Nordic Association for Food Studies Workshop 2020 : Foodways at a crossroads: Sustainability, Gastronomy and Rethinking the traditions of how to Eat

Report

Nordic Association for Food Studies

Workshop 2020

Foodways at a crossroads: Sustainability, Gastronomy

and Rethinking the traditions of how to Eat

Julia Carrillo, Kajsa Hult, Inger M. Jonsson, Henrik Scander

and Lotte Wellton (Eds.)

Måltidskunskap 5

Nordic Association for Food Studies Workshop 2020

Foodways at a crossroads: Sustainability, Gastronomy

and Rethinking the traditions of how to Eat

NAFS Workshop 2020

Grythyttan 14

_November

Edited by

Julia Carrillo, Kajsa Hult, Inger M. Jonsson,

Henrik Scander and Lotte Wellton

© Julia Carrillo, Kajsa Hult, Inger M. Jonsson,

Henrik Scander and Lotte Wellton (Eds.), 2020

Title: Nordic Association for Food Studies Workshop 2020 Foodways at a crossroads: Sustainability, Gastronomy

and Rethinking the traditions of how to Eat. Publisher: Örebro University 2021

www.oru.se/publikationer Print: Örebro University, Repro 02/2021

ISSN 1652-2656 ISBN 978-91-87789-43-4 ISBN 978-91-87789-44-1 (e-pub)

Preface

The Nordic Association for Food Studies, NAFS, is a Nordic network for academic researchers with a common interest: Food. This year 2020, it changed affiliation from Stockholm University to School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Meal Science at Örebro University, Sweden. This year as part of our activities, we started a trimestral newsletter and they were distributed to all our members digitally. We also arranged during this year a digital workshop with the theme: “Foodways at a crossroads: Sustainability, Gastronomy and Rethinking the traditions of how to Eat”, resulting in this proceedings report.

The presentations led us from food insecurity in a Nordic welfare state, to the food chain and the culture and taste issues on unusual foods from a sustainability perspective, into eating patterns and identities of gourmeti-ficated junk food. Participants also looked into expressions of vegan iden-tities and hyper food as the idea of food instead of real food, into the ima-ginaries of sustainability viewed through restaurant storage practices, as well into sommeliers cultural understandings of combination of food and drinks. Further, we continued with hospitality given and experienced in eating environments in both restaurants and hospitals, to end up on crisis preparedness through practices of food storage and everyday provisioning in households. All together show the multifaced thinking and practices that surround how we eat.

We had planned for a physical meeting at our campus located in Grythyt-tan and to share a meal together in accordance with the network’s tradition to exchange experiences and invent new research communities. This was not possible due to the pandemic, but we look forward and imagine that this can be realized further on during our period as responsible for the network.

We are delighted and grateful for the successful engagement from the net-work members that contributed and that in this occasion, came from Den-mark and Sweden. All conferences and associated published confer ence proceedings depend initially on researchers, authors and scholars who have contributed. In this workshop, the proposed abstract was followed by a di-gital oral presentation and participation in smaller discussion groups. This contributed to create an event where we got closer to each other in more informal conversation even if we missed the commensality when eating to-gether due to the constraints of a digital only event. We really enjoyed all your presentations and your comments, we believe that this is the best way to take our field further, by cooperation and sharing all of our research.

Finally, I would like to extend the thanks to my companions in the NAFS committee with PhD student Julia Carrillo senior lecturers Lotte Wellton and Henrik Scander for their engagement during the year 2020 including joyful companionship and planning activities and at last the successful workshop.

Inger M Jonsson

Professor in Culinary Arts and Meal Science December 2020

Table of Contents

Contributors ... 9 NAFS Workshop 2021: Keynote Speakers ... 12 Food in Turbulent Times

Lotte Holm... 13 Provisioning for an imagined crisis

Matilda Marshall ... 16 Learning from the past with sight into the future ... 19

Buckwheat – revival in a new foodscape

Viktoria Olsson, Christine Feiff and Gunnel Petterson... 20 Experiencing hospitality through people, places and artefacts within an institutional setting. A qualitative interview study with eleven inpatients across three hospital wards in Sweden

Ann-Sofie Jonsson, Inger M. Jonsson, Åsa Öström, and Maria

Nyberg ... 23 The role of gastronomy in the food chain ... 25 The cultural and sensory experience of mutton: A model for sustainable gastronomy

Åsa Öström and Lotte Wellton ... 26 Storing stories of sustainability. Imaginaries of sustainable cuisine Julia Carrillo, Matilda Marshall, Lotte Wellton and Inger M. Jonsson ... 27 Sustainability and eating out ... 29

Front of the house professionals’ identity creations: Symbols and underlying motivations of hospitality as performance in small-scale restaurant establishments

Kajsa Hult ... 30 Sommelier competition practices as competitive success factors

Henrik Scander ... 33 The poetics of craft – haute cuisine, passion and imagination

Theresa Digerfeldt-Månsson ... 34 Changing eating patterns ... 37

Eating a Cheese Burger at NOMA. On the Gourmeficaton of Junk Food

Camilla Hoff-Jørgensen and Jonatan Leer ... 38 I’m a vegan! Student’s perception of the Anthropocene and pedagogical challenges in a university “food” course

Empty calories?

