974. Tuchman, Gaye. Making News: A Study in the Construction of Reality. New York: Free Press, 1978. Van Ballaer, R. and L. Van Hilst. ‘Omschakeling en Diversifiëring van de Economie’. Limburg 1975 – 1995, edited by J. Ackaert and L. Albrechts, 46-117. Hasselt: Bestendige Deputatie van de Provincie Limburg, 1995.

Filip Degreef

69

__________________________________________________________________ Van Rijswijk, Wendy and Lynn J. Frewer. ‘Consumer Perceptions of Food Quality and Safety and Their Reaction to Traceability’. British Food Journal 110.10 (2008): 1034-1046. Zachmann, Karin. ‘Atoms for Peace and Radiation for Safety – How to Build Trust in Irradiated Foods in Cold War Europe and Beyond’. History and Technology 27.1 (2011): 65-90. Zachmann, Karin and Per Østby. ‘Food, Technology, and Trust: An Introduction’. History and Technology 27.1 (2011): 1-10. Filip Degreef is a PhD candidate at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. As a member of the research group of Social and Cultural Food Studies (FOST) his research focuses on the changing nature of representations of food quality and safety in the post-war period.

Designed Pleasure: How Advertising Is Selling Food as Drugs Oliver Vodeb Abstract This chapter will focus on advertising representations of heavily engineered addictive food. I will argue that there is a direct link between illegal drug culture and addictive food culture, on the level of representations of ways of consumption as well as rhetoric, created and maintained through advertising of the legitimate, commercial ‘high impact’ food industry. Advertising is by purpose designed in a way that is unreflected upon by consumers and the wider public, as it renders the culture of addiction invisible through its communicative integration into discourses of pleasure. At the same time, such advertising directly promotes food in particular ways, which directly enhance the drug like aspects of food. Such advertising is designed to precondition the consumer and create a relationship between the consumer and promoted food, which in turn, should maximise profits of the advertiser and strengthen the consumer’s relation to the most potent substances of food that create states of pleasure. Fast foods, food high in sugar, with a high glycaemic index, high in salt and fat and as well as a combination of these are perfect for creating addiction. This chemical engineering is also supported by a marketing discourse that, heavily designed through advertising, creates a superficial culture of pleasure. This pleasure driven advertising culture is a legitimate, commercially enforced and legal drug culture. Key Words: Food, addiction, representation, advertising, design, culture, society, pleasure. ***** 1. Food and Drugs: (Un) Obvious Relation In the summer of 2014 food enthusiasts, cooks, and young people of Maribor (the second biggest city of Slovenia), started to organise regular Culinary Festivals on the city’s old food market (Image 1 and 2). The working class city is experiencing hard times, as Slovenia is in crisis. Widespread corruption and the country’s big debt have put people in the position where the future looks grim – especially for the younger population. Alcohol consumption is on the rise, and we can speculate with some certainty, so is the consumption of illicit drugs. Food, besides serving as the source for generating income of small-scale business, is the perfect medium for social interaction and plays here an emancipatory role. Good vibrations and positive moods are communicated, and positive examples of engagement are put on display in an otherwise rather depressive social climate. Good food for low prices is bringing people together.

72

Designed Pleasure

__________________________________________________________________ Friends meet and talk, food is being discussed and above all as the organisers advertise, food ‘pampers people’s senses’.

Image 1: Scenes from Culinary Festival, Maribor, Slovenia © June 2014. Courtesy of Oliver Vodeb.

Image 2: Scenes from Culinary Festival, Maribor, Slovenia © June 2014. Courtesy of Oliver Vodeb.

Oliver Vodeb

73

__________________________________________________________________ When looking at the image I have to smile, not only do I know some of the people in the image, but there was something else that grabbed my attention. ‘Breaking Good. We don’t cook Meth, we cook food’ is written on the blackboard, which is advertising pork roast on the grill with cherry chutney and a salad – all for 5 EUR. This ironic and humorous approach to communication is a social commentary on the city’s illicit drug culture and calls for more meaningful and smart activities – such as cooking. But there is something else at play as the connection between food and drugs is much deeper. Historically there was no sharp distinction between food and drugs. Before the introduction of potato, beer was the second most important source of nourishment in big parts of central and north Europe. 1 Beer is, in Germany, still considered food and so is wine in France and Italy. Drugs and food address our senses. Both are used to produce pleasure. Both are used in relation to un/happiness. Food rituals as family meals or meals at particular occasions, like Christmas for example serve this very purpose. Drugs too, are used to create feelings of happiness – like for example Ecstasy (MDMA) and they change moods. The striving for happiness is directly related to pleasure and this seems to be at the core of human lives. Freud wrote in his Civilisation and its Discontents the following about this relation: We will therefore turn to the less ambitious question of what men themselves show by their behaviour to be the purpose and intention of their lives. What do they demand of life and wish to achieve in it? The answer to this can hardly be in doubt. They strive after happiness; they want to become happy and to remain so. This endeavour has two sides, a positive and a negative aim. It aims, on the one hand, at an absence of pain and unpleasure, and, on the other, at the experiencing of strong feelings of pleasure. In its narrower sense the word ‘happiness’ only relates to the last. In conformity with this dichotomy in his aims, man’s activity develops in two directions, according as it seeks to realize - in the main, or even exclusively -the one or the other of these aims. As we see, what decides the purpose of life is simply the programme of the pleasure principle. This principle dominates the operation of the mental apparatus from the start. There can be no doubt about its efficacy, and yet its programme is at loggerheads with the whole world, with the macrocosm as much as with the microcosm. There is no possibility at all of its being carried through; all the regulations of the universe run counter to it. One feels inclined to say that the intention that man should be ‘happy’ is not included in the plan of ‘Creation’. What we call happiness in the strictest sense comes from the

74

Designed Pleasure

__________________________________________________________________ (preferably sudden) satisfaction of needs, which have been dammed up to a high degree, and it is from its nature only possible as an episodic phenomenon. When any situation that is desired by the pleasure principle is prolonged, it only produces a feeling of mild contentment. We are so made that we can derive intense enjoyment only from a contrast and very little from a state of things. Thus our possibilities of happiness are already restricted by our constitution. Unhappiness is much less difficult to experience… 2 Our culinary pleasures are also about the satisfaction of our longing for happiness and the social aspect of food, its binding intimate nature, protects us from unhappiness not only as it is giving us direct physical pleasure but also as it is the medium for close and warm social interaction with other people. Unhappiness and suffering comes also from relations to other people, and this kind of suffering is, for Freud, the most severe. The nature of pleasure forces us to constantly seek for more, as pleasure never stays for long. This works in favour of the food industry, as more food needs to be constantly consumed to achieve more pleasure. Food as drugs works on the level of substances, textures, and aromas that provide pleasure. Salt, sugar and fat are the main substances that we seek when we want to satisfy our pleasure. 3 The food industry is engineering and designing food accordingly in order to provide maximum effects of pleasure, which in turn develops cravings for particular substances. More and more research shows that the effect of certain foods is very similar to the effects of drugs. Brian scans show that foods – for example fast food or sweets, are engineered to have an optimum level of sugar, or fat, or salt, but most of all a combination of the three, to trigger the same brain areas and produce cravings in the same way as for example cocaine. 4 The most obvious example of engineered addictive food are potato chips, that besides a combination of fat, salt and sugar also provide a specific crisp, a feeling in our mouth and a sound that all together provides immense pleasure. 5 As Pulizer winning investigative journalist Michael Moss has shown, chips, as pleasure delivering devices, are engineered and designed with great effort: … a company owned by Pepsi- Frito-Lay has a research complex near Dallas, where nearly 500 chemists, psychologists and technicians conduct research that costs up to $30 million a year, and the science corps focused intense amounts of resources on questions of crunch, mouth feel and aroma for each of their chips items. Their tools include a $40,000 device that simulated a chewing mouth to test and perfect the chips, discovering things

Oliver Vodeb

75

__________________________________________________________________ like the perfect break point: people like a chip that snaps with about four pounds of pressure per square inch. 6 The food industry does not only design food as drugs, its commercial representations also resemble those that we can observe in the illicit drug culture. In the paper ‘Depiction of Food as Having Drug-like Properties in Televised Food Advertisements Directed at Children: Portrayals as Pleasure Enhancing and Addictive’, 7 Page and Brewster analysed 147 food commercials from the year 2005 televised during children’s TV programming on U.S. broadcast networks. Their research, which examined the influence of commercials for inducing problematic behaviours in children, such as substance use behaviour and physical violence, showed that commercials contained depictions of exaggerated pleasure sensation and dependency and/or addiction. Other illicit drug culture like behaviour found present in the advertisements included portrayals of physical violence, trickery, stealing, and fighting as well as taking extreme measures to obtain food. 8 Advertisements that contained such depictions were directly promoting products, mostly high in sugar. 8.2% of the commercials were coded for an exaggerated pleasure sensation and 12.9% showed depictions of dependency or addiction. 16.3% portrayed conflict, fighting, or taking extreme measures, 10.2% depicted thievery or stealing, 6.1% showed trickery, and 9.5% contained portrayals of physical violence. 9 This research focused on advertisements aimed at children on American television and through content analysis it shows the relationship between advertisements and illicit drug cultures on the level of content and representation. Illicit drug culture like behaviour was, in this research, mostly found in products containing high amounts of sugar, less salt and fat, but the authors conclude that this is due the fact that fast food chains like McDonald’s advertised more the experience of visiting the restaurant than actual products. Representations of food that resemble illicit drug cultures can however also be found in advertisements aimed at adults. The connections between food and drugs vary in their explicitness and level of directness. In the following I will show examples of advertising, which connects food with drugs and promotes ways of engaging with food that promises states of pleasure directly through the engagement with the potent substance. 2. Pushing the Substance The advertising industry strategically focuses on highlighting certain attributes of food – of which the food industry is aware of creating effects of pleasure. For example, pizza companies introduce more cheese (salt and fat) to increase pleasure and when Pizza Hut introduced the Cheese Stuffed Crust in 1995, it boosted sales by 300 million dollars. 10 The extra cheese uses the crust- which people usually don’t eat- as an additional delivery mechanism for salt, sugar and fat, which are the key substances for creating pleasure. 11 Its current popular pizzas include the ‘crazy

76

Designed Pleasure

__________________________________________________________________ cheesy crust’ 12 and the ‘cheesy bites’ 13 pizzas. The crazy cheesy crust pizza took more than a year to engineer and design in order to create the mixture of five cheeses that create the ‘wow’ effect and ‘ooey-gooey’ stretch. 14 The pizza is designed to deliver maximum pleasure and their advertisements focus on the substance delivery devices – the cheese filled pockets. Pizza Hut speaks in one of their commercials about ‘sixteen pockets of bliss’ when it presents its new invention. These pockets can be seen in food as the equivalent to drug delivery devices. The form of a drug influences the relationship we develop with it. The easier it is for us to take a drug physically, the more the form of a drug is culturally accepted, the less inhibited we are going to be in relation to the consumption of the drug. The bite size portions, which are easy to hold and eat with our hands are fulfilling this function. The ‘pockets of bliss’ are here to provide pleasure. They are portioned to be eaten one after the otherpleasure, as identified previously, which is an episodic phenomenon and needs to be constantly reinforced. The pockets are fat and salt delivery devices and according to research published last year, such foods: ‘are stimulating the brains in the same way as drugs of abuse and can be considered as a potentially addictive substance’. 15 The most sold cookie in the word, Oreo received unwanted major media presence last year when it was reported that Oreo cookies are potentially more addictive than cocaine. Through measurements researchers found out that: ‘greater number of neurons that were activated in the brain’s pleasure centre in animals that were conditioned to Oreos compared to animals that were conditioned to cocaine [or morphine]’. 16 Analysing Oreo TV advertisements in several countries shows one parallel. Most of the advertisements teach our children and us how to consume Oreos in the way that will give us the biggest pleasure. It teaches us to go straight to the sourceone needs to first open the cookie and lick the filling, then we put the halves of the cookie back together and dip it in milk and eat. 17 This example similarly demonstrates behaviour that Page and Brewster found in relation to children, whereby they are showing skills and performing tricks in order to fulfil this particular, taught and prescribed way of consuming the cookie as they overcome various obstacles. To lick the essence of the cookie, the isolated high sugar filling first, is related to the way food is being produced at large today. As biomedical imaging researcher at Brookhaven National Laboratory Dr. Gene-Jack Wang noted in an October 2013 interview for the Atlantic: ‘We make our food very similar to cocaine now’ … ‘[Now] we purify our food […] Our ancestors ate whole grains, but we're eating white bread. American Indians ate corn; we eat corn syrup’. 18 Oreo Advertisements don’t talk only to children, adults are also being preconditioned to eat the cookies and indulge in pleasure in the same way. The Oreo ‘Kid Inside’ advertisement made for Oreo’s 100th Birthday showed the inside

Oliver Vodeb

77

__________________________________________________________________ of a bus full of adults with a grey, boring adult atmosphere. 19 When children walk in with plates full of Oreo cookies, the scene becomes bright and the adults – who already know how to eat Oreos – are reminded about the child inside them with the slogan ‘celebrate the kid inside’ and a child holding a sign with ‘next stop childhood’ written on it. The highly engineered Oreo cookies and the suggestive advertisements, which incorporate behavioural patterns representing pleasure at the very act of consumption naturalise the food-as drug on the level of substance, acts of consumption and representation. Food and drugs become one although for the majority of the audience the relation is not made explicit. The quick sugar/ chocolate fix is sometimes referred to literally, as in the case of Australian food and cooking magazine ‘Delicious’ which April 2014 cover advertised the ‘chocolate FIX, 7 recipes you NEED to have, which makes sense as research suggests that cocoa influences our mood. 20 The language here again refers to the purity of the drug and it seems that there is a fundamental shift happening where drugs and foods become more and more one again. They used to be one for the biggest part of human history - German word Genussmittel, for example, even signifies certain foods (like coffee, tea chocolate…) as food for pleasure 21 but food and drugs were more and more separated when: The march of science brought both more refined knowledge of drugs and the ability to make them in intensified forms. Various distilled spirits had been around for some time, but their mass production and trade made them more widely available, which led many drinkers away from beer and wine and helped fuel the “gin craze” in eighteenth-century England. Similarly, after the alkaloid cocaine was synthesized in 1877, the older practices of coca leaf chewing and drinking coca tea and wine gave way to cocaine inhalation and injection. Opium smoking was supplanted by morphine and, eventually, heroin injection. More generally, plant-based remedies gave rise to early pharmaceutical chemistry. 22 Taxonomies and representation of food are always connected to politics and ideologies. Advertising food as drugs seems the perfect match. Marshal McLuhan already warned us of the narcotic effects of media. 23 There has always been an interesting paradox with visual language – while it makes certain things visible it renders certain things at the same time invisible. The fact that food – our closest and most intimate relation to nature – is represented through advertising in ways that are meant to precondition us to engage in addictive behaviour engaging with substances that are designed to create

78

Designed Pleasure

__________________________________________________________________ states of pleasure and are at the same time food and addictive substances, in my opinion suggests that we should seriously reconsider our societies’ relation to drugs, food and advertising.

Notes Craig Reinarman, ‘Policing Pleasure: Food Drugs and the Politics of Ingestion’, Gastronomica: Journal of Food and Culture 7.3 (2007): 53-61. 2 Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010). 68. 3 Michael Moss, Salt Sugar Fat (New York: Random House, 2013). 4 Joseph Schroeder, J. C. Honohan, R. H. Markson, L. Cameron, K. S. Bantis and G. C. Lopez, ‘Nucleus Accumbens C-Fos Expression Is Correlated with Conditioned Place Preference to Cocaine, Morphine and High Fat/Sugar Food Consumption’ (Presented at the Society for Neuroscience Conference 2013). 5 Moss, Salt Sugar Fat. 6 Ibid., 132. 7 Randy Page and Aaron Brewster, ‘Depiction of Food as Having Drug-Like Properties in Televised Food Advertisements Directed at Children: Portrayals as Pleasure Enhancing and Addictive’, Journal of Paediatric Health Care 23.3 (2009): 150-157. 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid. 10 See Vanessa Wong, ‘Can “Crazy Cheesy Crust” Top Pizza Hut’s Stuffed Crust?’ Business Week, April 3, 2013, viewed 2 July 2014, http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-03/can-crazy-cheesy-crust-toppizza-hut-s-stuffed-crust. 11 Moss, Salt Sugar Fat. 12 ‘Crazy Cheesy Crust’, Pizza Hut Pizza Advertisement, Huffington Post, viewed 23 August 2014, http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1066492/original.jpg. 13 ‘Cheesy Bites Pizza’, Promotional Image, Pizza Hut, viewed 22 August 2014, http://www.pizzahut.se/upl/images/280732.jpg. 14 See Sofie Egan, ‘Stunt Food’, Wired, 2013, viewed July 10 2014, http://www.wired.com/2013/09/stuntfoods/. 15 Schroeder et al., ‘Nucleus Accumbens C-Fos Expression’. 16 Ibid. 17 ‘Oreo Sippy Cup’, Advertisement, YouTube, viewed 28 August 2014, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxLYWGlaQ-E. 18 Dr. Gene-Jack Wang, in James Hamblin, ‘How Oreos Work like Cocaine’, The Atlantic, 2013, viewed 20 August 2014, http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/how-oreos-work-likecocaine/280578/. 1

Oliver Vodeb

79

__________________________________________________________________ ‘Kid Inside’, Oreo Advertisement, YouTube, viewed 20 August 2014, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrWIQxBVSpY. 20 Matthew P. Pase et al., ‘Cocoa Polyphenols Enhance Positive Mood States but Not Cognitive Performance: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial’, Journal of Psychopharmacology 27.5 (2013): 451-458. 21 Reinarman, ‘Policing Pleasure’, 53-61. 22 Ibid. 23 Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media (London: Routledge, 2001). 19

Bibliography ‘Crazy Cheesy Crust Pizza Commercial’. Pizza Hut Pizza Advertisement. YouTube. Viewed 20 June 2014. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0TryXhwz3U. Dube, Laurette, and I. Cantin. ‘Promoting Health or Promoting Pleasure? A Contingency Approach to the Effect of Informational and Emotional Appeals on Food Liking and Consumption’. Appetite 35 (2000): 251-262. Egan, Sofie. ‘Stunt Food’. Wired. 2013. Viewed 10 July 2014. http://www.wired.com/2013/09/stuntfoods/. Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. Hamblin, James. ‘How Oreos Work like Cocaine’. The Atlantic. 2013. Viewed 5 July 2014. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/how-oreos-worklike-cocaine/280578/. ‘Kid Inside’. Oreo Advertisement. YouTube. Viewed 20 August 2014. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrWIQxBVSpY McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media. London: Routledge, 2001. Page, Randy and Aaron Brewster. ‘Depiction of Food as Having Drug-Like Properties in Televised Food Advertisements Directed at Children: Portrayals as Pleasure Enhancing and Addictive’. Journal of Paediatric Health Care 23.3 (2009): 150-157.

80

Designed Pleasure

__________________________________________________________________ Pase, Matthew P., Andrew B. Scholey, Andrew Pipingas, Marni Kras, Karen Nolidin, Amy Gibbs, Keith Wesnes and Con Stough. ‘Cocoa Polyphenols Enhance Positive Mood States but Not Cognitive Performance: A Randomized, PlaceboControlled Trial’. Journal of Psychopharmacology 27.5 (2013): 451-458. Reinarman, Craig. ‘Policing Pleasure: Food Drugs and the Politics of Ingestion’. Gastronomica: Journal of Food and Culture 7.3 (2007): 53- 61. Schroeder, Joseph, J. C. Honohan, R. H. Markson, L. Cameron, K. S. Bantis and G.C. Lopez. ‘Nucleus Accumbens C-Fos Expression Is Correlated with Conditioned Place Preference to Cocaine, Morphine and High Fat/Sugar Food Consumption’. Paper Presented at the Society for Neuroscience Conference, 2013. ‘Sippy Cup, Oreo TV Advertisement’. YouTube. Viewed 20 August 2014. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWHuowqHzlI. Wong, Vanessa. ‘Can “Crazy Cheesy Crust” Top Pizza Hut's Stuffed Crust?’ Business Week, April 3, 2013. Viewed 2 July 2014. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-03/can-crazy-cheesy-crust-toppizza-hut-s-stuffed-crust. Oliver Vodeb teaches and researches at Swinburne University of Technology. He is director, editor and curator of Memefest Festival of Socially Responsive Communication and Art and facilitator of the Memefest Network. His last book is titled InDEBTed TO INTERVENE, Critical Lessons in Debt, Communication, Art and Theoretical Practice. He is about to start working on a book on Food Democracy published by Intellect books UK.

Living under Control: Social Representation of Dieting for Brazilian and Spanish Women Maria Clara de Moraes Prata Gaspar and Lis Furlani Blanco Abstract In this chapter we aim to discuss and comprehend the gender relations through the analysis of the young women relations with food and food control. Through the discourse analysis of 60 semi-direct interviews, we observed that the idea of control is in both countries based on the relation between women and their food habits. This concept of control, built on self-responsibility is considered by these women as ‘normality’, even though it is completely related with food habits reflexibility and causes a rupture in the previous habits. Further than the problematic of aesthetic and health that motivates this idea of control, it represents a life style and a life hygiene, a life conquer, self control, that is built altogether with the idea of femininity. Key Words: Eating control, diet, food habits reflexibility, self-responsibility, aesthetic norm, health, young women, comparative study. ***** 1. Introduction The body is a support of values of each social group. These values establish different uses of the body that contribute to its shape. 1 Women's bodies, more than men’s bodies, have been submitted to the norms of beauty, which have been varying according to each period, social and cultural context. 2 In the last decades, women’s bodies appeared to be free from the physical and moral taboos. However, this liberation did not diminish the domination that pre-existed. 3 At the same time that beauty became completely inseparable from thinness, mainly regarding women, the medical domain began to condemn the overweight more and more. The beautiful, desirable and healthy body should be thin. Furthermore, more than thin, this body should be under control. 4 In this way, whether for health or aesthetic reasons, individuals, mainly women, are encouraged to control their body and / or weight and are responsible for being deviant or not in relation to the norms. According to the principle of incorporation, ‘we are what we eat’. The act of eating creates the eater and his/her body - and then, eating is one of the principal ways where this control of the body can be achieved. 5 So, the norm of thinness and the health concerns directly influence the eating habits of women, and ‘dieting’ for the control of the body and weight has become a widespread practice. 6 The main goal of this chapter over Brazilian and Spanish young women is to comprehend their relation to food, especially concerning control of eating

82

Living under Control

__________________________________________________________________ behaviours and diet. This study is focused on female college students, between 18 and 28 years old and it is inscribed in a comparative approach, based on sixty individual interviews developed in São Paulo (Brazil) and Barcelona (Spain). We will use ‘control’ as an analytic category in order to articulate the chapter premise. 2. Control of Eating Behaviour and Body: Discourses and Practices The relationship to food of the Brazilian and Spanish interviewed young women seems to be associated with their relationship to their bodies, being both of these relationships characterized by self-control. According to Apfeldorfer and Zemati when an individual begins a weight-loss diet or a balance food program, one starts to execute a cognitive control and one’s food behaviour becomes reflective and no more intuitive. 7 Most of the interviewed women present a reflective relationship to their eating practices, that is, there is a problematization of the eating activity concerning what they will eat, how, where and why. 8 Almost all the interviewed women had already controlled their food ingestion by themselves, although it is said that friends and family, especially those from the female gender, are relevant sources of advice. Another source of advice is the media, mainly Internet. In certain cases, mostly in Brazil, before any eating control experiences interviewed women search for support groups and health professionals, especially dieticians. All health professionals and the responsible for the support groups are women, which reinforce de idea of a feminine universe surrounding eating control. Even though we observe different food control experiences, certain aspects and strategies are repeated and trespass the countries boundaries. Usually, these methods are the reflex of the nutritional discourses broadcasted globally by specialists, by public health policy and by the media, all of this permeated by popular knowledge. Food control can modify different stages of the act of eating. Women try to control what they eat and the amount of certain food ingested according to the perception they have about the food nutritional composition. In certain cases this categorization is directly connected to the food nutritional classification. They also change their buying habits, the method of cooking, the time they eat and what they eat in each time. In addition to change their food ingestion, young women, mainly the Brazilians, combine the food control altogether with other methods, such as, medicines, teas, ‘shakes’ or food supplement. The physical activity is also another strategy adopted. In Brazil, physical activity is commonly present in the day-to-day activities of all the interviewed women, who frequently attend gymnasiums in the country. Even if we can find similarities between the women interviewed such food control can be nominated in different ways, for example: ‘being on a diet’, ‘to control’, ‘to balance’, ‘to re-educate’, ‘take care of’, ‘to police’, and ‘to carry out

Maria Clara de Moraes Prata Gaspar and Lis Furlani Blanco

83

__________________________________________________________________ surveillance’. To comprehend the issues regarding this kind of control, it seems to be relevant to analyse what are the motivations implied in this kind of control. 3. Between Health and Aesthetic: The Motivation Regarding Food Control It is not possible to highlight just one and only motivation to the origin of food control, but different factors that blend with each other. To the interviewed women there is a straight connection between what they eat, their health, their physical appearance, their weight and finally their wellbeing. Furthermore, for the majority of women the current eating habits are not proper and might even contain toxic elements, representing a risk for health and appearance. It is not rare that these women associate what they eat with a singular physical shape: someone who eats fat will be fat, as so, the person who eats in a balanced way will be ‘light’ and healthy. According to their discourse, the body and the appearance are the aspects that play an important part in the relation with the other and the world. The physical shape is a constant concern and it is considered as a significant element in the professional, social, and affective opportunities. Several studies demonstrate that women considered as deviants to body norms are more stigmatized and discriminated than men in the same conditions. 9 It is important to emphasize that the interviewed women are in a phase of pursuing an autonomous life and also to consolidate an identity. In addition, in agreement with the dominant thought it is during this period that women are fertile and should find their love mate. If the body is comprehended as a capital, a body capital, 10 food and its effects on their body might become a threat to what they are in society. These risks should be minimized through food control. Food control is, in most cases, due to the aesthetic slimming norms and the ideal of thinness currently present in the Western societies. This ideal, which is associated with a social efficiency model, expresses itself with the desire of weighting less and are supported by some moral values already internalized and by the perception of a social obligation. 11 Food control becomes more rigid as the women think there is a deviance in relation to the aesthetic norm. Even more, they intensify or start to control food as they begin to gain weight. It is important to emphasize that food control it is not associated with a weight problem in terms of health norms, but it is a concern with aesthetics. Women that have their corpulence closer to the superior limit of normality or those who are overweight according to the World Health Organization, 12 have a more significant tendency to deal in a conflictive way with their food and body, situations where food control is more present. However, having a lower corpulence index it is not associated with a smaller concern. Most women interviewed, who declare having control over food, wish to lose weight, even though almost none of them should be concerned with their weight according to the health norms.

84

Living under Control

__________________________________________________________________ Some women control their eating behaviours in order to gain weight ‘just a little bit’ or in order to gain muscles to have an ideal body. In effect, more than thin, the perfect body is a built and shaped body. Women are never completely satisfied with their bodies and the pursuit of an ideal body is an endless combat, where food control is essential. To control food because one is ill happens less often with the women interviewed. The pursuit of health by prevention is another motivation. Although more than saying that they aim to prevent disease, they declare that their main objective is to become healthy. We observe that the representation of being healthy is associated with an ideal body representation. The thin ideal concerns also health representations or the idea of well-being. Therefore, food control is a means of regulating health and physic shape. Nonetheless, it seems that this phenomenon is more complex and carries other significations. 4. Social Representations of Food Control: From Food Control to Life Control The food control is not experimented in the same way by all the young women. The fact of controlling or not food can define the relation these young women have with their eating habits. Also, some young women justify the importance they give to food with the fact of controlling it, because this care consumes time, energy and money. To control food can produce a sensation of emotional and physical well-being, result of the capacity of self control, which provides women with a sensation of strength and power. In a society with food abundance, controlling the will to eat is considered a demonstration of capacity and discipline. Sometimes, independently of achieving a real change in their weight or appearance, the fact of being able to control their food might affect their relation with their own body. When there is no control, the relation with their bodies becomes more negative. In fact, the result obtained does not completely matter, but most important is the ability of selfcontrol: a work over the body, a work of control, discipline and regulation. This control is more interiorized, as it is perceived as a personal wish, a life goal, a life conquest. To these young women, food control trespasses the food problematic and implicates in a more appropriated life rhythm and a control over life in general. Besides a rational and conscious motivation, like an aesthetic concern, food control brings a moral questioning, regarding individual responsibility, not only as an individual but also as women in society. In effect, the feeling of conquest and well being, coming from controlling food ingestion and the body, are located in a self control perspective and in an accomplishment of feminine role, and also in the idea of integrating certain practices implicated in the construction of femininity in the Western world. More than a factor of individualization, body is a belonging marker. 13 This food control is a way of incorporating the norms and practices

Maria Clara de Moraes Prata Gaspar and Lis Furlani Blanco

85

__________________________________________________________________ aiming self-realization, or to become some specific kind of person, to be a woman in society. Not achieving it may signify a symbolic death. 14 5. Control and Loss of Control: Pleasure and Guilt According to the interviewed women’s discourse, they never feel they are eating correctly, or that their control is enough. They mention some reasons such as lack of time, or money limitations as constraints. Even though, in most cases, they associate these factors to the lack of efforts and discipline, as they are still responsible for the failure on the food control. The lack of control signifies not being strong enough and being lazy or unable. The relationship to food is built between the tension of discipline/control moments and lack of control. This relation, which they describe as a relation of love and hate, a struggle, is marked by a feeling of anguish. Any desire beyond the ‘normal’ is seen as a factor that will lead to loss of control. The hunger, the will of eating, pleasure or simply the idea of pleasure become enemies. Thus food control goes through the regulation of pleasure. To be accepted, pleasure must be justified and rationalized, or culpability will be inevitable. This feeling of guilt reveals a moral discourse over food and dietetic. According to Gracia, the contemporaneous individual must be responsible and eat properly. 15 For the author, during the last century the theory of victim blaming, reducing risk behaviours by attacking them on a moral basis, stigmatizing and transforming the victims into guilty ones, has been an important step in the process of medicalization of eating. The individuals, mainly women, are judged by society over their imprudence and lack of discipline. 6. Life over Control: Food Control, Diet and Food Re-Education Usually, young women do not consider this food control as a diet, but simply as a kind of control. In their representation, diets have a negative connotation. The idea of diet is associated to a heavily used method, to a failure and to a strictly aesthetic care. The diets implicate a ‘name’, massive changes and are conceived as a list of rules, a really rigid restriction with a specific time duration, which will take place in their normal food habits. After having done restrictive diets or after failures, women interviewed search for an alternative form of control, ‘sweeter’ or some kind of food re-education, expression used in Brazil overall, which is not considered by them as a diet. This re-education, usually guided by a dietician, aims to a definite and global change in food representations and behaviours, establishing a new food model according to the dietetic norms. Opposite to diets, the re-education should be less restrictive, allowing consumption of all kind of food and allowing even pleasure, if it is correctly rationalized. Furthermore, diets will be associated with a lack of maturity, an ‘adolescent’ phase. Hence food re-education will represent a more mature

86

Living under Control

__________________________________________________________________ phase, an achievement of awareness of their own food, of a correct way of eating, a more serene relation with food and body. Women do not consider food re-education as a diet as health professionals and the media opposes these two different practices. 16 In addition, while diet is perceived as a popular method, a massified one, they describe food re-education or food control as a more personalized and individualized method, ‘a philosophy’, ‘my way of eating’, ‘my personal decision’, ideas that are conveyed by certain professionals and by the media. Nevertheless, these personalized strategies, are bases on the same moral principles implicating self-control. 17 As the word diet and its practice are seen as negative, the idea of food reeducation or the idea of control are considered as acceptable practices, as ways of being ‘healthy’ or feeling good with yourself. To some women the food control ‘coming from themselves’, thought that reveals the internalization level on the importance of having an individual responsibility over food. Food control or food re-education becomes a life style, a life hygiene. 18 However, if one should become accustomed to and face the desires and instincts in order to eat healthy and to control, is it not a diet? There is a contradiction between the discourse about diet and the discourse about control or food re-education, because at the same time that this control is not perceived as a diet, it implicates a rupture with the daily food habits, and a new logic, in which the individual discipline, usually under the form of ‘I have to’, ‘I should’, seem fundamental. It is important to question the idea of control as a practice opposite to diet as in weekends or special occasions women declare they allow themselves to loosen their control. If control is not comprehended as an extraordinary measure, why is it necessary to get out of its constraints from time to time? Even women who say that they had already incorporated this control in their habits, going through a process of ‘routinization’, 19 and consider it as ‘food normality’, contradict themselves. Being on a diet consists in a systematic rupture with the previous habits, 20 adapting them over the influence of dietetic norms. It rationally sets a new normative logic on daily food practices. 21 According to Apfeldorfer, the new tendency is the ‘balanced diet’, in which one can eat everything, but in the right amount and manners, 22 without being on a diet. The young women who participated in this study seem to be influenced by this discourse. This process seems to be softer and make people believe that it is not a diet, but it is still difficult to follow, with rigidity and blaming. To control food has become a ‘normal’, generalized and permanent practice, especially for women. Germov and Williams characterize this situation as the ‘epidemic of dieting women’. 23 It should be interesting then to comprehend the idea of norm and normality over food. As we observed, for the interviewed women, to control food is a norm even though it will implicate change in eating habits and a personal effort. Due to the increasing number of people, mainly

Maria Clara de Moraes Prata Gaspar and Lis Furlani Blanco

87

__________________________________________________________________ women, who are on a diet, Polivy and Herman questioned the notion of normality and concluded: ‘our understanding of normal eating depends on whether we refer to biological norms or societal norms’. 24 Discipline and shaping of the body are well diffused throughout society, which everywhere generates norms and constant systematic vigilance. 25 The social constructions of the feminine body as an object to be watched is interiorized early by women, who learn to self observe and regulate their bodies. 26 According to Bentham’s Panopticon, there is a phenomenon in which pressure is interiorized, implicating in a constant self-discipline. The imminence of ‘watching’ and its disciplinary efficiency makes each individual, in this case the young woman, to become their own surveillance, aiming to self-discipline. 27 Coming back to the idea of Polivy and Herman about biological and societal norms, we observe that dieting may be a field in which cultural pressures collide with biological realities, being ‘an example of how the expected degree of personal control and responsibility exceeds biological realities’. 28 In the light of this research, it was observed differences concerning food control practices and their meanings, between women from different nationalities but also between women from the same country, in which the notion of self-control is common to the majority of women. In effect, the idea of Bordo, that independent from race, ethnicity, age, gender orientation, if a woman wants to be accepted in the dominant culture, she ought to control her body, 29 and this discipline can be considered as a norm between the majority of young women interviewed, in Brazil and in Spain.