Contributors

Julia Carrillo PhD candidate in Food, Nutrition and Culinary Science, at the Department of Food, Nutrition and Culinary Science at Umeå Univer-sity, Sweden. She is interested in food and restaurant sustainability, cultural ideals and practices surrounding food consumption and production. Theresa Digerfeldt-Månsson PhD in Design Management and Art & Busi-ness, Stockholm University School of BusiBusi-ness, Stockholm. Sweden. She is interested in Management of design and aesthetics; Design and innovation; The role of craft in the creation of art; Cooking and creativity.

Christine Feiff, Teacher in Home Ecomomics, Tranängskolan 7-9, Tranemo.

Camilla Hoff-Jørgensen, Cand.scient.anth. (Lund University, 2013). B.A. (Lund University, 2010). Extensive academic work experience since 2008, as Cultural Health Adviser in Japan and Spain and anthropologist conduct-ing quantitative and qualitative studies in Copenhagen. Currently engaged in the Danish national harm reduction strategy group, focused on the social nurse concept for homeless patients with drug abuse.

Kajsa Hult, PhD candidate Culinary Arts and Meal Science, School of Hos-pitality, Culinary Arts & Meal Science, Örebro University, Sweden. She is interested in Hospitality, restaurant workers, sustainable work life, small-scale restaurant businesses, identity production, passion work.

Anne-Sofie Jonsson, PhD candidate in Culinary Arts and Meal Science, School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts & Meal Science, Örebro University, in the university-wide initiative on Successful Aging since 1 September 2016. Her research aims to explore how older patients experience their meals in hospital with a focus on the various social and material meetings that take place before, during and after a meal.

Inger M. Jonsson, PhD, Professor in Culinary Arts and Meal Science, School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts & Meal Science, Örebro University. Sweden. She is interested in Meals in society and culture - including gender and ethnicity. Food advice in perspective from gastronomy and health.

Jonatan Leer, Associate professor in Food and tourism Leisure manage-ment, University College Absalon, Roskilde. He is interested in Food and Gender/Masculinity, New Nordic Cuisine, Gastronationalism, Taste Edu-cation, Food and Media.

Maria Nyberg, PhD in Sociology and senior lecturer in Food and Meal Sci-ence. Department of Food and Meal Science and the research group MEAL, Kristianstad University, Sweden. She is interested in Experiences and mean-ings of food and meals at various arenas in everyday life, including work-places, schools and care homes.

Viktoria Olsson, PhD and Senior Lecturer, Food and Meal Science, Faculty of Natural Science, Kristianstad University, Kristianstad, Sweden. Teaching and research interests involve food quality and its role in sustainable meal experiences throughout life.

Gunnel Petterson: Artistic Senior Lecturer, School of Arts and Communica-tion, K3, Malmö University, Malmö. Course coordinator for the course Cultural production, a contextualisation in practice and theory. Initiator of a book project with the preliminary title: The cultivation - With buckwheat as the driving force.

Mona Petersson, Senior Lecturer at the School of Environmental Studies, Natural Sciences and Technology, Södertörn University. Her teaching and research focus on landscape changes due to the interaction between the man and nature locally and globally. At the moment I study peri-urban land-scapes.

Paulina Rytkönen, PhD in Economic History, Head of Meal Sciences, De-partment of Life Sciences, Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden. She is interested in Food as a tool for growth and rural development, food and entrepreneurship.

Henrik Scander, PhD in Culinary Arts and Meal Science, School of Hospi-tality, Culinary Arts & Meal Science, Örebro University, Sweden. He is in-terested in Food and beverage combinations and the notion of good taste.

Donna Isabella Caroline Sundbo, Dr. and Associate Professor (DK: Lektor) in leisure management with a focus on food experiences. Center for man-agement and experience design, University College Absalon, Roskilde, Den-mark. She is interested in Food experiences, culinary tourism, local food, food culture, food history

Lotte Wellton, PhD in Culinary Arts and Meal Science, School of Hospital-ity, Culinary Arts & Meal Science, Örebro UniversHospital-ity, Sweden. She is inter-ested in the meal makers, cooks and chefs in a gender context, historically and contemporary. Work processes in the professional kitchen. Work life in the hospitality industry.

Åsa Öström, PhD Professor in Culinary Arts and Meal Science, and Head of at the School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts & Meal Science, Örebro Uni-versity. She is interested in sensory science with a focus on meal experiences.

NAFS Workshop 2021: Keynote Speakers

This is a workshop proceeding from the NAFS workshop at the School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts & Meal Science, Örebro University. The work-shop started at 9.15 until 16.30 the 14th _{November 2020. We take the}

op-portunity to thank our two keynote speakers:

• Lotte HOLM, her research addresses social and cultural aspects of food and eating in various settings. Her research centers on ordinary daily routines related to food consumption, meal pat-terns, body management including body weight management. Food policy and regulation, and food and meals in institutions such as hospitals and schools form part of her research profile. Her research includes in-depth qualitative studies as well as larger population surveys. Much of her research takes place in large interdisciplinary projects, and she is engaged in sociological comparative European research. She teaches sociology of Food at Masters and PhD level. She presented her project “Food in Turbulent Times” from the Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen.

• Matilda MARSHALL has a PhD in ethnology from Umeå Uni-versity (2017). Her research concerns food culture, everyday food consumption, perceptions of sustainability and food stor-age. Her interest lays in food as a cultural phenomenon. By using cultural analytical methods, she explores how mundane habits and practices have been stable or changed over the past century. She presented her project “Provisioning for an imagined crisis” from the School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Meal Science, Örebro University

Food in Turbulent Times

Lotte Holm (Copenhagen University)

The project Food in Turbulent Times combines in-depth qualitative inquiry with analyses of panel data and a representative survey of Danish house-holds in an investigation of financial pressure on household food budgets and food insecurity in Denmark.

Most research on household’s reactions to food budget restraint address low-income groups in countries characterised by large socio-economic dif-ferences. In the Western world, such studies have mostly been conducted in Anglo-Saxon countries, while in Scandinavian societies, such as Denmark, it has been maintained that the Social-Democratic type welfare system en-sures that no-one needs to be deprived of basic necessities such as food. However, following the global capitalist crisis in 2008, broader parts of the population experience economic unrest and various degrees of pressure on food budgets have become more common in Danish households.

In Denmark, sustainable food consumption is high on the political agen-das and organic food purchase is the highest in the world. But what happens when people react to economic turbulence and attempt to reduce food ex-penditure.

The qualitative part of the project included interviews with households who experienced pressure on their food budgets for different reasons: some, had voluntarily and planned cut down their food expenses because of in-vestments, planned breaks from work, or retirement. Others, had been forced to do so because of long term illness, unemployment or wage reduc-tions. The qualitative analysis explored the various strategies adopted by informants and how they involved the potential for both positive and neg-ative experiences for the individual, depending on the wider context for the need to reduce household food budgets. The reported experiences and prac-tices in the face of food budget constraints ranged from the empowering stimulus of self-development, creativity and engagement with global envi-ronmental challenges to loss of food-related life quality and feelings of in-adequacy.

The quantitative population survey showed that while 66% of the popu-lation is food secure and 25% experience mild or severe food budget re-striction, food insecurity does exist in Denmark, as the prevalence of low

and very low food security was 6.0% (95% CI:5.4–8.5%) and 2.4% (95% CI:1.3–3.3%), respectively. Prevalence was highest in households with dis-posable income below OECD’s poverty threshold, households receiving benefits or disability pensions, and single-parent households. Food insecu-rity in Denmark is associated with adverse factors such as unhealthy diet, obesity, life satisfaction, and psychological distress.

The survey also showed that some of the ways households adapted to food budget restraint were common across all levels of budget restraint. This was the case for buying cheaper foods and stretching foods. When such adjustments to food provisioning and kitchen practices were proving to be insufficient, other adaptations were made involving changes in food quality and hospitality, and seeking external help.

It is a conclusion in the study, that in affluent social-democratic welfare societies, pressure on food budgets also has negative impacts on life satis-faction and health. It is important to widen food insecurity research to non-liberal welfare states and to include measures of food insecurity in dietary surveys in social-democratic welfare states.

Some publications from the project

Holm, L., Nielsen, A. L., & Lund, T. B. (2020). Adapting to financial pressure on household food budgets in Denmark: Associations with life satisfaction and dietary health. Acta Sociologica (United Kingdom),

63(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/0001699318810095

Lund, T. B., Holm, L., Tetens, I., Smed, S., & Nielsen, A. L. (2018). Food insecurity in Denmark-socio-demographic determinants and

associations with eating-and health-related variables. European Journal

of Public Health, 28(2). https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckx121

Lund, T. B., Watson, D., Smed, S., Holm, L., Eisler, T., & Nielsen, A. (2017). The Diet-related GHG Index: construction and validation of a brief questionnaire-based index. Climatic Change, 140(3–4).

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-016-1869-9

Nielsen, A., & Holm, L. (2016). Making the most of less. Food, Culture

& Society, 19(1), 71–91.

Nielsen, A. L., Lund, T. B., & Holm, L. (2015). The taste of ‘the end of the month’, and how to avoid it: coping with restrained food budgets in a Scandinavian welfare state context. Social Policy and Society,

14(3), 429–442. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746415000056

Smed, S., Tetens, I., Bøker Lund, T., Holm, L., & Ljungdalh Nielsen, A. (2018). The consequences of unemployment on diet composition and purchase behaviour: a longitudinal study from Denmark. Public Health

Nutrition, 21(03), 580–592.

Provisioning for an imagined crisis

Matilda Marshall (Örebro University)

Open your kitchen cupboards and fridge and consider their contents. What could you eat or cook if the power was cut for a few days? Or if there was a water shortage, a military attack or a pandemic restricting your freedom of movement?