Notes Thibault de Saint Pol, Le corps désirable: hommes et femmes face à leur poids (Paria: PUF, 2010), 25. 2 Claude Fischler, L’Homnivore (Paris: Odile Jacob, 1990), 357-373. 3 Nita McKinley, ‘Ideal Weight/Ideal Women: Society Constructs the Female’, Weighty Issues: Fatness and Thinness as Social Problems, ed. Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1999), 102-103. 4 Saint Pol, Le corps desirable, 109-119. 5 Fischler, L’Homnivore, 66-70. 6 McKinley, ‘Ideal Weight/Ideal Women’, 97-115. 7 Gérard Apfeldorfer, Jean-Philippe Zemati, ‘Les régimes maigrissant sont des troubles du comportement alimentaire’, Réalités en Nutrition 6 (2007): 6-11. 8 Matthieu De Labarre, ‘L’expérience du régime au feminine’, Corps de femmes sous influence: Questionner les norms, ed. Annie Hubert (Paris: OCHA, 2004), 8082. 9 Saint Pol, Le corps desirable, 120-146. 1

88

Living under Control

__________________________________________________________________ Pierre Bourdieu, ‘Remarques provisoires sur la perception des corps’, Actes de la recherche en sociologie 14 (1977): 51-54. 11 Estelle Masson, ‘Le mincir, le grossir, le rester mince’, Corps de femmes sous influence: Questionner les norms, ed. Annie Hubert (Paris: OCHA, 2004), 28. 12 World Health Organization, ‘Global Database on Body Mass Index’, 2006, Accessed 12 January 2015, http://apps.who.int/bmi/index.jsp. 13 Saint Pol, Le corps desirable, 25. 14 Aureci F.C. Souza, ‘O percurso dos sentidos sobre a beleza através dos séculosuma análise discursive’ (Master diss. Faculdade de Educação Física da Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 2004). 15 Mabel Gracia, ‘Maneras de comer hoy: comprender la modernidad alimentaria desde y más allá de las normas’, Revista Internacional de Sociología 40 (2005): 159-182. 16 Lygia A. Santos, ‘Da dieta à reeducação alimentar: algumas notas sobre o comer contemporâneo a partir dos programas de emagrecimento na internet’, Psysis Revista de Saúde Coletiva 20.2 (2010): 461-463. 17 Mabel Gracia, ‘Fat Bodies and Thin Bodies. Cultural, Biomedical and Market Discourses on Obesity’, Appetite 55 (2010): 219-225. 18 Faustine Régnier, Ana Masullo, ‘Le régime entre santé et esthétique? Signification, parcours et mise en ouevre du régime alimentaire’, Revue d’Études en Agriculture et Environment 91.2 (2010): 191. 19 De labarre, ‘L’expérience du régime au feminine’, 81. 20 Ibid., 75-95. 21 Fischler, L’Homnivore, 240. 22 Gérard Apfeldorfer, Maigrir, c’est fou! (Paris: Odile Jacob, 2006). 23 John Germov, Lauren Williams, ‘The Epidemic of Dieting Women: The Need for a Sociological Approach to Food and Nutrition’, Appetite 27 (1996): 97-108. 24 Janet Polivy, Peter Herman, ‘Diagnosis and Treatment of Normal Eating’, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 55.5 (1987): 636. 25 Michael Foucault, Histoire de la sexualité, 1, la volonté de savoir (Paris: Gallimard, 1976). 26 Sandra L. Bartky, ‘Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power’, Feminism and Foucault: Reflections on Resistance, ed. Irene Diamond and Lee Quinby (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1988), 80. 27 Michael Foucault, Histoire de la sexualité, 1, la volonté de savoir. 28 Kelly Brownell, ‘Personal Responsibility and Control over Our Bodies: When Expectation Exceeds Reality’, Health Psychology 15.5 (1991): 308. 29 Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993). 10

Maria Clara de Moraes Prata Gaspar and Lis Furlani Blanco

89

__________________________________________________________________

Bibliography Apfeldorfer, Gérard. Maigrir, c’est fou! Paris: Odile Jacob, 2006. Apfeldorfer, Gérard and Jean-Philippe Zermati. ‘Les régimes maigrissant sont des troubles du comportement alimentaire’. Réalités en Nutrition 6 (2007): 6-11. Bartky, Sandra L. ‘Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power’. In Feminism and Foucault: Reflections on Resistance, edited by Irene Diamond and Lee Quinby, 61-86. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1988. Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. Brownell, Kelly D. ‘Personal Responsibility and Control over Our Bodies: When Expectation Exceeds Reality’. Health Psychology 15.5 (1991): 303-310. Bourdieu, Pierre. ‘Remarques provisoires sur la perception des corps’. Actes de la recherche en sociologie 14 (1977): 51-54. De Labarre, Matthieu D. ‘L’expérience du régime au feminine’. In Corps de femmes sous influence: Questionner les norms, edited by Annie Hubert, 75-95. Paris: Les cahiers de l’OCHA, 2004. Fischler, Claude. L’Homnivore. Paris: Odile Jacob, 1990. Foucault, Michael. Histoire de la sexualité, 1, la volonté de savoir. Paris: Gallimard, 1976. ———. Vigiar e Punir: nascimento da prisão. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1987. Germov, John and Lauren Williams. ‘The Epidemic of Dieting Women: The Need for a Sociological Approach to Food and Nutrition’. Appetite 27 (1996): 97-108. Gracia, Mabel A. ‘Maneras de comer hoy: comprender la modernidad alimentaria desde y más allá de las normas’. Revista Internacional de Sociología 40 (2005): 159-182. ———. ‘Fat Bodies and Thin Bodies. Cultural, Biomedical and Market Discourses on Obesity’. Appetite 55 (2010): 219-225.

90

Living under Control

__________________________________________________________________ Masson, Estelle. ‘Le mincir, le grossir, le rester mince’. In Corps de femmes sous influence: Questionner les norms, edited by Annie Hubert, 26-46. Paris: Les cahiers de l’OCHA, 2004. McKinley, Nita M. ‘Ideal Weight/Ideal Women: Society Constructs the Female’. In Weighty Issues: Fatness and Thinness as Social Problems, edited by Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer, 97-116. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1999. Polivy, Janet and Peter Herman. ‘Diagnosis and Treatment of Normal Eating’. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 55.5 (1987): 635-644. Régnier, Faustine and Ana Masullo. ‘Le régime entre santé et esthétique? Signification, parcours et mise en ouevre du régime alimentaire’. Revue d’Études en Agriculture et Environment 91.2 (2010): 185-208. Santos, Lygia A. ‘Da dieta à reeducação alimentar: algumas notas sobre o comer contemporâneo a partir dos programas de emagrecimento na internet’. Psysis Revista de Saúde Coletiva 20.2 (2010): 459-474. Souza, Aureci F.C. ‘O percurso dos sentidos sobre a beleza através dos séculosuma análise discursive’. Master diss. Faculdade de Educação Física da Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 2004. Saint-Pol, Thibault. Le corps désirable: hommes et femmes face à leur poids. Paris: PUF, 2010. World Health Organization. ‘Global Database on Body Mass Index’, 2006. Viewed 12 January 2015. http://apps.who.int/bmi/index.jsp. Maria Clara de Moraes Prata Gaspar is a dietician currently doing her PhD studies in Sociology and Anthropology of Food in the University of Toulouse and University of Barcelona. She is interested in medicalization of food and body, and the relationship between social and medical norms. Lis Furlani Blanco is an anthropologist finishing her Master Degree on Social Anthropology at the University of Campinas with a special interest in food anthropology and studies in the interface between the biological and socio-cultural spheres.

Being Faceless in the Fear of Food Anne-Marie Gloster and Amber Leigh Thompson Abstract Registered dieticians hear many reasons why people don’t cook anymore. Common excuses include that cooking is time consuming, it is costly and too much trouble. But underneath these pretexts lies a reality that no one talks about… fear. Fear is often what sequesters people from their kitchens. Human nature is such that we gravitate to spaces that summon feelings of comfort and competence. The kitchen has lost the status of being such a place. People have migrated away from the kitchen as packaged food and restaurant fare is consumed in greater amounts. As the home kitchen was abandoned so was the teaching and practice of culinary arts. Home economics also quietly left the school curriculum, thereby creating an even larger deficit in kitchen knowledge. As people moved out of the kitchen, the fear of the unknown has crept in. Cooking confidence is at a new low. Enter the Registered Dietician, the professional at the forefront of food and nutrition. Ironically, most dieticians do not practice the art of cooking as a regular part of their work. Food science, while a core element in the dietetics curriculum, is one of the most underappreciated skills in the understanding of the link between nutrition and human health. Dietetic students come wholly unprepared for their culinary nutrition training because of the current culture of kitchen desertion. A primary goal in the teaching of food science and culinary arts is to increase student’s selfefficacy in the kitchen. Culinary and food science instructors must not only teach skills, but they must overcome the student’s fear of the unknown. They must teach in a manner that allows students to lose their egos, become faceless, and explore their creative side, embrace their fears and cook anyway. Key Words: Cooking, culinary arts, food science, self-efficacy, confidence, kitchen, fear, kitchen literacy, home economics, education. ***** 1. Who Is in the Kitchen? There are many reasons as to why individuals do not cook anymore. The excuses most often cited include that cooking is too time consuming, it is costly and too much trouble. Underneath these pretexts lies a reality that is largely unaddressed… fear. Fear is ultimately what sequesters people from their kitchens. There are fears of failure, fears of ingredients, fears of waste, fears of embarrassment, and a fear for personal safety. Human nature is such that people gravitate to spaces that summon feelings of comfort and competence. The kitchen has lost the status of being such a place.

92

Being Faceless in the Fear of Food

__________________________________________________________________ Society has migrated away from the kitchen as consumption of packaged food and food from restaurants has continued a steady increase. 1 As the home kitchen has been abandoned, the teaching and practice of culinary arts has been deserted. 2 Home economics quietly left the school curriculum, thereby creating an even larger deficit in kitchen knowledge. 3 This abandonment has created an opportunity for fear to creep in; studies show that cooking confidence is at a new low. 4 One of the main behaviors encountered is hesitancy; it is not difficult to get people excited about cooking. The interest is there and people are watching food television in droves, and the celebrity chef has gained significant popularity. But underneath the interest is uncertainty: ‘Will I get burned?’ ‘Will I chop my finger off?’ ‘How was I supposed to hold this knife?’ This insecurity extends beyond the apprentice levels and affects even professionals. When working chefs are asked about their fears in the kitchen they can all speak to a deep-seated doubt. In the restaurant environment, a chef is only as good as their last effort produced. When the cooking school novice is either a young child or an older adult they will admit to their fears and ignorance. Confessions as to why some techniques work and others fail come easily to these groups. But the cohort with the most impediments is the college age student, and in particular the student majoring in human nutrition or dietetics, the proposed future food professional. 2. Teaching Culinary Nutrition at the Collegiate Level In general, college students are in the phase of life where every action is judged and life is a performance. Students of this age group are the ‘great pretenders’ who feign knowing what they are doing. The nutrition student is especially anxious about feeling pressure to know how to cook. Dietetics is supposed to be their major after all and subsequently part of their life’s work. The reality is that this group has a general lack of food science knowledge and basic hands-on kitchen skills. 5 Nutrition students produce ruined dishes with frequency in an effort to make classic dishes healthier, without understanding basic culinary techniques or food science. Their inability to functionally translate a recipe is termed as a lack of kitchen literacy. It is these bad experiences that lead to shame and a desire to be done with culinary class, and possibly leave the kitchen permanently. Dietetic students are required to take a hands-on cooking class in their undergraduate curriculum. This class is usually an introductory foods class or a basic food science class. Typically the class includes a cooking lab as a part of the course. It is during the lab section that dietetic students reveal their cooking insecurities. The majority of these students are driven to be in the field of nutrition for a variety of reasons; they have a family member with a nutrition-related health crisis, or they have weight concerns, or they feel a strong desire to be in a health profession. Most of these students do not possess a working knowledge of the kitchen. In their minds, nutritional science and the culinary arts do not have interdependence with one another. Yet, recent studies have shown that teaching

Anne-Marie Gloster and Amber Leigh Thompson

93

__________________________________________________________________ cooking skills and improving kitchen literacy is a legitimate strategy for improving a person’s nutritional status and is vital to a dietetics curriculum. 6 As stated earlier, many nutrition students do not have a background in home economics or experiences as children cooking at home with their parents. 7 Some basic culinary tasks are executed without incident, but other tasks are not. As an example, students instructed to ‘grease the bottom of the pan’ have been observed greasing the outside bottom of the pan instead of the inside of the pan, causing the pan to smoke in the oven and the product to stick to the inside. Another student read a recipe that used ‘two tablespoons of cold butter’; instead of measuring the cold butter, she melted the whole stick to meter out the two tablespoons and then refrigerated these to return them to a solid state. ‘Mix by hand’ was demonstrated by a student who inserted the whole hand, sans spoon, into a mixture in an attempt to combine wet and dry ingredients. As these examples indicate, kitchen literacy is not at the critical level required of a future food professional. 8 It is the opinion of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) that ‘dietitians are the most qualified professionals for the delivery of food and nutrition related services’. 9 Yet, the lack of culinary skills in this profession is somewhat understandable as there are many dietetic positions that don’t include the actual processing of raw food products. Many dietitians hold clinical positions and therefore never come in contact with actual food. In fact, some students view the foods class as a necessary evil, in order to advance through the nutrition curriculum. But, to be an expert in nutrition, you must know about food. Core competencies essential for dietitians, as defined by the AND, include basic cooking skills, cooking techniques, recipe development and recipe modification. 10 People do not consume isolated nutrients, but rather consume whole foods. How can a dietitian claim to be a nutrition expert, and not understand the science behind food preparation? How can you tell someone what to eat but not how to cook it? 11 This is tantamount to a nursing student that refuses to come in contact with bodily fluids, or the car mechanic that refuses to get his hands dirty. Neither can do an effective job with these barriers in place. 3. Educational Strategies The nutrition student who lacks basic food science knowledge has a low level of kitchen literacy, and feels insecure is the student with the most fear to overcome. Often, this is the student who feels a need to posture in front of their peers. This is the student who excels at washing the dishes and claims that other students should have the experience of performing the hands-on tasks. An educational strategy employed by culinary teachers to identify this student is to place a whole raw chicken in their hands and ask for it to be fabricated into eight pieces as the instructor just demonstrated. Often students will have consumed cooked chicken their whole lives and yet have never touched a raw piece of chicken. The student approaches this slippery and intimidating bird with pokes and prods. If they are

94

Being Faceless in the Fear of Food

__________________________________________________________________ able to express their insecurity and lack of process knowledge the instructor will step in and the task is brought back on track and eventually the student produces the eight elementary pieces required by the assignment. As these chicken parts emerge on the cutting board a sudden empowering moment happens to the student. It might not be mastery, but it is a huge accomplishment and applauded as a success. Any slight setback can cause a student to give up on the whole process, before they even arrive at the actual cooking part. A mental surrender in the kitchen is equal to a white flag being attached to your cutting board. Hence, one of the primary goals of the instructor is to assist the student to overcome his/her fears. Learning outcomes in a culinary nutrition program would benefit from the inclusion of the following: the student will be able to 1) demonstrate self-efficacy in the kitchen and 2) express him or herself at a critical level of kitchen literacy. To that end there are several strategies that have been employed by educators in an effort to address these learning goals. One such method requires students to set weekly kitchen SMART goals for themselves at home. This acronym is designed to encourage students to practice new culinary Skills or to have a new Sensory food experience. The effort must be Measureable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. In effect, the student is asked to try something new and then analyze his/her efforts. Analysis of both successes and failures is a key part to becoming more fluent in the kitchen. This process leads to a deeper understanding of food chemistry, which ultimately governs what is and what is not possible in food preparation. Once an individual has learned the basic science of food, more success will naturally follow. A constant building of skill level is required even for the food professional, and especially for the food novice. It is imperative that the student starts small when it comes to food preparation. Starting with a complex dish such as Beef Wellington is not recommended, as a failure would be expensive and very discouraging. Students are instructed to begin with simple food preparation procedures, and ensure they adequately execute the said procedure before moving on to something more complex. Along this same idea of building skill levels, numerous culinary instructors encourage students to master ten favorite recipes, in order to feed themselves and others with pride. This builds confidence in the student, and it is also the beginning of a decent gastronomic repertoire. Further, when a student understands and can accomplish each recipe and three variations of it, then he/she is well on their way to culinary fluidity. Having the proper equipment is also a necessary element for success. Essential equipment needs not be expensive, and students are instructed to make this small investment. A sharp chef’s knife, a cutting board, and at least one quality sauté pan are the first recommended items. As skill levels increase there is a subsequent desire to obtain higher quality equipment and expand one’s collection of culinary gadgets. In almost every field of study or trade, using superior equipment can elevate a novice experience into one that feels professional.