Along with access to communication and keeping warm, the provision of food and water is central in Swedish authorities’ recommendations for household preparedness. Since the end of the cold war and the dismantle-ment of the governdismantle-mental food reserves, more responsibility lays with the individual. In the event of a societal crisis civilians are expected to be able to cater for themselves for at least a few days, preferably a week. This mes-sage from the authorities has intensified in recent years, e.g. in the leaflet If

crisis and war comes (MSB 2018) sent to all households in Sweden. But, in

everyday life, how do people practice preparedness through food?

This paper, based on an ongoing project on food storage, will explore crisis preparedness through practices of food storage and everyday provi-sioning. By studying the rationales, experiences and materiality on a house-hold level, it aims to give perspectives on how societal issues are imagined and managed through everyday food habits. It reports on results from an open-ended questionnaire sent out in 2019, collecting experiences and memories of food storage. In particular, this paper focuses on the answers covering food preparedness in relation to societal crises.

Previous research on practicing household preparedness suggest how these practices are informed by past experiences (Heidenstrøm och Kvarnlöf 2018). Whilst the majority of replies to the questionnaire were submitted before the corona pandemic reached Sweden in March 2020, the pandemic offers an analytical breaking-point. Whereas many had experienced winter storms and power cuts, the pandemic was something different, challenging everyday food habits in new ways. The provisioning for a potential crisis could then tell of how people envision both the crisis and what they, in such event, could and would eat.

References

• Heidenstrøm, Nina, och Linda Kvarnlöf. 2018. ”Coping with Blackouts: A Practice Theory Approach to Household Prepared-ness”. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management 26 (2): 272–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5973.12191.

• MSB. 2018. ”Om krisen eller kriget kommer”. Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och krisberedskap.

Learning from the past with sight

into the future

Buckwheat – revival in a new foodscape

Viktoria Olsson (Kristianstad University), Christine Feiff (Tranängskolan 7-9, Tranemo) and Gunnel Petterson (Malmö University)

In July 1749, when visiting Scania, Carl Linnaeus, noted the snow-white fields of buck wheat (Linné, 1749/1999). In those days, the cultivation of buckwheat was widespread in the southern parts of Sweden. It was used for porridge and gruel, staple foods the common people (Olsson, u.å.)

Buck wheat thrives on lean, calcareous soils and require very little input. During the 1930s, when industrial fertilizers were introduced, production and consumption fell sharply as buckwheat was outcompeted by more high-yielding crops like oats and potatoes.

The scientific basis for direct health effects of “pseudoceareals” like buckwheat is weak (Becker, Busk, Mattisson, Sand, 2012). However, there is on-going research on buckwheat and its health effects. Animal and cell studies suggest cholesterol-lowering and blood sugar stabilizing effects and cancer-inhibiting properties (e.g. Dziedzic et al., 2018; Lee et al., 2012; Soo-Hyun, 2009). Further, fiber-rich products, such as buckwheat, can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and a diet high in fiber is linked to reduced risk of insulin resistance, diabetes and high blood pressure (Becker, Busk, Mattisson, Sand, 2012).

Buckwheat contains the essential amino acids and is rich in several B vit-amins, manganese, copper, magnesium, iron, and phosphorus. However, buckwheat also contains some anti-nutritional substances like fagopyrin and unless properly ripe it has a bitter flavour.

Many people choose to eat gluten-free. The increased demand has re-sulted in a greater range of gluten-free products (Bryngelsson and Jansson, 2017). This trend has given room for increased consumption of sustainably produced buck wheat.

Japan has a long standing tradition around noodles based on buckwheat "soba". The serving of soba is traditionally characterized by simplicity with pure flavours. With global mobility, new experiences are sought after in the modern cuisine. In Sweden, the passion for Asian cooking has generated an

innovative noodle culture both in terms of presentations and serving situa-tions like food trucks and action-based restaurants. Sourcing local buck-wheat is consequently an ideal. The sauce that soba is dipped in is tradition-ally based on soy and dashi. A clear example of a new foodscape is that you can find soba served with Italian-influenced tomato sauce. Countless other examples can be found.

The porridge that Linnaeus describes in his Scanian journey, served with beer, vanished deemed as "poor man's food", but has now had a revival in new presentations as "functional food" for modern people when, for exam-ple, charging energy for a yoga session.

References

• Becker, W., Busk, L., Mattisson, I., Sand S. (2012). Råd om full-korn 2009 – bakgrund och vetenskapligt underlag Livsmedelsver-ket: Rapport 10 – 2012. https://www.livsmedelsverket.se/globalas- sets/publikationsdatabas/rapporter/2012/2012_livsmedelsver-ket_10_rad_om_fullkorn.pdf

• Bryngelsson, S. and Jansson, N. (2017). Alla talar om gluten och FODMA. SNF Swedish Nutrition Foundation, Lund. https://nutri-tionsfakta.se/2017/05/16/alla-talar-om-gluten-och-fodmap/ • Dziedzic, K., Górecka, D., Szwengiel, A., Olejnik, A., Rychlik, J.,

Kreft, I., Drożdżyńska, A., & Walkowiak, J. (2018). The cytotoxic effect of artificially digested buckwheat products on HT-29 colon cancer cells. Journal of Cereal Science, 83, 68–73.

doi:10.1016/j.jcs.2018.07.020

• Lee C., Hsu W., Shen S., Cheng Y., Wu S. (2012). Fagopyrum ta-taricum (Buckwheat) Improved High-Glucose-Induced Insulin Re-sistance in Mouse Hepatocytes and Diabetes in Fructose-Rich Diet-Induced Mice, Exp Diabetes Res. 2012;2012:375673. doi:

10.1155/2012/375673

• Linné, C.V. (1999[1959]). Carl Linnæi Skånska resa: på höga över-hetens befallning förrättad år 1749 ... Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand.