Anne-Marie Gloster and Amber Leigh Thompson

95

__________________________________________________________________ Success inspires a desire for improvement and the willingness to attempt culinary greatness again and again. Developing a resource network is also encouraged. This can include befriending people with culinary knowledge such as a neighbor, friend, co-worker or family member. Watching, and practicing what is observed, on cooking shows and in online video tutorials is also an excellent method for improving kitchen proficiency. Encouraging students to seek out culinary information in places other than formal instruction can greatly assist in acquiring additional knowledge. As knowledge and skills increase the students gain self-efficacy in the kitchen and overcome the fears they brought with them to the class. But there is one last notable strategy that can be used by culinary educators to overcome fear in the kitchen; it is to incorporate an attitude of fun and create a space where failure is just another opportunity to learn. In order to fail successfully one must strip away their ego and become ‘faceless in the fear of food’. At some point all culinarians, whether they be pupils or professionals, must lose their egos and explore their creative side; embrace fear and cook anyway.

Notes Margaret D. Condrasky and Marle Hegler, ‘How Culinary Nutrition Can Save the Health of a Nation’, Journal of Extension 48 (2010), viewed 13 January 2015, http://www.joe.org; Rachel Engler-Stringer, ‘Food, Cooking Skills, and Health: A Literature Review’, Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research 71 (2010): 141-145. 2 Levy J. Auld, ‘Cooking Classes Outperform Cooking Demonstrations for College Sophomores’, Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 36 (2004): 197-203. 3 Andrea Begley and Danielle Gallegos, ‘Should Cooking Be a Dietetic Competency’, Nutrition and Dietetics 67 (2010): 41-46. 4 Elisabeth Winkler and Gavin Turrell, ‘Confidence to Cook Vegetables and the Buying Habits of Australian Households’, Journal of the American Dietetic Association 109 (2009): 1759-1768; Enger-Stringer, ‘Food, Cooking Skills, and Health: A Literature Review’, 71. 5 Leann Schaeffer et al., ‘Assessment of Food Preparation and Culinary Skills of Coordinated Dietetic Program Interns’, Nutrition and Dietetic Educator Practitioners Line 9 (2013): 9-14. 6 Begley and Gallegos, ‘Should Cooking Be a Dietetic Competency’, 67; Schaeffer et al., ‘Assessment of Food Preparation and Culinary Skills of Coordinated Dietetic Program Interns’, 9; Michael Cheng et al., ‘The Development of Culinary Arts and Food Science into a New Academic Discipline – Culinology’, Journal of Culinary Science and Technology 9 (2010): 17-26. 7 Engler-Stringer, ‘Food, Cooking Skills, and Health: A Literature Review’, 71. 1

96

Being Faceless in the Fear of Food

__________________________________________________________________ Don Nutbeam, ‘Defining and Measuring Health Literacy: What Can We Learn From Literacy Studies?’ International Journal of Public Health 54 (2009): 303309. 9 Begley and Gallegos, ‘Should Cooking Be a Dietetic Competency’, 67; M. B. Gregoire et al., ‘Are Registered Dietitians Adequately Prepared to Be Food Service Directors?’ Journal of the American Dietetic Association 105 (2005): 1215-1225. 10 Begley and Gallegos, ‘Should Cooking Be a Dietetic Competency’, 67. 11 Sheri Cooper and Andrea Begley, ‘Washington Health Practitioners and Cooking: How Well Do They Mix’, Nutrition and Dietetics 68 (2011): 65-69. 8

Bibliography Auld, Levy J. ‘Cooking Classes Outperform Cooking Demonstrations for College Sophomores’. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 36 (2004): 197-203. Begley, Andrea, and Danielle Gallegos. ‘Should Cooking Be a Dietetic Competency’. Nutrition and Dietetics 67 (2010): 41-46. Cheng, Michael, Godwin-Charles A. Ogbeide, and Fayrene L. Hamouz. ‘The Development of Culinary Arts and Food Science into a New Academic Discipline – Culinology’. Journal of Culinary Science and Technology 9 (2011): 17-26. Condrasky, Margaret D., and Marle Hegler. ‘How Culinary Nutrition Can Save the Health of a Nation’. Journal of Extension 48 (2010). Viewed 13 January 2015. http://www.joe.org. Cooper, Sheri, and Andrea Begley. ‘Washington Health Practitioners and Cooking: How Well Do They Mix’. Nutrition and Dietetics 68 (2011): 65-69. Engler-Stringer, Rachel. ‘Food, Cooking Skills, and Health: A Literature Review’. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research 71 (2010): 141-145. Gregoire, M. B., K. Sames, R. A. Dowling, and L. J. Rafferty. ‘Are Registered Dietitians Adequately Prepared to Be Food Service Directors’. Journal of American Dietetic Association 105 (2005): 1215-1225. Nutbeam, Don. ‘Defining and Measuring Health Literacy: What Can We Learn from Literacy Studies?’ International Journal of Public Health 54 (2009): 303309.

Anne-Marie Gloster and Amber Leigh Thompson

97

__________________________________________________________________ Schaeffer, Leann, Sandra Hudak, Anne Weiner, and Brian Miller. ‘Assessment of Food Preparation and Culinary Skills of Coordinated Dietetic Program Interns’. Nutrition and Dietetic Educator Practitioners Line 9 (2013): 9-14. Winkler, Elisabeth, and Gavin Turrell. ‘Confidence to Cook Vegetables and the Buying Habits of Australian Households’. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 109 (2009): 1759-1768. Anne-Marie Gloster is a dietitian who has specialized in food system management and food science. Currently she is teaching in North Carolina and exploring the concept of kitchen literacy and finding best practices for teaching food science and culinary arts. Amber Leigh Thompson is a culinary school graduate and is currently pursuing a second degree in nutrition in North Carolina. She has worked in the food service industry for thirteen years.

The Common Oat as Food and Medicament in Greek Medical Treatises of Antiquity and Byzantium, II-VII c. AD. Maciej Kokoszko Abstract The chapter refers to the scale of cultivation, dietetic characterization, culinary application and therapeutic uses of the common oat. As for the first point, the study presents evidence showing that both in Antiquity as well as over the early Byzantine period oats belonged to the crops which did not enjoy much appreciation nor special attention on the part of both mass consumers as well as medical specialists. Generally the cereal was thought to be worse than other crops and therefore lending itself to being, first and foremost, animal fodder. It was made use of almost exclusively as emergency food in case of shortages of other cereals. As far as the second issue is concerned, the study shows how the crop was characterized from the point of view of medicine (as a foodstuff and as a medicament). The author refers to descriptions of the cereal given by physicians which underline its unappealing flavour (revealing unbalanced humours, i.e. kakochymia), limited wholesomeness, its slight astringency, poor digestibility, desiccating and heating action. Subsequently, the researcher demonstrates ways of its usage as a foodstuff in culinary procedures shown in medical writings. As a result, the chapter tries to explain the meaning of medical and culinary terms used in the context. Ultimately, the study enumerates main ailments cured by means of oat itself and oat medicaments as specified in sources. Key Words: Cereals in Antiquity and Byzantium, the common oat, history of food, history of medicine, ancient and Byzantine dietetics, ancient and Byzantine pharmacology. ***** In Greek oats 1 were known as bromos 2 or bormos. 3 Against a backdrop of the history of the majority of other cereals, the history of the cultivation of oat occupies a special and untypical place. When more than 10 thousand years ago the inhabitants of the Middle East started to successfully apply wheat and barley in their diet, it was unavoidable that numerous varieties of undesirable weeds also crept in. Competing resolutely with the plants favoured by farmers, they decreased their yield and for this reason were fought – mainly unsuccessfully. These aggressive intruders included the seeds of wild-growing varieties of oat. 4 Data confirming this initial role of the said cereal crop are present in numerous literary sources originating from antiquity, while information referring to the same topic is also present in Byzantine treatises, which allows us to guess that throughout the period constituting the subject of our deliberations oat invariably

100 The Common Oat as Food and Medicament in Greek Medical Treatises __________________________________________________________________ played a dual role – that of a cultivated plant and a weed. 5 This phenomenon may be illustrated by citing just some of the information available in sources. In the 1st century AD, Pliny maintained that barley is frequently grown over with oat (and other similarly looking plants), and that diseases of barley are brought about by the proximity of this unwanted crop. 6 Furthermore, Hesychius wrote in the 6th century AD that although in his time oat was deliberately sown at various locations in the Mediterranean Basin, it grew in many others as a wild plant. 7 Oats were not highly valued as a crop. It was fairly common in the region, which fact is attested to by – for example – Cato for Italia in the 2nd century BC, 8 or by Galen 9 for Asia Minor towards the end of 1st and in the beginning of the 2nd century AD, but we may surmise that it was always treated in the main as an undesirable admix to the dominant cultivars. 10 It could not therefore compete with wheat and barley. 11 This was mainly due to the fact that the same products obtained from the processing of oats (namely flour and groats) were considered as being of inferior quality and taste, and therefore a good less desired by local consumers. 12 On the other hand, not infrequently the inhabitants of the region were forced to satisfy their hunger with oats. This was the case when the elements destroyed wheat and barley harvests, and the nutritional demands of local communities had to be satisfied otherwise. 13 Shortages were supplemented with various substitute edibles, and those obtained from oats were readily available and therefore well suited for this role. 14 This phenomenon finds reflection in Galen's comments, 15 which outlined the situation of the eastern part of the Mediterranean, and which were later repeated – in the 4th century AD – by Oribasius. 16 Galen maintained that oats, although growing in large quantities in Mysia, were not treated as a raw material for baking bread, unless in situations of extreme hunger. But this does not mean, as he wrote, that oats were not consumed at all outside of periods of privation. On the contrary, they were used to make a sort of thick soup. However, when the supply of cereals was plentiful, Galen suggested, oats were used normally and primarily as animal feed, which fact is confirmed also by Oribasius. 17 Over successive centuries, the culinary predilections of Greeks, Romans and other peoples living in the Mediterranean zone did not change to a degree sufficient for the cereal crop to become a common ingredient of daily meals. Nevertheless, peasants continued to sow it on some of their land, treating it as a fodder crop and a substitute foodstuff in times of hunger. 18 This situation remained more or less unaltered until the end of the researched period. 19 What is more, there is no evidence that the so-called Arab agricultural revolution initiated under Muslim rule brought about any modification in the approach to oats or an increase in its consumption by those inhabiting the researched areas, which came under the control of the invaders. Although it would be difficult to call oats a popular and valued foodstuff, ancient and Byzantine science elaborated an altogether cohesive set of views that

Maciej Kokoszko

101

__________________________________________________________________ may be termed as a dietetic and pharmacological characteristic of this cereal crop. Galen in his treatise De victu attenuante stated that following the removal of husks and cleaning, oat grains have a stronger action 20 than wheat, barley or spelt. 21 In De alimentorum facultatibus, in turn, we learn that it shares this property with einkorn wheat; however, does not warm the body to the same extent. 22 Moreover, he maintained that bread from oat is neither tasty nor nutritious, and in contrast to oat itself it does not affect the alimentary tract, remaining a foodstuff which neither slows down nor stimulates the work of the bowels. 23 Finally, in the De simplicium alimentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus he makes a direct reference to yet another feature attributed to oats, namely its astringent/styptic action. 24 The doctrines found in the works of Oribasius are dependent on the findings of Galen and Dieuches, the other a doctor who was active in the 3rd century BC. Oribasius' works contain a systematised description of oats and the products obtained therefrom. This became an integral part of the 3rd book of Collectiones medicae and was subsequently repeated in Synopsis ad Eustathium filium and Libri ad Eunapium. A close reading of these works informs us that oats were considered products belonging to the kakochyma (of disturbed humoral balance) group, 25 dyspepta (hard to digest in the stomach), 26 while the cereal itself was assessed as not nourishing 27 as well as having a drying (without damaging tissue), 28 and warming effect. 29 Aetius of Amida, who wrote in the 6th century AD, included a relatively brief description of oats in book I of his work entitled Iatricorum libri. We read that oats are by their nature cooler than other cereal simple substances 30 and have a somewhat styptic action. The latter property makes it possible to utilise oats as a medicine for diarrhoea. 31 Other properties of this crop were discussed in chapters of book II, which group products with specific dietetic properties, and they are analogous to the ones enumerated by Oribasius. 32 In the 7th century AD, Paul of Aegina stated in book VII of his Epitome that oats have properties similar to barley. They dry moderately and bring about the excretion of metabolic wastes without damaging tissues. The cereal also has a styptic astringent/action and for this reason is used in the treatment of diarrhoea. 33 Both in antiquity and the Byzantine era, oats were only uncommonly used in gastronomy. Such a conclusion may be drawn not only from comments directly made by contemporary authors, 34 but also from the lack of detailed culinary recipes mentioning this product. 35 For this reason, in order to comprehend how oats were used to make food, we must often make use of analogies with the preparation of other cereal products. General data indicates that oats were used to make thin liquid food, gruels/paps (poltos), and to bake bread. Dishes of the first type were known under a multitude of terms. The sources analysed in the present study indicate that among others the following names were used: apozema, 36 chylos, 37 hepsema 38 and rofema. 39

102 The Common Oat as Food and Medicament in Greek Medical Treatises __________________________________________________________________ The term apozema appears in the context of the processing of oats, when Alexander of Tralles, a 6th century physician, writes about various types of stocks (or perhaps decoctions) 40 that were based on a whole gamut of raw materials in order to obtain products which – while retaining their nutritional value – could also be used in therapeutics. The author maintained that in his time there was already a long-standing tradition of using various decoctions in medicine. Since a thin ptisane 41 stock had already been utilized in treatment by Hippocrates himself, others – perhaps following in his footsteps – made broad use of products from the apozemata category, primarily to facilitate the excretion of phlegm infesting the bronchi. He also added that if anyone reacted badly to a drug such as chylos tes ptisanes, one could use an analogous product, namely – as Alexander of Tralles informed – the apozema known as a chylos (made from oats). Alexander did not give a precise description of the recipes for these medicinal foods. He only mentioned that the consistency of such a product depended on the efficacy of its action, 42 i.e. its ability to remove secretions from the chest and lungs. 43 As regards the term chylos, 44 an analysis of Alexander of Tralles' leads us to the conclusion that semantically it could be a substitute for the word apozema discussed above. The product itself, apart from being used as a sui generis syrup, could also be applied as a basic element of food, since it constituted a diet appropriate, for example, for those with a fever 45 or liver problems. 46 The term hepsema in turn referred to the entirety of products and dishes obtained as the result of boiling. 47 If we read specific statements made by Dieuches and Oribasius concerning hepsemata, we learn that these extracts could be obtained as the result of boiling groats from various cereal crops, for example alfita produced from oats. These were added to either a stock, for example chicken or mutton broth, or cooked in milk with poppy seeds and pounded figs. To obtain such alfita, oats were roasted in hulls, cleaned and subsequently ground. 48 As for the term rofema, some information concerning the nature of the soup from oats was provided by Oribasius (in his excerpts from Dieuches). 49 According to the author, this dish is prepared in the same way as ptisane, by mixing one kotyle of oats with ten kotylai of water. 50 Taking into consideration the proportion of liquid to oat groats, we are able to risk the opinion that the dish thus obtained was a sort of thin oat stock, which in all probability could be drunk. Amongst cereal dishes which were said to be thick, experts on ancient gastronomy include poltos. 51 This dish is particularly important in the context of the topic of the present deliberations, for Pliny in his Historia Naturalis stressed that the Germans ate this type of dish, which was made from oat grains. 52 However, while for the Germans this meal constituted a daily staple, the inhabitants of the Mediterranean only prepared it when other, more highly valued cereals, were unavailable. 53 When attempting to reconstruct the recipe for poltos, we can, for instance, use an analogy to the recipe in which the ingredient are groats from a different cereal – spelt, i.e. alix. 54 Such a dish could have been prepared

Maciej Kokoszko

103

__________________________________________________________________ from ground cereal simmered in water or milk. 55 Information provided by Aetius of Amida indicates that it was prepared by cooking groats in water spiced with salt, olive oil and dill. Sometimes, the olive oil was replaced with fresh fat, obtained from chickens or geese. 56 Finally, oats were also used to bake bread. As was already mentioned that was not a standard procedure. It was applied only when no better-suited cereals were available, and in particular when there was a poor harvest of wheat or barley. Oat bread was not valued, and Galen wrote of its taste with aversion. Nevertheless, it was occasionally consumed, as is attested to by the above mentioned dietetic assessments of this food. As for therapeutic applications of oats, Galen stated that the cereal used externally, as a component of cataplasms, dries and moderately facilitates the excretion of products of metabolism without harming the body. In addition, the physician touched upon the internal application of oats, for he stressed that thanks to their natural tartness, which has a styptic action, 57 the cereal may be administered to people suffering from diarrhoea. 58 However, he did not give any detail about the way it was administered. Oribasius, following the advice of his predecessor, also noted that oats are good for cataplasms, which clearly have diaphoretic properties. 59 However, this action is delicate enough to ensure that no bodily tissues are damaged. 60 Since in his writings he emphasised the styptic properties of oats, 61 one should surmise that he also recommended the cereal for situations requiring medicines and foods facilitating the treatment of dysentery. In any case, this hypothesis is confirmed by excerpts which Oribasius made from Dieuches' work. In his deliberations, which fundamentally concerned groats such as oat alfita, he wrote that the cereal was added into a meat broth, stating that the dish thus obtained is good for those suffering from dysentery. 62 In turn, alfita boiled in milk and consumed with additives such as poppy seeds and figs had a calming effect 63 and limited the generation of urine. 64 Aetius of Amida continued to support similar doctrines. In his Iatricorum libri we read about the astringent/styptic properties of oats and their application as a medicine for diarrhoea, 65 which had already been written about by Galen. What is more, similarly to Oribasius, Aetius mentioned the drying action of the cereal, which was delicate for tissues. 66 Thus, we should surmise that the physician was touching upon the application of oats in diaphoretic compresses, which have already been mentioned in the analysis of the doctrines of his predecessors. A relatively copious body of information on medical procedures which utilised the properties of oats was passed on by Alexander of Tralles. The author maintained that this cereal is useful as a foodstuff in the treatment of sicknesses accompanied by high temperatures. In this condition patients were treated with regular (i.e. barley) or oat ptisane. 67 As a result, oat soup is included amongst the most valuable therapeutic foodstuffs medicine had at their disposal to treat patients

104 The Common Oat as Food and Medicament in Greek Medical Treatises __________________________________________________________________ afflicted with all disorders accompanied with fever. The conclusion is corroborated by a statement from De febribus, which indicates that a thin oat stock, chylos, was given to persons suffering from another ailment of the sort, namely from three-day fever. 68 Secondly, Alexander anticipated the application of oat decoctions in the treatment of ailments of the alimentary tract. Their diluted - and therefore thin version 69 was administered as an important foodstuff to persons complaining of abdominal pains caused by an inflammation of the alimentary tract. 70 In addition, chylos made from oats 71 was also recommended as a food in cases of liver fundus inflammation, 72 since, as he explained, it purified and had a purgative action without irritating or heating up this organ. Finally, a similar medicament was used to facilitate the expectoration of phlegm. 73 Though Alexander spares us details, this doctrine, too, has its substantiation in the already presented findings of earlier medics. Paul of Aegina did not include a great deal of information directly concerning the therapeutic applications of oats in his work. However, in book VII of his Epitome, 74 he mentioned the moderately drying properties of oats, as well as the fact that the cereal influences the excretion of products of metabolism without damaging bodily tissues. 75 We may therefore opine that he recommended using oats in cataplasms, which have been mentioned above. Additionally, in the very same fragment – and in line with the doctrines of his predecessors - he states that oats were used as a medicine in the treatment of diarrhoea due to their astringent/styptic action. 76 Furthermore, Paul wrote down an important piece of information concerning the preparation of a medicinal oat soup, which, as we have already established, was the equivalent of ptisane. 77 Though he does not touch on the reasons for its administering, it is probable that he thereby, and following the tradition of ancient medicine, recommended its usage in instances where the body required purification, cooling and watering, i.e. in situations where this soup was usually served to patients. In accordance with previously cited information, the food could be administered - for example - in the event of a fever. Finally, the very same physician suggested that oats be used in the treatment of persons coming out of lethargy. Patient should eat ptisane or chylos made from oats (this was, most probably, a reference to a thin soup), or chylos made from alix and spiced with oksymeli or salt, or even field mint. 78 To sum up, the above-presented data shows that oat, even if it did not enjoy much appreciation nor special attention on the part of both mass consumers and dieticians, was a point of interest of both culinary art as well as medicine. As a foodstuff it was treated mostly as emergency food. Nor did it acquire a prominent role as a medicine, being treated first and foremost as a substitute for other more appreciated therapeutic substances. As far as the latter application is concerned, however, the presented information appears to demonstrate that oat was evaluated as one of the most effective plant substances in treatment of gastric ailments resulting in diarrhoea, and especially in dysentery.

Maciej Kokoszko

105

__________________________________________________________________

Notes The study has been prepared in connection with the grant DEC2011/01/BHS3/01020. The present analysis is a substantially augmented version of the results of research set forward in Maciej Kokoszko, ‘Smaki Konstantynopola’, Konstantynopol nowy Rzym. Miasto i ludzie w okresie wczesnobizantńskim, eds. Mirosław J. Leszka and Teresa Wolińska (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2011), 480-482; Maciej Kokoszko and Krzysztof Jagusiak, ‘Zboża Bizancjum. Kilka uwag na temat roli produktów zbożowych na podstawie źródeł greckich’, Zeszyty Wiejskie 17 (2012): 31-33. It also includes amended data contained in Maciej Kokoszko, Krzysztof Jagusiak and Zofia Rzeźnicka, ‘Owies w greckich traktatach medycznych starożytności i Bizancjum (V w. przed Chr.-XI w. po Chr.)’, Vox Patrum 33.59 (2013): 421-447. 2 ‘Alexandri Tralliani de febribus’, I, 371, 9-10, Alexander von Tralles, ed. Theodorus Puschmann, vol. I (Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1963) (hereinafter: Alexander of Tralles, De febribus); ‘Alexandri Tralliani therapeutica’, II, 221, 15, Alexander von Tralles, ed. Theodorus Puschmann, vol. I-II (Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1963) (hereinafter: Alexander of Tralles, Therapeutica). 3 Ioannes Raeder, ed., Oribasii collectionum medicarum reliquiae, IV, 7, 20, 1, vol. I-IV (Lipsiae/Berolini: Teubner, 1928-1933) (hereinafter: Oribasius, Collectiones medicae); Mauricius Schmidt, ed., Hesychii Alexandrini lexicon, β, βóρμος, 826, 1, vol. I-V (Ienae: Dufft, 1859-1868) (hereinafter: Hesychios, Lexicon). 4 The history of the domestication of oat and its role in antiquity is usually poorly covered in literature, for instance cf. Giuseppe Sassatelli, ‘L’alimentation des Étrusques’, Histoire de l’alimentation, eds. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari (Paris: Fayard, 1996), 187; Andrew Dalby, Food in the Ancient World from A to Z (London/New York: Routledge, 2003), 236; Joan P. Alcock, Food in the Ancient World (Westport, Connecticut/London: Greenwood Press, 2006), 22, 34. 5 Ann Hyland, Equus: The Horse in the Roman World (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 1990), 40. 6 Pliny, Natural History with an English Translation in Ten Volumes, XVIII, 44, 149-150, trans. Harris Rackham (London: Heinemann/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1938-1963) (hereinafter: Pliny, Historia naturalis). 7 Hesychios, Lexicon, β, βóρμος, 826, 1-2. 8 M. Porci Catonis de agri cultura, C, 37, 5, ed. Henricus Keil (Lipsiae: Teubner, 1895). Archaeological finds attest the presence of oats in ancient Tuscany, although Giuseppe Sassatelli is somewhat imprecise about the dating as well as pinpointing to what extent the data confirms cultivation of the cereal – Sassatelli, ‘L’alimentation’, 187. 1

106 The Common Oat as Food and Medicament in Greek Medical Treatises __________________________________________________________________ ‘Galeni de alimentorum facultatibus libri III’, 1, Claudii Galeni opera omnia, ed. Carolus G. Kühn, vol. VI (Lipsiae: Cnobloch, 1823), 522, 15-523 (hereinafter: Galen, De alimentorum facultatibus). 10 James F. Hancock, Plant Evolution and the Origin of Crop Species (Wallingford/Cambridge, MA: CABI Pub., 2004), 185. 11 On staple cereals cf. Paul Halstead, ‘Food Production’, A Cultural History of Food in Antiquity, ed. Paul Erdkamp (London/New York: BERG, 2012), 24-27. The author writes about the role of oats in the diet somewhat elusively. However, one can guess that his research has proved that the cereal was indubitably grown (cf. pages 25, 37), although it was of secondary importance and often used as feed for livestock (cf. pages 31-35). Neither do Wim Broekaert and Arjan Zuiderhoek assess the crop as very important, though at the same time they note its presence on the ancient market – Wim Broekaert and Arjan Zuiderhoek, ‘Food Systems in Classical Antiquity’, A Cultural History of Food in Antiquity, ed. Paul Erdkamp (London/New York: BERG, 2012), 45. 12 Cf. Galen's information concerning the taste of bread baked from oats. I interpret it as traces of a sui generis culturally established reluctance – Galen, De alimentorum facultatibus, 523, 7. Cf. Andrew Dalby, Siren Feasts. A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece (London/New York: Routledge, 1996), 90; Alcock, Food, 34. Naturally, it is impossible to analyse the individual culinary avocations of the people of the period, amongst whom there must have been a number of enthusiasts products obtained from oats. When having a choice, however, the absolutely majority preferred other cereals. 13 Such instance was not infrequent. Cf Paul Erdkamp, The Grain Market in the Roman Empire. A Social, Political and Economic Study (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 51-54. On strategies adopted in such hardship cf. Paul Erdkamp, ‘Food Security, Safety and Crises’, A Cultural History of Food in Antiquity, ed. Paul Erdkamp (London/New York: BERG, 2012), 61-64; Paul Goutkowsky, ‘L’alimentation en Grèce et à Rome en temps de crise’, Colloque. Pratiques et discours alimenatires en Méditerranée de l’antiquité à la renaissance. Actes, ed. Jean Leclant, André Vauchez and Maurice Sartre (Paris: Diffusion de Boccard, 2008), 123-146. 14 Main modes of alimentary application of oats have been explained by Joan P. Alcock, Food, 34 and John M. Wilkins and Shaun Hill, Food in the Ancient World (Malden, MA/Oxford/Carlton, Victoria: Blackwell Publishing, 2006), 118-119. 15 Galen, De alimentorum facultatibus, 522, 15-523, 4. 16 Oribasius, Collectiones medicae, I, 14, 1, 3-2, 1. 17 Ibid., I, 14, 1, 1. 18 On oats in the Byzantine period, for instance cf. Andrew Dalby, Flavours of Byzantium (Blackawton/Totnes, Devon: Prospect Books, 2003), 77-78; Marcus L. 9

Maciej Kokoszko

107

__________________________________________________________________ Rautman, The Daily Life in the Byzantine Empire (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2006), 173, 177. For ampler bibliography cf. Kokoszko, Jagusiak and Rzeźnicka, ‘Owies’, 421-447. 19 I hold the opinion that Chrisi Bourbou’s statement that oats belonged to the crops which were traditionally grown in Byzantium is somewhat misleading, since it inadvertently suggests a prominent role of the crop in agriculture and diet – Chrisi Bourbou, Health and Disease in Byzantine Crete (7th-12th Centuries AD) (Farnham, Surrey/Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010), 128. On the whole, the cereal has been mentioned in her research only once on the aforesaid page. 20 This most probably refers to its impact on digestive processes. 21 Carolus Kalbfleisch, ed., Galeni de victu attenuante, 43, 2-3 (Lipsiae/Berolini: Teubner, 1923). 22 Galen, De alimentorum facultatibus, 523, 3-6. 23 Ibid., 523, 6-8. It is possible that this unfavourable evaluation stems also from the fact that oats are devoid of gluten and consequently unable to produce a bread resembling that baked from wheat. The same quality was also characteristic of barley bread – Galen, De alimentorum facultatibus, 504, 9-10; Oribasius, Collectiones medicae I, 10, 2, 3. 24 ‘Galeni de simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus libri XI’, 855, 6, in Claudii Galeni opera omnia, ed. Carolus G. Kühn, vol. XI-XII (Lipsiae: Cnobloch, 1826-1827) (hereinafter: Galen, De simplicium). 25 Oribasius, Collectiones medicae, III, 16, 1, 1-18, 3 (oats - III, 16, 8, 1-2); ‘Oribasii synopsis ad Eustathium filium’, IV, 15, 1, 1-18, 4, in Oribasii synopsis ad Eustathium filium et libri ad Eunapium, ed. Ioannes Raeder, vol. VI, 3 (Lipsiae: Teubner, 1964) (hereinafter: Oribasius, Synopsis ad Eustathium filium) (oats – IV, 15, 8, 1); ‘Oribasii libri ad Eunapium’, I, 33, 1, 1-16, 4, in Oribasii synopsis ad Eustathium filium et libri ad Eunapium, ed. Ioannes Raeder, vol. VI, 3 (Lipsiae: Teubner, 1964), (hereinafter: Oribasius, Libri ad Eunapium) (oats – I, 33, 5, 2). 26 Oribasius, Collectiones medicae, III, 18, 1, 1-13, 1 (oats – III, 18, 11, 1); Oribasius, Synopsis ad Eustathium filium, IV, 17, 1, 1-12, 1 (oats – IV, 17, 9, 1); Oribasius, Libri ad Eunapium, I, 35, 1, 1-8, 2 (oats – I, 35, 7, 5). 27 Oribasius, Collectiones medicae, III, 18, 1, 1-13, 1 (oats – III, 18, 11, 1); Oribasius, Synopsis ad Eustathium filium, IV, 13, 1, 1-12, 4 (oats – IV, 13, 6, 3); Oribasius, Libri ad Eunapium, I, 30, 1, 1-8, 2 (oats – I, 30, 6, 3). 28 Oribasius, Collectiones medicae, XIV, 24, 1, 1-5, 4 (oats – XIV, 24, 1, 2-3); Oribasius, Synopsis ad Eustathium filium, II, 12, 1, 1-16 (oats – II, 12, 1, 2; Oribasius, Libri ad Eunapium, II, 6, 1, 1-22 (oats – II, 6, 1, 2-3). 29 Oribasius, Collectiones medicae, III, 31, 1, 1-8, 4 (oats – III, 31, 1, 1); Oribasius, Synopsis ad Eustathium filium, IV, 31, 1, 1-8, 4 (oats – IV, 31, 1, 1); Oribasius, Libri ad Eunapium, I, 47, 1, 1-9 (oats – I, 47, 1, 1).

108 The Common Oat as Food and Medicament in Greek Medical Treatises __________________________________________________________________ Namely, this property is more pronounced in oats than in the previously mentioned product, i.e. Cochlearia anglica (English Scurvy-grass). Concerning this herb, cf. Alexander Olivieri, ed., Aetii Amideni libri medicinales I-VIII, I, 72, 1-5 (Lipsiae/Berolini: Teubner, 1935-1950) (hereinafter: Aetius of Amida, Iatricorum libri). 31 Aetius of Amida, Iatricorum libri, I, 73, 1-2. 32 Hard to digest – Aetius of Amida, Iatricorum libri, II, 255, 1-25 (oats – II, 255, 18); of disturbed humoral balance – Aetius of Amida, Iatricorum libri, II, 253, 137 (oats – II, 253, 13); not nourishing adequately – Aetius of Amida, Iatricorum libri, II, 251, 1-25 (oats – II, 251, 8); slightly desiccating – Aetius of Amida, Iatricorum libri, II, 208, 1-15 (oats – II, 208, 2). 33 Ioannes L. Heiberg, ed., Paulus Aegineta, VII, 3, 2, 77-79, vol. I-II (Lipsiae/Berolini: Teubner, 1921-1924) (hereinafter: Paul of Aegina, Epitome). 34 A good example are the comments of Galen and Oribasius (cited here above), which concern the low esteem in which this food was held by the peoples inhabiting the Mediterranean Basin. 35 Oats are not mentioned in the only ancient cook book extant to this day, namely De re coquinaria ascribed to Apicius. On the work cf. Maciej Kokoszko and Zofia Rzeźnicka, ‘Dietetyka w De re coquinaria’, Przegląd Nauk Historycznych 10.2 (2011): 10-11; Maciej Kokoszko, Zofia Rzeźnicka and Krzysztof Jagusiak, ‘Health and Culinary Art in Antiquity and Early Byzantium in the Light of De re coquinaria’, Studia Ceranea 2 (2012): 149. 36 Cf. e.g. Alexander of Tralles, Therapeutica, II, 241, 13-243, 5. 37 Cf. e.g. Alexander of Tralles, De febribus, I, 371, 9-10. 38 Cf. e.g. Oribasius, Collectiones medicae, IV, 6, 1, 1. 39 Cf. e.g. Oribasius, Synopsis ad Eustathium filium, IV, 35, 19, 1. 40 Cf. Henry G. Liddel and Robert Scott, eds., A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), 198, s.v. ἀπόζεμα. 41 A soup or extract obtained from barley groats. Concerning this term, cf. hereunder. On this medicinal dish cf. Ernst Darmstaedter, ‘Ptisana: ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der antiken Diaetetik’, Archeion 15 (1933): 181-201; Maciej Kokoszko, Krzysztof Jagusiak and Zofia Rzeźnicka, ‘Kilka słów o zupie zwanej ptisane (πτισάνη)’, Zeszyty Wiejskie 18 (2013): 282-292; Maciej Kokoszko and Anna Maciejewska, ‘De ptisana vel tisana’, Vox Latina 49. 192 (2013): 152-156. 42 Alexander of Tralles, Therapeutica, II, 241, 21-23. 43 Ibid., II, 241, 13-21. 44 Liddel and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon, 2013, s.v. χυλός. 45 For more detailed information regarding this topic, cf. hereunder. 46 For more detailed information regarding this topic, cf. hereunder. 47 Liddel and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon, 751 s.v. ἕψημα. 30