• Olsson, S-O. R. (u.å.) Skånsk mat- och måltidskultur. Skåne-ländska Gastronomiska Akademien.

https://skga.se/in-dex.php/historia/publikationer/11-skansk-mat-och-maltidskultur • Soo-Hyun, K. (2009). Cytotoxic effect of buckwheat (Fagopyrum

esculentum Moench) hull against cancer cells. Journal of Medicinal food. doi: 10.1089/jmf.2006.1089

Experiencing hospitality through people, places

and artefacts within an institutional setting.

A qualitative interview study with eleven

inpa-tients across three hospital wards in Sweden

Jonsson, A., Jonsson, I-M., Öström, Å (Örebro University) and Nyberg, M (Kristianstad University)

Eating and sharing meals are essential parts of everyday life and expressed through tradition and culture. This everyday expression of who we are is argued to be taken away from us during hospitalization. Few studies have qualitatively explored hospitalized older patients experiences with their mealtimes. This is a perspective that could increase the understanding of how to provide enhanced dining experiences during time of illness for this malnutrition prune age group. The study objective was therefore to explore older patients’ (> 65 years) mealtime experiences during hospital stay with an emphasis towards the social interactions taking place before, during and after their meals. Eleven semi structured interviews were conducted and an-alysed through the lens of hospitality and the dramaturgical theory outlined by Goffman. The preliminary results indicate that the patients experience hospitality through materiality (e.g. the menu), commensality (with fellow patients and staff) and individuality (the possibility to make own meal choices) but also inhospitality through conformity (not expressing their wishes or conforming to the situation) and locality (e.g. being lonely in the room). The patients are seen to reinforce the role of the non-complaining patient as well as not being a burden. The understanding of these kinds of role making and role taking by the patients is important to recognize within healthcare to be able to ensure that the mealtime and the meal service is provided with a person-centered approach together with the recognition that hospitality can bring fourth the practical doings in how to perform during meal service.

The role of gastronomy in the food

chain

The cultural and sensory experience of mutton:

A model for sustainable gastronomy

Åsa Öström and Lotte Wellton (Örebro University)

The aim of this project is to develop an applied model for sensory and cul-turally accepted meal solutions that are sustainable from both an economic and ecologic perspective. In particular, we explore underexploited foods in this case locally produced mutton in collaboration with culinary practition-ers and food producpractition-ers on Gotland. The project is guided by three research questions: I) How can collaborative cooking processes contribute to a sus-tainable development of locally produced foods, in this case mutton? II) How do cultural preconceptions and norms together with sensory percep-tions of mutton challenge and influence sustainable food? III) How do meal solutions, based on locally produced mutton, influence consumer satisfac-tion, perceived quality and values of sustainability? This will be done by a gastronomic methodological combination of culinary workshops, sensory evaluations, ethnography and accounting management. The main outcome of the project is to provide a “Research model” for understanding the im-portance of culture, locality and sustainability of products in addition to the value chains and network practices embedded in direct supply chain rela-tionships. On a long-term perspective, this may lead to increased awareness, knowledge and skills amongst producers and restaurants about the benefits and opportunities of locally produced mutton. Further, this may potentially also have an impact on the restaurants’ customers willingness to purchase and cook mutton at home.

Storing stories of sustainability. Imaginaries of

sustainable cuisine

Julia Carrillo, Matilda Marshall, Lotte Wellton and Inger M Jonsson (Öre-bro University)

Restaurant sustainability is a key concern within the restaurant industry and nowadays there are a variety of initiatives and approaches to achieve it (Jang, Zheng, & Bosselman, 2017; Sauer & Wood, 2018). In turn, this cre-ates different narratives and understandings of sustainable cuisine who de-lineate the way restaurant practices addresses the challenge of sustainability in their everyday work. Nevertheless, this research has focused in manage-ment positions (see e.g. Batat, 2020) and no other staff which are the ones embodying the discourses and practices. By using storage and preservation practices as an entry point, this ethnographic study uses the concept of im-aginaries (Belfrage & Hauf, 2015) to explore the different beliefs and ideals regarding restaurant sustainability and the practices these imaginaries fos-ter. Three distinct imaginaries of sustainable cuisine were identified. These are “less meat more vegetables”, “storing local quality” and “the creative restaurant professional”. These imaginaries are materialized through differ-ent storage facilities and practices like root cellar, wine cellar or meat aging fridges which also portrayed the cuisine philosophy of the establishments.