Maciej Kokoszko

109

__________________________________________________________________ Oribasius, Collectiones medicae IV, 6, 1, 1-4, 5. Ibid., IV, 7, 1, 1-38, 4. 50 Ibid., IV, 7, 20, 1-21, 1. 51 Cf. description of the term puls – Dalby, Food, 271. On puls and poltos cf. Zofia Rzeźnicka and Maciej Kokoszko, ‘Proso w gastronomii antyku i wczesnego Biznacjum’, Vox Patrum 33.59 (2013): 409-412. 52 Pliny, Historia naturalis, XVIII, 44, 119; André, L’alimentation, 56; Alcock, Food, 34. 53 Wilkins and Hill, Food, 119. 54 Spelt groats, but also emmer groats. Cf. Dalby, Food, 127. 55 Hesychios, Lexicon, γ, Γαλάξια, 80, 2. 56 Aetius of Amida, Iatricorum libri, IX, 42, 62-66. 57 Thus, it has a styptic action. 58 Galen, De simplicium, 855, 1-6. 59 Oribasius, Collectiones medicae, XIV, 24, 1, 2-3. 60 Ibid., XV, 01:02 (β), 25, 1-2. 61 Ibid., XV, 01:02 (β), 25, 2-26, 1. 62 Ibid., IV, 6, 1, 1-2, 1. 63 Ibid., IV, 6, 2, 5-3, 1. 64 Ibid., IV, 6, 3, 2-4, 1. 65 Aetius of Amida, Iatricorum libri, I, 73, 1-2. 66 Ibid., II, 208, 2. 67 Alexander of Tralles, Therapeutica, II, 221, 13-20 (oats – II, 221, 15). 68 Alexander of Tralles, De febribus, I, 371, 9-10. 69 Alexander of Tralles, Therapeutica, II, 373, 13-14. 70 Ibid., II, 371, 26-373, 31. 71 Ibid., II, 383, 1-3. 72 Ibid., II, 381, 4-385, 2. 73 The fragment devoted to extracts which contains this information was included by Alexander of Tralles in his work, Therapeutica, II, 241, 13-243, 5. 74 Paul of Aegina, Epitome, VII, 3, 2, 77-79. 75 Ibid., VII, 3, 2, 77. 76 Ibid., VII, 3, 2, 78-79. 77 Ibid., I, 78, 24-25. 78 Ibid., III, 9, 3, 31-32. 48 49

110 The Common Oat as Food and Medicament in Greek Medical Treatises __________________________________________________________________

Bibliography Sources Aetii Amideni libri medicinales I-VIII, Lipsiae/Berolini: Teubner, 1935-1950.

edited

by

Alexander

Olivieri.

‘Alexandri Tralliani de febribus’. Alexander von Tralles, edited by Theodorus Puschmann, vol. I. Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1963. ‘Alexandri Tralliani therapeutica’. Alexander von Tralles, edited by Theodorus Puschmann, vol. I-II. Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1963. ‘Galeni de alimentorum facultatibus libri III’. Claudii Galeni opera omnia, edited by Carolus G. Kühn, vol. VI. Lipsiae: Cnobloch, 1823. ‘Galeni de simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus libri XI’. Claudii Galeni opera omnia, edited by Carolus G. Kühn, vol. XI-XII. Lipsiae: Cnobloch, 1826-1827. Galeni de victu attenuante, edited by Carolus Kalbfleisch. Lipsiae/Berolini: Teubner, 1923. Hesychii Alexandrini lexicon, edited by Mauricius Schmidt, vol. I-V. Ienae: Dufft, 1859-1868. M. Porci Catonis de agri cultura, edited by Henricus Keil. Lipsiae: Teubner, 1895. Oribasii collectionum medicarum reliquiae, edited by Ioannes Raeder, vol. I-IV. Lipsiae/Berolini: Teubner, 1928-1933. ‘Oribasii libri ad Eunapium’. In Oribasii synopsis ad Eustathium filium et libri ad Eunapium, edited by Ioannes Raeder, vol. VI, 3. Lipsiae: Teubner, 1964. ‘Oribasii synopsis ad Eustathium filium’. Oribasii synopsis ad Eustathium filium et libri ad Eunapium, edited by Ioannes Raeder, vol. VI, 3. Lipsiae: Teubner, 1964. Paulus Aegineta, edited by Ioannes L. Heiberg, vol. I-II. Lipsiae/Berolini: Teubner, 1921-1924.

Maciej Kokoszko

111

__________________________________________________________________ Pliny. Natural History with an English Translation in Ten Volumes. Translated by Harris Rackham, vol. I-X. London: Heinemann/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1938-1963. Modern Scholarship Alcock , Joan P. Food in the Ancient World. Westport, Connecticut/London: Greenwood Press, 2006. André, Jacques. L’alimentation et la cuisine à Rome. Paris: Libraire C. Klincksieck, 1961. Broekaert, Wim and Arjan Zuiderhoek. ‘Food Systems in Classical Antiquity’. A Cultural History of Food in Antiquity, edited by Paul Erdkamp, 41-55. London/New York: BERG, 2012. Bourbou, Chrisi. Health and Disease in Byzantine Crete (7th-12th Centuries AD). Farnham, Surrey/Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010. Dalby, Andrew. Siren Feasts. A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece. London/New York: Routledge, 1996. ———. Flavours of Byzantium. Blackawton/Totnes, Devon: Prospect Books, 2003. ———. Food in the Ancient World from A to Z. London/New York: Routledge, 2003. Darmstaedter, Ernst. ‘Ptisana: ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der antiken Diaetetik’. Archeion 15 (1933): 181-201. Erdkamp, Paul, ed. A Cultural History of Food in Antiquity. London/New York: BERG, 2012. ———. The Grain Market in the Roman Empire. A Social, Political and Economic Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. ———. ‘Food Security, Safety and Crises’. A Cultural History of Food in Antiquity, edited by Paul Erdkamp, 57-64. London/New York: BERG, 2012.

112 The Common Oat as Food and Medicament in Greek Medical Treatises __________________________________________________________________ Flandrin, Jean-Louis and Massimo Montanari. Histoire de l’alimentation. Paris: Fayard, 1996. Goutkowsky, Paul. ‘L’alimentation en Grèce et à Rome en temps de crise’. Colloque. Pratiques et discours alimenatires en Méditerranée de l’antiquité a la renaissance. Actes, edited by Jean Leclant, André Vauchez and Maurice Sartre, 123-146. Paris: Diffusion de Boccard, 2008. Halstead, Paul. ‘Food Production’. A Cultural History of Food in Antiquity, edited by Paul Erdkamp, 21-39. London/New York: BERG, 2012. Hancock, James F. Plant Evolution and the Origin of Crop Species. Wallingford/Cambridge, MA: CABI Pub., 2004. Hyland, Ann. Equus: The Horse in the Roman World. New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 1990. Kokoszko, Maciej. ‘Smaki Konstantynopola’. Konstantynopol nowy Rzym. Miasto i ludzie w okresie wczesnobizantńskim, edited by Mirosław J. Leszka and Teresa Wolińska, 471-575. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2011. Kokoszko, Maciej, and Krzysztof Jagusiak. ‘Zboża Bizancjum. Kilka uwag na temat roli produktów zbożowych na podstawie źródeł greckich’. Zeszyty Wiejskie 17 (2012): 19-38. Kokoszko, Maciej, Krzysztof Jagusiak and Zofia Rzeźnicka. ‘Kilka słów o zupie zwanej ptisane (πτισάνη)’. Zeszyty Wiejskie 18 (2013): 282-292. ———. ‘Owies w greckich traktatach medycznych starożytności i Bizancjum (V w. przed Chr.-XI w. po Chr.)’. Vox Patrum 33.59 (2013): 421-447. Kokoszko, Maciej and Anna Maciejewska. ‘De ptisana vel tisana’. Vox Latina 49. 192 (2013): 152-156. Kokoszko, Maciej and Zofia Rzeźnicka. ‘Dietetyka w De re coquinaria’. Przegląd Nauk Historycznych 10.2 (2011): 5-25. Kokoszko, Maciej, Zofia Rzeźnicka and Krzysztof Jagusiak. ‘Health and Culinary Art in Antiquity and Early Byzantium in the Light of De re coquinaria’. Studia Ceranea 2 (2012): 145-164.

Maciej Kokoszko

113

__________________________________________________________________ Leclant Jean, André Vauchez and Maurice Sartre, eds. Colloque. Pratiques et discours alimenatires en Méditerranée de l’antiquité a la renaissance. Actes. Paris: Diffusion de Boccard, 2008. Leszka, Mirosław J. and Teresa Wolińska, eds. Konstantynopol nowy Rzym. Miasto i ludzie w okresie wczesnobizantńskim. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2011. Liddel Henry G., and Robert Scott, eds. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. Rautman, Marcus L. The Daily Life in the Byzantine Empire. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2006. Rzeźnicka, Zofia and Maciej Kokoszko. ‘Proso w gastronomii antyku i wczesnego Bizancjum’. Vox Patrum 33.59 (2013): 401-419. Sassatelli, Giuseppe. ‘L’alimentation des Étrusques’. Histoire de l’alimentation, edited by Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari, 183-195. Paris: Fayard 1996. Wilkins, John M. and Shaun Hill. Food in the Ancient World. Malden, MA/Oxford/Carlton, Victoria: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. Maciej Kokoszko is an academic teacher and works at the Department of Byzantine History, Institute of History, University of Łódź, Poland. He is interested in the history of gastronomy, dietetics and drug-lore.

Ham in Ancient and Byzantine Dietetics, Medicine and Gastronomy Zofia Rzeźnicka Abstract The chapter presents the importance of ham as a food and a medicine according to Greek, Roman and Byzantine sources. Greek and Byzantine medical authorities: Galen of Pergamon, Oribasius, Anthimus, Aëtius of Amida, Alexander of Tralles and Paul of Aegina claimed that pork, especially young, was the most nourishing of all foods. It was said that, if properly digested, it produced good juices in a human body. The mentioned physicians also knew how to use salted pork as a medicine for arthritis. This type of meat was the most popular in ancient and medieval Europe. It was particularly appreciated because it was easy to process and therefore ham curing was a common way of preserving pork. The mentioned cured meat was well known and popular all over Europe (e.g. Gaul, Spain) and Asia Minor (environs of Kibyra). It was probably procured in a specific way in different places, in the times of Marcus Terentius Varro it was believed that the best and the largest hams came from Gaul. The most detailed data on making this kind of food was given by agriculture writers (Marcus Porcius Cato – 3rd/2nd c. BC, Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella – 1st c. AD and the anonymous author of Geoponica from 10th c. AD). Another important source is the only one remaining ancient cookery book entitled De re coquinaria libri decem. Though in most sources we find information that ham was usually eaten raw, this opusculum contains four unique recipes for this delicacy, which recommended cooking the meat. The contents of the above-mentioned sources show that ham production technology remained almost unchanged until today. Key Words: Cured meat in Antiquity and Byzantium, pork in ancient and Byzantine diet, ancient and Byzantine culinary art, ancient and Byzantine medicine, meat consumption in Antiquity and Byzantium, ham in ancient and Byzantine diet. ***** In Antiquity and early Middle Ages fresh meat was a rarity, which was available only to the wealthiest. 1 Slaughtering animals which provided large amounts of meat entailed the problem of its preservation. It was especially important in the warm Mediterranean climate – and salting turned out to be the best solution. This process was mentioned both in ancient and Byzantine agronomic and medical sources, and salt-cured meat was known and valued in the whole ancient and Medieval world.

116

Ham in Ancient and Byzantine Dietetics, Medicine and Gastronomy

__________________________________________________________________ One of the first enthusiastic opinions about hams can be found in Strabo's notes. He wrote that delicious cured meats came from Cantabria 2 and western Pyrenees inhabited by Carretanians. 3 Gourmets also treasured hams that came from Lusitania in Hispania Ulterior 4 and the town of Pomelon, near Aquitaine. 5 But it does not mean that Spain monopolized ancient market of cold meat. This treat was well-known both all over ancient and early Medieval Europe and in Asia Minor. Varro claimed that the best and largest hams were imported to Rome from Gaul 6 and according to Strabo, the territories between the Rhine and the Saône 7 were considered to be the places where the best cured meats were produced. Other regions mentioned in sources were the North Sea area (around the Scheldt, the Maas and the Rhine), populated by the tribe of Menapians, 8 the South Gaul areas, inhabited by the tribes of Comacine and Cavarine, 9 the centre of Italy inhabited by the tribe of Mars 10 and in Asia Minor – city of Kibyra in Lycia. 11 In antiquity several terms for ham were used, which perfectly illustrates the connections between Greek and Latin language. In ancient Greece ham was called κωλήν 12 (kolén), or the Latin word perna 13 was used to refer to it. In addition, a Greek loan-word petaso (Greek πετασών) was used in Imperium Romanum. Even though both: perna and petaso mean ham, they refer to different parts of pork. The first one means hind legs, the second – was used to name front legs i.e. pig’s shoulder. 14 The Romans carefully worked out methods of slaughtering pigs, which nowadays can be explained scientifically. As a result of those methods, meat was tasty and easy to cure. Animals were usually killed during late autumn 15 or winter, 16 when they had more fat tissue. To facilitate bleeding, pigs were not fed for twenty-four hours before being slaughtered. 17 During this time, to make sure the meat was not too moist, swines were prevented from drinking. 18 It was also important not to stress or excite the animals, otherwise their meat could become dark and sticky, and could have an unpleasant texture as well as taste. 19 Today we know that these emotional states reduce the level of glycogen, ipso facto rising the level of pH. Maintaining high level of glycogen is important, because after the animal's death, thanks to enzymes, it transforms into lactic acid, which reduces the pH level in meat, stopping the process of rotting and killing harmful bacteria. 20 So that meat could be preserved for long periods, it was cured. One of the first references to salting hams can be found in De agricultura by Cato the Elder (3rd/2nd c. BC). According to him, raw meat should be put with skin turned down into a pot covered with salt, then the meat should be salted again. Another layer of meat was placed on top of it and covered with a layer of salt, 21 until the vessel was full. It was important that the layers of meat did not touch each other. In the end salt was spread on top of the hams. After five days the meat was taken out, and put back into the vessel, however in the opposite order. After twelve days hams were taken out once again to remove the salty sediment. They were hung in a draughty place

Zofia Rzeźnicka

117

__________________________________________________________________ for two days. On the third day, the meat was cleaned, greased with oil and smoked. Next, it was greased once more, this time with a mixture of olive oil and vinegar. 22 A similar procedure was described by Columella (1st c. AD). In De re rustica he also mentioned that hams should be tightly packed in a vessel sprinkled with dry salt. Additionally, the author suggested pressing the pot down with weights, until the brim was almost reached. In his opinion, meat prepared in this way could be taken out when needed, and the meat left in the pot was prevented from decay by brine. 23 Another method of preservation was pressing down the meat, which was boned and salted, with the weights. Next, the cured meat was properly rubbed with salt until it was completely ready. 24 When weather conditions were favourable, the layer of salt was kept on the pork only for nine days, during which the meat was still rubbed. But when it was cloudy and rainy, hams were scrubbed from salt, and put into a pot filled with fresh water in order to remove the rest of residue, but no sooner than after eleven or twelve days. In the end, dried meat was hung up in a larder, where a moderate amount of smoke could reach it. This way of curing was popular especially in midwinter, until the first half of February. 25 The above mentioned methods of preparing animals for butchering and for curing hams were also known in the Byzantine Empire. The above mentioned methods of preparing animals for butchering and curing hams were also known in the Byzantine Empire. Information about boning meat before salting can also be found in Geoponica, an agricultural encyclopaedia from the 10th century. However, the author of the passage 26 describing this process gave us two new important pieces of information. In his opinion, it was better to use roasted salt for curing, while meat should be put in a pot that was previously filled with oil or vinegar. 27 There were many ways to restore the original flavour to the salted meat. For example, it could be cooked twice, first in milk, next in water. 28 Pliny the Elder wrote about reducing the salty flavour with the help of finely ground flour called pollen and linden bark (philyra). 29 Unfortunately, he did not explain how it should be done. It is possible that the excess of salt was absorbed by the flour that was sprinkled over the meat, and, additionally, by the linden bark that the meat was covered with. We also know about soaking salted fish in water 30 and this method was certainly also used when other kinds of meat were prepared. Salted meat in Greek was called τάριχος (tárikhos). 31 This term was also used for other products preserved in brine like fish 32 or vegetables. 33 Galen (2nd c. AD) and Oribasius (4th c. AD) wrote that meat that came from mature, fattened pigs was best for salting. The physicians mentioned above, as well as Aëtius of Amida (6th c. AD), 34 claimed that one of the most important features of meat was moisture, because when an animal was old, its flesh became tough 35 and indigestible. 36 On the other hand, large amounts of moisture in tender meat of young pigs were reduced, owing to the drying properties of salt, so the product decreased its volume. 37 According to medical sources, well-selected salted meat, was of the same quality as the fresh one and, in many respects, it was even more valuable. For

118

Ham in Ancient and Byzantine Dietetics, Medicine and Gastronomy

__________________________________________________________________ example it was believed that this sort of tárikhos, regardless of the species of the animal, diluted thick and sticky humors. 38 Although salted meat was believed to trigger fevers, especially after big physical effort such as long journeys 39 and cause production of black bile, 40 it was considered to be a healthy element of a diet. 41 Moreover, pork was prized for its dietetic properties. It was regarded to be light and the most nutritious of all kinds of meat. It was also said to be the tastiest, not only due to a balanced amount of juices, but also because it contributed to keeping humoral balance inside the human body. 42 Maybe that is why Galen claimed that eating pork in restorative diet 43 should start with fresh pig trotters boiled with barley soup called πτισάνη (ptisáne) 44 then ham and other food should be introduced gradually. 45 It was said that cured pork was also good, eaten with lentil soup called φακῆ (phaké) and φακοπτισάνη 46 (phakoptisáne) – a liquid meal made of lentils and groats. 47 This kind of food was believed to be tasty and light. Considering all these advantages of cured pork, there is no wonder that ham was also applied as a medicine. It was one of the ingredients of a remedy for arthritis recommended by the physician of Pergamon. In De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus he wrote about treating this condition with old cheese that was first soaked in a stock (ζωμός [zomós]) made from cured pig's leg. The cheese was ground in a mortar and put on the painful part of the body. Thanks to this mixture the patient's skin opened without any cutting and new pieces of callus flowed out every day. When all the cheese was used up, the patient was given some fresh one and, when it became rancid, he applied the medicine on his own. He also taught others, who had the same problem, to make this ointment. 48 This kind of treatment must have been effective in the following centuries because it was well known to Oribasius, 49 Aëtius of Amida, 50 Alexander of Tralles (6th c. AD) 51 and Paul of Aegina (7th c. AD). 52 They all almost literally quoted the story given by Galen, with one little, but important, complement. According to them, cheese should not only be old, 53 but also fat 54 and savoury, 55 moreover, the stock should be cooked with an old, 56 fat 57 ham. Furthermore, Aëtius of Amida prescribed more complex 58 medicine for the same illness, 59 which, in addition to the meat stock from an old ham and a piece of an old goat cheese, should contain some gum called ἀμμωνιακόν (ammoniakón), hyssop, deer bone marrow, wax and beef suet etc. 60 Almost identical ingredients were mentioned by Oribasius in Synopsis ad Eustathium filium, but this time in a chapter devoted to tumors 61 which means that a very similar medicine was used in curing different types of ailments. From this passage we learn that instead of dzomós made from old ham he suggested using its fat; another modification was adding cow or goat cheese. Moreover, the author claimed that the recipe came from Galen's medical treatises 62 so the medicament was used in the 2nd century AD. More details about this therapy were given to us by Paul of Aegina. 63 According to him, the sore part of the body should be first rubbed with some firm vinegar, and next with the ammoniakón gum for many days. Then, a medicine of emollient properties, such as ointment made

Zofia Rzeźnicka

119

__________________________________________________________________ from pérna should be used. 64 In the author’s opinion, a dressing, called polymágmaton, made from ham 65 that was probably first chewed, was used in curing illnesses of joints called ankýlosis. 66 In the ancient world, ham was an expensive 67 delicacy, 68 served on special occasions 69. Recently salted 70 and streaky 71 meat was valued most. According to the sources, it was eaten raw, 72 smoked, 73 dried 74 or cooked. 75 Accurate instructions in making this dish were given in De re coquinaria – the only remaining ancient cookbook, which was supposed to be written by a Roman gourmet Apicius. Reading the recipes, we can assume that sweet hams were very popular. To obtain this flavour, the meat was cooked in water with a large number of figs. 76 The use of those fruits was recommended in all the recipes for hams in De re coquinaria, and the phrase ʻut soletʼ (as usually) given in one of the formulas, shows that it was a common practice. Perna could be put into this kind of stock, flavoured with bay leaves. When it was almost soft, the skin was removed, the meat was cut in the middle and honey was poured inside. Next, it was wrapped in a pastry made from flour and olive oil, and baked in an oven. 77 The dish was served hot. 78 Cooked ham could also be served with diced sweet bread and boiled grape must (caroenum), spiced wine or sweet bread made with grape must, called mustacei. 79 Another formula used petaso, that was probably a pig’s shoulder. This recipe is unique, because the instructions usually did not mention quantities of ingredients, while, this time, the author stated that 25 figs and 2 librae 80 of barley were needed. All this should be cooked with meat, next the flesh was boned, fat was discarded, and before putting the ham into an oven, it was covered with honey. Partly baked petaso was served with a sauce prepared with wine, raisin wine, some rue and pepper. It was also used for soaking mustacei, which, in the end, were served with roasted ham. 81 The above examples show that pickling was a very popular method of preserving meat for a long time. Due to a long time of preservation, this kind of meat became an important element of the diet of people who served in the army 82 or had to travel long distances by land or sea. 83 Cured meats were eaten raw, dried, cooked, baked or smoked as a main course or added to soups like phaké or phakoptisáne. This kind of food was not only a significant source of protein, but, it was also valued for its dietetic properties. Salted meat was also commonly used by ancient and Byzantine physicians in medical therapies (e.g. in curing arthritis).

Notes Maciej Kokoszko and Łukasz Erlich, ʻRola mięsa w diecie późniego antyku i wczesnego Bizancjum na podstawie wybranych źródeł literackich. Część I. Zwierzęta hodowlane w sztuce kulinarnej oraz w teorii dietetycznej’, Piotrkowskie

1

120

Ham in Ancient and Byzantine Dietetics, Medicine and Gastronomy

__________________________________________________________________ Zeszyty Historyczne 12 (2001): 18-20; John M. Wilkins and Shaun Hill, Food in the Ancient World (Malden, MA/Oxford/Carlton, Victoria: Blackwell Publishing, 2006), 142. The study has been prepared in connection with grant 2011/01/BHS3/01020. It is part of the article entitled ʻCured Meats in Ancient and Byzantine Sources: Ham, Bacon and tuccetumʼ to be published in the journal Studia Ceranea. Journal of the Waldemar Ceran Research Centre for the History and Culture of the Mediterranean Area and South-East Europe. 2 The Geography of Strabo with an English Translation in Eight Volumes, III, 4, 11, trans. Horace L. Jones, vol. II (London: Heinemann/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960) (hereinafter: Strabo, Geographica). 3 Strabo, Geographica, III, 4, 11. Hams produced there were very priced both in first and fourth century AD, see Martial, Epigrams with an English Translation in Two Volumes, XIII, 54, trans. Walter C.A. Ker, vol. I-II (London: Heinemann/New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1919-1920) (hereinafter: Martial, Epigrammata); Edictum Diocletiani et Collegarum de pretiis rerum venalium, IV, 1, 8, ed. Marta Giacchero, vol. I-II (Genova: Istituto di storia antica e scienze ausiliarie, 1974) (hereinafter: Edictum Diocletiani). 4 Varro, ʻOn Agriculture’, II, 4, 11, in Marcus Porcius Cato on Agriculture. Marcus Terentius Varro on Agriculture with an English Translation, trans. William D. Hooper (London: Heinemann/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1934) (hereinafter: Varro, De re rustica). 5 Athenaei Naucratitae dipnosophistarum libri XV, XIV, 657e-658a, ed. Georgius Kaibel, vol. I-III (Lipsiae: Teubner, 1887-1890) (hereinafter: Athenaeus of Naucratis, Deipnosophistae). 6 Varro, De re rustica, II, 4, 10-11. Cf. Rudolf Laur-Belart, ʻGalische Schinken und Würsteʼ, Suisse Primitive 17 (1953): 33-40. 7 Strabo, Geographica, IV, 3, 2. 8 Martial, Epigrammata, XIII, 54; Edictum Diocletiani, IV, 1, 8. 9 Varro, De re rustica, II, IV, 10-11. 10 Edictum Diocletiani, IV, 1, 9. 11 Athenaeus of Naucratis, Deipnosophistae, XIV, 657e. Hams produced there were undoubtedly best known in the Byzantine Empire. About regions where the meat was brought from to Constantinople see Paul Magdalino, ʻThe Maritime Neighbourhoods of Constantinople: Commercial and Residential Functions, Six to Twelfth Centuries’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 54 (2000): 214-215; Jean-Claude Cheynet, ʽLa valeur marchande des products alimentaires dans l’Empire byzantin’, Βυζαντινών διατροφή και μαγειρείαι. Πρακτικά Ημερίδας “Περί της διατροφής στο Βυζάντιο”. (Food and Cooking in Byzantium. Proceedings of the Symposium ‘On Food in Byzantium’.) Thessaloniki Museum of Byzantine Culture 4 November 2001, ed. Demetra Papanikola-Bakritzi (Athens: Πέργαμος A.B.E.E., 2005), 40-41.

Zofia Rzeźnicka

121

__________________________________________________________________ Iulii Polluciis Onomasticon cum annotationibus interpretum, VI, 52, ed. Guilielmus Dinorfius, vol. I-V, pars 1 (Lipsiae: Libraria Kuehnina, 1824) (hereinafter: Pollux, Onomasticon). Cf. Frank Frost, ʻSausage and Meat Preservation in Antiquityʼ, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 40 (1999): 248. 13 Henry G. Liddel and Robert Scott, eds., A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), 1394, s.v. πέρνα; Frank Frost ʻSausage and Meatʼ: 248; Andrew Dalby, Food in the Ancient World from A to Z (London/New York: Routledge, 2003), 269. 14 Joan Frayn, ʻThe Roman Meat Trade’, Food in Antiquity, eds. John Wilkins, David Harvey, Mike Dobson (Exeter: Exeter Press, 1999), 111-112. Cf. Jacques André, L’ alimentation et la cuisine à Rome (Paris: C. Klincksieck, 1961), 145, note 115. More information see Timothy J. Leary, Martial Book XIII: The Xenia. Text with Introduction and Commentary (London: Duckworth, 2001), 107-108. 15 David L. Thurmond, A Handbook of Food Processing in Classical Rome. For Her Bounty No Winter (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2006), 211. 16 Columella, ʻOn Agricultureʼ, XII, 55, 3, in Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella on Agriculture and Trees with an English Translation in Three Volumes, trans. Edward S. Forster and Edward H. Heffner, vol. III (London: Heinemann/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1955) (hereinafter: Columella, De re rustica); Palladii Rutilii Tauri Aemiliani viri inlustris opus agriculturae de veterinaria medicina de insitione, XIII, 6, ed. Robert H. Rodgers (Lipsiae: Teubner, 1975). Cf. Thurmond, Handbook of Food Processing, 211. 17 Thurmond, Handbook of Food Processing, 211. 18 Columella, De re rustica, XII, 55, 1. Cf. Thurmond, Handbook of Food Processing, 211. 19 Thurmond, Handbook of Food Processing, 211. 20 Ibid.; Frost, ʻSausage and Meatʼ: 245. 21 According to Galen for pickling sea or salty water could be also used when the egg put into the water remained afloat. If not, the solution did not contain enough salt, see ʻGaleni de simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus libri XIʼ, XI, 691, 15-692, 4, in Claudii Galeni opera omnia, ed. Carolus G. Kühn, vol. XI-XII (Lipsiae: Cnobloch, 1826-1827) (hereinafter: Galen, De simplicium). 22 Cato, ʻOn Agriculture’, CLXII, 1-3, Marcus Porcius Cato on Agriculture. Marcus Terentius Varro on Agriculture, trans. William D. Hooper (London: Heinemann/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1934) (hereinafter: Cato, De agricultura). 23 Columella, De re rustica, XII, 55, 4. 24 Columella did not write exactly when. 25 Columella, De re rustica, XII, 55, 1-3. Cf. William Cavanagh, ‘Food Preservation in Greece during the Late and Final Neolithic Periods’, Cooking Up 12

122

Ham in Ancient and Byzantine Dietetics, Medicine and Gastronomy

__________________________________________________________________ the Past. Food and Culinary Practices in the Neolithic and Bronze Age Aegean, eds. Christopher Mee and Josette Renard (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2007), 114. 26 This fragment comes from Didymos. 27 Geoponica sive Cassiani Bassi Scholastici de re rustica eclogae, XIX, 9, 1-4, ed. Henricus Beckh (Lipsiae: Teubner, 1895). 28 Christopher Grocock and Sally Grainger eds., Apicius. A Critical Edition with an Introduction and an English Translation of the Latin Recipe Text Apicius, I, 10, (Blackawton/Totnes, Devon: Prospect Books, 2006) (hereinafter: Apicius, De re coquinaria). 29 Pliny, Natural History with an English Translation in Ten Volumes, XXIV, 1, 3, trans. William H.S. Jones, vol. VII (London: Heinemann/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966). 30 Terence, ʻThe Brothersʼ, 380, Terence with an English Translation in Two Volumes, trans. John Sargeaunt, vol. II (London: Heinemann/New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1920). 31 Dalby, Food in the Ancient, 95. Cf. Apostolos Karpozelos, ʻRealia in Byzantine Epistolography XIII-XV c.ʼ, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 88 (1995): 76; Michael Grünbart, ʻStore in a Cool and Dry Place: Perishable Goods and Their Preservation in Byzantium’, Eat, Drink and Be Merry (Luke 12:19). Food and Wine in Byzantium. In Honour of Professor A.A.M. Bryer, eds. Leslie Brubaker and Kallirroe Linardou (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2007), 45-48. 32 Dalby, Food in the Ancient, 95, 169, 313, 334, 336-337; Maciej Kokoszko, ʻKuchnia i dietetyka późnego antyku oraz Bizancjum. Kilka uwag na temat spożycia, sporządzania, przyrządzania, wartości dietetycznych i zastosowań medycznych konserw rybnych w antycznej i bizantyńskiej literaturze greckiej’, Acta Universitatis Lodziensis, Folia Historica 80 (2005): 7-25; Maciej Kokoszko, Ryby i ich znaczenie w życiu codziennym ludzi późnego antyku i wczesnego Bizancjum (Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, 2005), 41, 107-109, 317-329. 33 ʻGaleni de temperamentis libri IIIʼ, I, 661, 16, Claudii Galeni opera omnia, ed. Carolus G. Kühn, vol. I (Lipsiae: Cnobloch, 1821). 34 Aëtius of Amida in his treatise writes generally about pickling the meat of different species of animals: mammals, birds and fish. 35 ʻGaleni de alimentorum facultatibus libri IIIʼ, VI, 746, 6-11, Claudii Galeni opera omnia, ed. Carolus G. Kühn, vol. VI (Lipsiae: Cnobloch, 1823) (hereinafter: Galen, De alimentorum facultatibus); Oribasii collectionum medicarum reliquiae, IV, 1, 36, 3-37, ed. Ioannes Raeder, vol. I-IV (Lipsiae/Berolini: Teubner, 19281933) (hereinafter: Oribasius, Collectiones medicae); Aetii Amideni libri medicinales I–VIII, II, 149, 1-14, ed. Alexander Olivieri (Lipsiae/Berolini: Teubner, 1935-1950) (hereinafter: Aëtius of Amida, Iatricorum libri).