We suggest that storage facilities, are at the center of the restaurant ac-tivity, determining the amount, type and quality of food that is served and the level of expertise expected of the personnel. Furthermore, we argue that the imaginaries, as a complexity reducing mechanism, make manageable complex issues such as sustainability, which is embedded in global trade, governmental policies and even national culture. However, they also por-tray an array of simple solutions that as such are very susceptible to external factors such as the coronavirus pandemic, as shown by the abandonment of some of the practices represented by the imaginaries and a shift in narratives during this period. The disruption caused by the pandemic to the sustaina-ble cuisine imaginaries call for a better understanding of what entails to work sustainably within restaurants in order to be able to engage in resilient practices and solutions.

References

• Batat, W. (2020). Pillars of sustainable food experiences in the lux-ury gastronomy sector: A qualitative exploration of Michelin-starred chefs’ motivations. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Ser-vices, 57. doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102255

• Belfrage, C. A., & Hauf, F. (2015). Operationalizing cultural polit-ical economy: towards critpolit-ical grounded theory. Journal of Organi-zational Ethnography, 4(3), 324-340. doi:10.1108/joe-01-2015-0002

• Jang, Y. J., Zheng, T., & Bosselman, R. (2017). Top managers’ en-vironmental values, leadership, and stakeholder engagement in pro-moting environmental sustainability in the restaurant industry. In-ternational Journal of Hospitality Management, 63, 101-111. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2017.03.005

• Sauer, L., & Wood, R. C. (2018). Behaviours and attitudes to-wards sustainable food provision on the part of Dutch restaura-teurs. Research in Hospitality Management, 8(1), 41-46. doi:10.1080/22243534.2018.1501177

Front of the house professionals’ identity

crea-tions: Symbols and underlying motivations of

hospitality as performance in small-scale

restaurant establishments

Kajsa Hult (Örebro University)

A recurrent issue in the restaurant industry is the high staff turnover (Brown, Thomas & Bosselman, 2015). Research has depicted the restaurant industry as a low-status profession, with issues such as low-pay, stressful-ness and imbalance between work and life contributing to the difficulty of retaining skilled personnel (Baum, 2015). The limited amount of research that focuses of restaurant workers narratives highlights the chefs’ creativity and artistry, providing the profession certain status. Yet, it is rarely concep-tualized when it comes to front of the house professionals working with and creating dining events. There is also lack of literature associated to the workers’ own perspective and beliefs, and how they in turn affect their choice of working and staying in the restaurant industry (Mooney, Harris & Ryan, 2015). Furthermore, the connection between the specific charac-teristics of the establishments and hospitality as an act, is also not yet suffi-ciently explored. In this project, the focus is, thus, on the dining room em-ployees’ and their connections between specific restaurant characteristics and hospitality as an act. The aim of this PhD project is to extend and deepen the knowledge about hospitality by exploring restaurants and res-taurant professionals’ underlying motivations for the choice of profession.

The restaurants here studied are seen as social spaces where guests and professionals participate in deeper symbolic processes (Beriss & Sutton, 2007). For instance, the feeling of authenticity by consuming organic, small-scale and nonconventional cooked food (Johnston & Baumann, 2007). These aspects inspire the subset of restaurants in this project. They follow the growing trend of specializing in certain products such as premium, sus-tainable, local and small-scale products (BFUF, 2018) and could be under-stood to be consumed in order to create identity (Cronin, McCarthy & Col-lins, 2014. Here, the service tends to be informal rather than formal, with an atmosphere that is casual and leisurely rather than the stiff and organized traits traditionally associated with high-end fine dining (Lane, 2013) but follow the trend of ‘gourmetization’ (BFUF, 2018).

Beriss and Sutton (2007) argues that the use of ethnographic methods in restaurant settings is preferable since restaurants provide a cluster of sym-bols, norms, patterns of social and cultural activities. Thus, this project will use in-depth interviews and observations to explore factors in the restaurant environment, and thoughts of being in the industry, that influences both identity creation and performance of hospitality.

By highlighting the relation between identity creation and a restaurant´s concept and philosophy, the expectation is to understand the internal and external factors that foster an interest to work in these restaurants. Further-more, to understand how hospitality in such establishments is performed. An additional goal with the project is to deepen the theoretical understand-ing of hospitality and to contribute to the restaurant industry by investigat-ing if and how identity creation influences work motivation and, how the effect transforms into commitment to work.

References

• Baum, T. (2015), “Human resources in tourism: still waiting for change? – a 2015 reprise”, Tourism Management, Vol. 50 No. 4, pp. 204-212.

• Beriss, D., & Sutton, D. E. (Eds.). (2007). The Restaurants Book:

Ethnographies of where we eat. Bloomsbury Publishing.

• BFUF (2018) Besöksnäringensforsknings- och utbildningsfond. Till-växtbransch i förändring, Prognoser för kompetensbehov inom ho-tell- och restaurangbranschen till år 2030. Stockholm: Visita. • Brown, E.A., Thomas, N.J. and Bosselman, R.H. (2015), “Are they

leaving or staying: a qualitative analysis of turnover issues for Gen-eration Y hospitality employees with a hospitality education”,

In-ternational Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 46, pp.

130-137.

• Cronin, J. M., McCarthy, M. B., & Collins, A. M. (2014). Covert distinction: how hipsters practice food-based resistance strategies in the production of identity. Consumption Markets &

• Lane, C. (2013). Taste makers in the “fine-dining” restaurant in-dustry: The attribution of aesthetic and economic value by gastro-nomic guides. Poetics, 41(4), 342-365.

• Mooney, S. K., Harris, C., & Ryan, I. (2016). Long hospitality ca-reers–a contradiction in terms? International Journal of

Contempo-rary Hospitality Management.

• Johnston, J., & Baumann, S. (2007). Democracy versus distinction: A study of omnivorousness in gourmet food writing. American

Sommelier competition practices as competitive

success factors

Henrik Scander (Örebro University)

Competition has proven to be a competitive advantage on many levels. In gastronomy, competitions around food and drink have increased and help to increase the status of many restaurant workers. One of these is the som-melier, who has been a bit overshadowed by chefs' attention. But somme-liers are not only good for restaurants’ finances and guests' experiences, they also act as cultural mediators of good taste. Previous research shows that competition is a recurring phenomenon for how sommeliers succeed in their careers. The sommelier’s work at restaurants is now a significant issue for the success for restaurants, because they can increase restaurant profit and guest’s service satisfaction and also acts an intermediary of taste. Still, it is unclear what this success is dependent on, also yet limited research on som-meliers daily and conspicuous practices.

In this paper we focus on how sommelier's practices within competition are transferable to the restaurant floor. The paper draws on findings from a study of qualitative interviews with sommeliers in Sweden, in order to understand the sommelier's practice as performance from the analytical lens practice theory, focusing on materiality, competence and meaning.

The analysis of the findings shows that competition practitioners are identified by the sommelier's ability to understand how different elements should be answered. Moreover, is clear how the cultural understanding of what is considered to be a good combination, or the right way to move during a craft situation, plays a crucial role in how well sommeliers succeeds on the field. The paper argues that the sommelier's competition experiences is a success factor as it provides a competitive advantage, where you are not afraid of failure, as acting on the restaurant floor. We suggest that restau-rateurs should promote and set aside time for their employees to compete as a form of personal development.

The poetics of craft – haute cuisine, passion and

imagination*

Theresa Digerfeldt, (Independent researcher and writer)

There are many cookbooks but few about the activity of cooking as such. Cooking is often regarded as an intellectual activity – recipe reading. The actual making is therefore reduced to a purely mechanical. It is a conception that is reflected in the myth about “the secret of the chef” according to which chefs are believed to leave out ingredients or instructions in their rec-ipes on purpose in order to preserve their professional advantages. Chefs themselves often highlight the importance of passion and intuition in cook-ing and claim that “the secret” stands for a non-conceptual knowledge that cannot be translated into a measurement or a verbal instruction. It is also reflected in their view on creativity which is perceived of as a passion-driven process.

The book explores the role and significance of passion within culinary crafts. The focus is on cooking as a creative process. Passion is viewed as a metaphor for a “lived” knowledge and cooking conceptualized as a passion-driven practice. Cooking therefore remains a craft, but not in the sense of a technique but as another way of creating value. Culinary craft is regarded as an inherently dynamic and lived process that includes both a state-of-mind – “being-in-the-world” - and a creative gesture – a creative making. Ultimately it represents another way of understanding and gaining knowledge of the world.

The book is based upon a number of studies focusing on three Michelin-starred chefs in Sweden and France: Sébastien Chambru, Mathias Dahlgren and Régis Macron. The methodology is inspired by sensuous ethnography (Pink 2009) and practice has been part of the research strategy. Besides in-depth interviews and observations, insights have been gained through par-ticipation in a cooking program at Institut Paul Bocuse in Lyon as well as work as a kitchen apprentice.

The book describes the life and culture that reigns back-stage in the world of haute cuisine. It also provides a theoretical framework founded in existential philosophy (Welsch 1997, Gabriel 2015, 2017) , particularly pragmatic aesthetics (Dewey 1980, Shusterman 2000). In accordance with

the “aesthetic turn” (Welsch 1997, Howes 2005) aesthetics is looked upon as a position, not an aspect. It is perceived as something that ultimately belongs to knowledge and reality directly at a base level instead of some-thing that only relates to secondary, supplemental realities.

The book highlights practice-based knowledge as a productive knowledge and shows how philosophy/art can contribute to the field of gas-tronomy with taste remaining something that is ultimately consumed by the palate, not the eyes.

* Originaltitel: “Hantverkets poetik – haute cuisine, passion och dröm-meri”

References

• Dewey, J. 1980 (1934). Art as experience. New York: Berkley Pub-lishing Group.

• Focillon, H. 1989 (1934). The life of forms in art. New York: Zone Books.

• Gabriel, M. 2015. Varför världen inte finns. Stockholm: Norstedts. • Gabriel, M. 2017. Pourquoi je ne suis pas mon cerveau. France:

JCLattès.