Zofia Rzeźnicka

123

__________________________________________________________________ Oribasius, Collectiones medicae, IV, 1, 39, 1-40, 1; Aëtius of Amida, Iatricorum libri, II, 149, 11-12. A 6th century physician, Anthimus, writes in the same way about salted beef and ox (carnes uaccinae uel bubulinae insalatae), see Anthimus, On the Obserwance of Foods. De observatione ciborum, 12, ed., trans. Mark Grant (Totnes/Blackawton, Devon: Prospect Books, 2007). 37 Galen, De alimentatorum facultatibus, VI, 746, 9-11; Oribasius, Collectiones medicae, IV, 1, 36, 5-37, 1; Aëtius of Amida, Iatricorum libri, II, 149, 8-10. 38 Galen provided this kind of information writing about salted fish, see Galen, De alimentatorum facultatibus, VI, 747, 4-11; Oribasius, as well as Aëtius of Amida, quoted this opinion when writing generally about curing meat, see Oribasius, Collectiones medicae, IV, 1, 39, 1-40, 1; Aëtius of Amida, Iatricorum libri, II, 149, 12-13. 39 ʻGaleni in Hippocratis de victu acutorum commentaria IVʼ, XV, 739, 8-13, in Claudii Galeni opera omnia, ed. Carolus G. Kühn, vol. XV (Lipsiae: Cnobloch, 1828). 40 Oribasius, Collectiones medicae, III, 9, 1, 1-2, 5 (tárikhos – III, 9, 1, 3); Aëtius of Amida, Iatricorum libri, II, 246, 1-9 (tárikhos – II, 246, 3). 41 Oribasius, Collectiones medicae, III, 2, 19, 1-20, 1. 42 Maciej Kokoszko, ʻSmaki Konstantynopola’, Konstantynopol. Nowy Rzym. Miasto i ludzie w okresie wczesnobizantyńskim, eds. Mirosław J. Leszka and Teresa Wolińska (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2011), 494. 43 ʻGaleni de methodo medendi libri XIV’, X, 488, 11-15, Claudii Galeni opera omnia, ed. Carolus G. Kühn, vol. X (Lipsiae: Conobloch, 1825) (hereinafter: Galen, De methodo medendi). 44 For some recipes for this barley soup called tisana in Latin, see Apicius, De re coquinaria, V, 5, 1-2. For more information about medical uses of ptisáne, see Maciej Kokoszko, Zofia Rzeźnicka and Krzysztof Jagusiak, ʻHealth and Culinary Art in Antiquity and Early Byzantium in the Light of De re coquinaria’, Studia Ceranea. Journal of the Waldemar Ceran Research Centre for the History and Culture of the Mediterranean Area and South-East Europe 2 (2012): 161-162; Maciej Kokoszko, Krzysztof Jagusiak and Zofia Rzeźnicka, ʻKilka słów o zupie zwanej ptisane (ptis£nh)’, Zeszyty Wiejskie 18 (2013): 282-292. 45 Galen, De methodo medendi, X, 489, 5-8. 46 Galen, De alimentatorum facultatibus, VI, 528, 1-2; Oribasius, Collectiones medicae, IV, 1, 25, 3-26, 1. 47 In De re coquinaria we can find recipes for lentil dishes (lenticula), see Apicius, De re coquinaria, V, 2, 1-3, but there are no recipes for phakoptisáne. 48 Galen, De simplicium, XII, 270, 18-271, 13. 49 ʻOribasii synopsis ad Eustathium filium’, IX, 58, 1, 1-3, 1, Oribasii synopsis ad Eustathium filium et libri ad Eunapium, ed. Ioannes Raeder, vol. IV, 3 (Lipsiae: 36

124

Ham in Ancient and Byzantine Dietetics, Medicine and Gastronomy

__________________________________________________________________ Teubner, 1964) (hereinafter: Oribasius, Synopsis ad Eustathium filium). 50 Aëtius of Amida, Iatricorum libri, II, 102, 1-10. 51 ʻAlexandri Tralliani therapeutica’, II, 561, 5-11, Alexander von Tralles, ed. Theodorus Puschmann, vol. I-II (Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1963) (hereinafter: Alexander of Tralles, Therapeutica). 52 Paulus Aegineta, III, 78, 24, 9-13; VII, 3, 19, 98-101, ed. Ioannes L. Heiberg, vol. I-II (Lipsiae/Berolini: Teubner, 1921-1924) (hereinafter: Paul of Aegina, Epitome). 53 Oribasius, Synopsis ad Eustathium filium, IX, 58, 2, 1; Aëtius of Amida, Iatricorum libri, II, 102, 4; Paul of Aegina, Epitome, III, 78, 24, 10; VII, 3, 19, 98. 54 Paul of Aegina, Epitome, VII, 3, 19, 98. 55 Oribasius, Synopsis ad Eustathium filium, IX, 58, 2, 1; Alexander of Tralles, Therapeutica, II, 561, 7; Paul of Aegina, Epitome, III, 78, 24, 10-11; VII, 3, 19, 99. 56 Aëtius of Amida, Iatricorum libri, II, 102, 3-4; Paul of Aegina, Epitome, III, 78, 24, 11. 57 Paul of Aegina, Epitome, III, 78, 24, 11; VII, 3, 19, 100-101. 58 It is possible that it is the same medicine mentioned by Paul of Aegina. He writes about more complex medicine for arthritis (Paul of Aegina, Epitome, III, 78, 24, 125) prepared from ham with an addition of some myrrh oil or without it, see Paul of Aegina, Epitome, III, 78, 24, 13-15. 59 Aëtius of Amida, Iatricorum libri, XII, 65, 1-42. 60 Ibid., XII, 65, 22-26. 61 Oribasius, Synopsis ad Eustathium filium, VII, 34, 1, 1-5, 1. 62 Ibid., VII, 34, 4, 3-5, 1. 63 Paul of Aegina, Epitome, IV, 32, 1, 1-2, 16. 64 Ibid., IV, 32, 2, 11-16. 65 Ibid., IV, 55, 1, 18. 66 Ibid., IV, 55, 1, 1-21. 67 According to the Edict on Maximum Prices one pound of ham (27,3 g) could cost even 20 denarii, see Edictum Diocletiani, IV, 1, 8-9. 68 In comedies by Plautus characters are always hungry for this delicacy, see Plautus, ʻThe Captives’, 850; 903; 908, Plautus with an English Translation in Four Volumes, trans. Paul Nixon, vol. I (London: Heinemann/New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1916); Plautus, ʻCurculio’, 323, Plautus with an English Translation in Five Volumes, trans. Paul Nixon, vol. II (London: Heinemann/New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1917). 69 Plautus, ʻPseudolus’, 166, Plautus with an English Translation in Five Volumes, trans. Paul Nixon, vol. IV (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press/London: Heinemann, 1980) (hereinafter: Plautus, Pseudolus); Petronii Arbitri Satyricon reliquiae, 66, ed. Konrad Müller (Monachii/Lipsiae: K.G. Saur, 2003).

Zofia Rzeźnicka

125

__________________________________________________________________ Martial, Epigrammata, XIII, 55. Ibid., III, 77, 6. 72 Ovid’s Fasti with an English Translation, VI, 158, trans. James G. Frazer (London: Heinemann/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1959). 73 Horace, ʻSatires’, II, 2, 117, Horace. Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica with an English Translation, trans. Henry Rushton Fairclought (London: Heinemann/ Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962). 74 Juvenal, ʻSatires’, VII, 119, Juvenal and Persius with an English Translation, trans. George G. Ramsay (London: Heinemann/New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1928). 75 Plautus, Pseudolus, 166; Apicius, De re coquinaria, VII, 9, 1-3. 76 Apicius, De re coquinaria, VII, 9, 1-3. 77 Ibid., VII, 9, 2. 78 Ibid., VII, 9, 1. Modern version of this recipe was published in cookbooks by P. Faas and S. Grainger, see Patrick Faas, Around the Roman Table. Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome, trans. Shaun Whiteside (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2005), 268; Sally Grainger, Cooking Apicius. Roman Recipes for Today (Blackawon/Totnes, Devon: Prospect Books, 2006), 62-63. 79 Apicius, De re coquinaria, VII, 9, 2. The recipe for mustacei is given by Cato, see Cato, De agricultura, CXXI. 80 Libra = 327,4 grams. 81 Apicius, De re coquinaria, VII, 9, 3. Modern version of this recipe both for meat and mustacei is published in Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger, The Classical Cookbook (London: British Museum Press, 2000), 109-111. 82 Roy W. Davies, ʽThe Roman Military Dietʼ, Britannia 2 (1971): 124; Hilary E. M. Cool, Eating and Drinking in Roman Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 82. 83 Thurmond, Handbook of Food Processing, 210. 70 71

Bibliography Sources Aëtius of Amida. Aetii Amideni libri medicinales I-VIII, edited by Alexander Olivieri. Lipsiae/Berolini: Teubner, 1935-1950. Alexander of Tralles. ʻAlexandri Tralliani therapeutica.ʼ Alexander von Tralles, edited by Theodorus Puschmann, vol. I-II. Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1963.

126

Ham in Ancient and Byzantine Dietetics, Medicine and Gastronomy

__________________________________________________________________ Anthimus. On the Obserwance of Foods. De observatione ciborum, edited and translated by Mark Grant. Totnes/Blackawton, Devon: Prosper Books, 2007. Apicius. Apicius. A Critical Edition with an Introduction and an English Translation of the Latin Recipe Text Apicius, edited by Christopher Grocock and Sally Grainger. Blackawton/Totnes, Devon: Prospect Books, 2006. Athenaeus of Naucraris. Athenaei Naucratitae dipnosophistarum libri XV, edited by Georgius Kaibel, vol. I-III. Lipsiae: Teubner, 1887-1890. Cassianus Bassus. Geoponica sive Cassiani Bassi Scholastici de re rustica eclogae, edited by Henricus Beckh. Lipsiae: Teubner, 1895. Cato. ʻOn Agriculture.ʼ Marcus Porcius Cato on Agriculture. Marcus Terentius Varro on Agriculture. Translated by William D. Hooper. London: Heinemann/ Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1934. Columella. ʻOn Agriculture.ʼ Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella on Agriculture and Trees with an English Translation in Three Volumes. Translated by Edward S. Forster and Edward H. Heffner, vol. III. London: Heinemann/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1955. Edictum Diocletiani et Collegarum de pretiis rerum venalium, edited by Marta Giacchero, vol. I-II. Genova: Istituto di storia antica e scienze ausiliarie, 1974. Galen. ʻGaleni de alimentorum facultatibus libri III.ʼ Claudii Galeni opera omnia, edited by Carolus G. Kühn, vol. VI. Lipsiae: Cnobloch, 1823. Galen. ʻGaleni de methodo medendi libri XIV.ʼ Claudii Galeni opera omnia, edited by Carolus G. Kühn, vol. X. Lipsiae: Conobloch, 1825. Galen. ʻGaleni de simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus libri XI.ʼ Claudii Galeni opera omnia, edited by Carolus G. Kühn, vol. XI-XII. Lipsiae: Cnobloch, 1826-1827. Galen. ʻGaleni de temperamentis libri III.ʼ Claudii Galeni opera omnia, edited by Carolus G. Kühn, vol. I. Lipsiae: Cnobloch, 1821. Galen. ʻGaleni in Hippocratis de victu acutorum commentaria IV.ʼ Claudii Galeni opera omnia, edited by Carolus G. Kühn, vol. XV. Lipsiae: Cnobloch, 1828.

Zofia Rzeźnicka

127

__________________________________________________________________ Horace. ʻSatires.ʼ Horace. Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica with an English Translation. Translated by Henry Rushton Fairclought. London: Heinemann/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962. Juvenal. ʻSatires.ʼ Juvenal and Persius with an English Translation. Translated by George G. Ramsay. London: Heinemann/New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1928. Martial. Epigrams with an English Translation in Two Volumes. Translated by Walter C.A. Ker, vol. I-II. London: Heinemann/New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1919-1920. Oribasius. Oribasii collectionum medicarum reliquiae, edited by Ioannes Raeder, vol. I-IV. Lipsiae/Berolini: Teubner, 1928-1933. Oribasius. ʻOribasii synopsis ad Eustathium filium.ʼ Oribasii synopsis ad Eustathium filium et libri ad Eunapium, edited by Ioannes Raeder, vol. VI, 3. Lipsiae: Teubner, 1964. Ovid. Ovid’s Fasti with an English Translation. Translated by James G. Frazer. London: Heinemann/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1959. Palladius. Palladii Rutilii Tauri Aemiliani viri inlustris opus agriculturae de veterinaria medicina de insitione, edited by Robert H. Rodgers. Lipsiae: Teubner, 1975. Paul of Aegina. Paulus Aegineta, edited by Ioannes L. Heiberg, vol. I-II. Lipsiae/Berolini: Teubner, 1921-1924. Petronius. Petronii Arbitri Satyricon reliquiae, edited by Konrad Müller. Monachii/Lipsiae: K.G. Saur, 2003. Plautus. ʻThe Captives.ʼ Plautus with an English Translation in Four Volumes. Translated by Paul Nixon, vol. I. London: Heinemann/New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1916. Plautus. ʻCurculioʼ. Plautus with an English Translation in Five Volumes. Translated by Paul Nixon, vol. II. London: Heinemann/New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1917.

128

Ham in Ancient and Byzantine Dietetics, Medicine and Gastronomy

__________________________________________________________________ Plautus. ʻPseudolus.ʼ Plautus with an English Translation in Five Volumes. Translated by Paul Nixon, vol. IV. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press/London: Heinemann, 1980. Pliny. Natural History with an English Translation in Ten Volumes. Translated by William H.S. Jones, vol. VII. London: Heinemann/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966. Pollux. Iulii Polluciis Onomasticon cum annotationibus interpretum, edited by Guilielmus Dinorfius, vol. I-V, pars 1. Lipsiae: Libraria Kuehnina, 1824. Terence. ‘The Brothers’. Terence with an English Translation in Two Volumes. Translated by John Sargeaunt, vol. II. London: Heinemann/New York: G.P. Putman’s Sons, 1920. Strabo. The Geography of Strabo with an English Translation in Eight Volumes. Translated by Horace L. Jones, vol. II. London: Heinemann/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960. Varro. ʻOn Agriculture.ʼ Marcus Porcius Cato on Agriculture. Marcus Terentius Varro on Agriculture with an English Translation. Translated by William D. Hooper. London: Heinemann/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1934. Modern Scholarship André, Jacques. L’ alimentation et la cuisine à Rome. Paris: C. Klincksieck, 1961. Cavanagh, William. ʻFood Preservation in Greece during the Late and Final Neolithic Periods.ʼ Cooking up the Past. Food and Culinary Practices in the Neolithic and Bronze Age Aegean, edited by Christopher Mee and Josette Renard, 109-122. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2007. Cheynet, Jean-Claude. ʽLa valeur marchande des products alimentaires dans l’Empire byzantin.ʼ Βυζαντινών διατροφή και μαγειρείαι. Πρακτικά Ημερίδας “Περί της διατροφής στο Βυζάντιο”. Food and Cooking in Byzantium. Proceedings of the Symposium “On Food in Byzantium”. Thessaloniki Museum of Byzantine Culture 4 November 2001, edited by Demetra Papanikola-Bakritzi, 31-46. Athens: Πέργαμος A.B.E.E., 2005.

Zofia Rzeźnicka

129

__________________________________________________________________ Cool, Hilary E. M. Eating and Drinking in Roman Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Dalby, Andrew. Food in the Ancient World from A to Z. London/New York: Routledge, 2003. Dalby, Andrew and Sally Grainger. The Classical Cookbook. London: British Museum Press, 2000. Davies, Roy W. ʽThe Roman Military Diet’. Britannia 2 (1971): 122-142. Faas, Patrick. Around the Roman Table. Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome. Translated by Shaun Whiteside. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2005. Frayn, Joan. ‘The Roman Meat Trade’. Food in Antiquity, edited by John Wilkins, David Harvey and Mike Dobson, 107-114. Exeter: Exeter Press, 1999. Frost, Frank. ‘Sausage and Meat Preservation in Antiquity’. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 40 (1999): 241-252. Grünbart, Michael. ‘Store in a Cool and Dry Place: Perishable Goods and Their Preservation in Byzantium’. Eat, Drink and Be Merry (Luke 12:19). Food and Wine in Byzantium. In Honour of Professor A.A.M. Bryer, edited by Leslie Brubaker and Kallirroe Linardou, 39-49. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2007. Grainger, Sally. Cooking Apicius. Roman Recipes for Today. Blackawon/Totnes, Devon: Prospect Books, 2006. Karpozelos, Apostolos. ‘Realia in Byzantine Byzantinische Zeitschrift 88 (1995): 68-84.

Epistolography XIII-XVc’.

Kokoszko, Maciej. ʻKuchnia i dietetyka późnego antyku oraz Bizancjum. Kilka uwag na temat spożycia, sporządzania, przyrządzania, wartości dietetycznych i zastosowań medycznych konserw rybnych w antycznej i bizantyńskiej literaturze greckiej.ʼ Acta Universitatis Lodziensis, Folia Historica 80 (2005): 7-25. ———. Ryby i ich znaczenie w życiu codziennym ludzi późnego antyku i wczesnego Bizancjum. Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, 2005.

130

Ham in Ancient and Byzantine Dietetics, Medicine and Gastronomy

__________________________________________________________________ ———. ʻSmaki Konstantynopola.ʼ Konstantynopol. Nowy Rzym. Miasto i ludzie w okresie wczesnobizantyńskim, edited by Mirosław J. Leszka and Teresa Wolińska, 471-575. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2011. Kokoszko, Maciej and Łukasz Erlich. ʻRola mięsa w diecie późniego antyku i wczesnego Bizancjum na podstawie wybranych źródeł literackich. Część I. Zwierzęta hodowlane w sztuce kulinarnej oraz w teorii dietetycznej.ʼ Piotrkowskie Zeszty Historyczne 12 (2001): 18-33. Kokoszko, Maciej, Krzysztof Jagusiak and Zofia Rzeźnicka. ʻKilka słów o zupie zwanej ptisane (πτισάνη)’. Zeszyty Wiejskie 18 (2013): 282-292. Kokoszko, Maciej, Zofia Rzeźnicka and Krzysztof Jagusiak. ʻHealth and Culinary Art in Antiquity and Early Byzantium in the Light of De re coquinaria.ʼ Studia Ceranea. Journal of the Waldemar Ceran Research Centre for the History and Culture of the Mediterranean Area and South-East Europe 2 (2012): 145-164. Laur-Belart, Rudolf. ʻGalische Schinken und Würste’. Suisse Primitive 17 (1953): 33-40. Leary, Timothy J. Martial Book XIII: The Xenia. Text with Introduction and Commentary. London: Duckworth, 2001. Liddel, Henry G., and Robert Scott, eds. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. Magdalino, Paul. ʻThe Maritime Neighbourhoods of Constantinople: Commercial and Residential Functions, Six to Twelfth Centuries.ʼ Dumbarton Oaks Papers 54 (2000): 209-226. Thurmond, David L. A Handbook of Food Processing in Classical Rome. For Her Bounty No Winter. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2006. Wilkins, John M. and Shaun Hill. Food in the Ancient World. Malden, MA/Oxford/Carlton, Victoria: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. Zofia Rzeźnicka is a Ph.D. student in history at the University of Łódź, Poland. She is interested in history of food and medicine.