• Howes, D. (red.) 2005. Empire of the senses. Oxford: Berg. • Pink, S. 2009. Doing sensory ethnography. London: Sage. • Shusterman, R. 2000. Pragmatist aesthetics. Boston: Rowman &

Littlefield

Eating a Cheese Burger at NOMA. On the

Gourmeficaton of Junk Food

Camilla Hoff-Jørgensen, Jonatan Leer (University College Absalon)

In this paper, we discuss a current trend where food items traditionally as-sociated with “poor man’s food” or junk food are gourmefied and adopted on menus in upscale eateries or even Michelin starred restaurants. This is not a completely novel trend. A longstanding example within drinking cul-ture is the craft beer hip where a traditional working-class drink, beer, has become a connoisseur object for middleclass foodies. However, the trend of gourmefying junk food has really taken off in the last decade in a Danish context with gourmet burgers, Michelin star chefs competing in national championships of hotdogs, the upscaling of porridge etc.

We try to situate the trend within a larger discussion of status, taste and identity in contemporary food culture. We discuss how traditional patterns of distinctions are transgressed and reworked into new forms of distinction particularly in the modern urban hipster food culture. This section draws on theories of food transgression (Goodmann/Sage) and theories on postindustrial food design and gentrification (Parasecoli/Halawa).

Our empirical example is from a larger ongoing study on the specular transformation of NOMA in the spring of 2020 in the post COVID-19 con-text. One of the world’s best restaurants was transformed into a burger joint serving only cheeseburgers. The examples focus particularly on how the eat-ing experience was radically transformed and new elements like queueeat-ing became central. The case exemplifies the blursred boundaries between de-mocratization, branding and social distinction when junk food becomes gourmet.

This study includes 15 personal interviews with people who tried the NOMA-burger and were in line for eating their burger in NOMA’s garden. Moreover, a SoMe mapping was conducted on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube from the announcement and during the summer of 2020.

I’m a vegan! Student’s perception of the

Anthro-pocene and pedagogical challenges in a

university “food” course

Paulina Rytkönen, Mona Petersson, (Södertörn University)

Introduction

In 2017 Södertörn University established the course Food and Environment (15 ECTS) in the undergraduate program in Environmental Sciences. The course problematizes the relationship between production and consumption of food and environmental issues in the food system. The course was de-signed using Freire’s progressive pedagogical ideas of empowering students with tools for taking charge of their own education (2017 ⦋1968⦋) Theoret-ical and practTheoret-ical elements are integrated through literature studies, real life observations, sensory exercises and an excursion1.

Unanticipated conflicts and pedagogical challenges have arisen in the course due to the student's active critique against the subordinated role of animals in the Anthropocene. In society, such views are limited to a small share of the population (24 % vegetarians and 1 % vegans in Sweden in 2018) and there are few arenas where ‘the vegan point of view’ can be included in the efforts to improve sustainability in the food industry. The course offers an opportunity to understand veganism and how to overcome the lack of dia-logue between vegans and non-vegans in society, especially since 30 percent of the students are vegans and the rest are sympathetic to vegan ideals.

Previous research

Ethical concerns related to animal husbandry under the Anthropocene are increasingly important (Bruckmeier, 2015; Cushing, 2019; Mazac & Tuomisto, 2020; McGregor & Houston, 2018) and literature about vegan-ism shows two central themes: 1) The creation of a social movement through collective action, (a) based on solidarity, (b) emergence of conflict, (c) breaking with the system that the movements’ critique targets (Cherry, 2006); 2) A normative set of organized actions based on a new moral and ideological standard (Sneijder and te Molder, 2009).

Students perceptions

We used reports, essays and discussions in the classroom documented in the course web.

SOCIAL MOVEMENT: Students analyze the role of animals in society de-parting from technical drivers (for example pasteurization) and cultural change (e.g. milk propaganda and the rise of vegetarian food consump-tion). Studies are often based on post productive theories. Assignments ex-press solidarity with animals, environmental impact of food production, injustices in the global food system often using ‘David vs. Goliath’ argu-ments, and vegetarian food being superior to animal-based food.

NORMATIVITY: Students highlight conflict between meat-eaters and ve-gans, presenting ‘damages’ caused by animal production (deforestation, food scares including the Covid 19 pandemic and fraud), students repro-duce arguments developed by vegan food prorepro-ducers. Organized coherent action is expressed by refusing to participate in sensory exercises based on animal products (milk, eggs, honey, fish). Vegan students demand alterna-tive assignments that circumvent the course syllabus to avoid participating in the human exploitation of animals.

Conclusions

The study of vegan students’ perceptions can help us understand how to overcome the societal lack of dialogue in a highly polarized discussion about the role of animals in the food system. The challenges experienced during the course, especially concerning the normative aspects of veganism can contribute to the development of better didactic and pedagogical ap-proaches for a changing society in which a higher awareness of ethical and environmental aspects are needed.

References

• Bruckmeier, K. (2015) ”Eating the planet” - seeking a philosophy of food in the anthropocene, DoI: 10.18030/socio.hu.2015en.4 • Cherry, E. (2006) Veganism as a Cultural Movement: A Relational

Approach, Social Movement Studies, 5:2, 155-170, DOI: 10.1080/14742830600807543

• Cushing, N. (2019). To Eat or Not to Eat Kangaroo: Bargaining over Food Choice in the Anthropocene, Journal of Media and Cul-ture, 22(2). Available from:

http://www.journal.media-cul-ture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/1508

• _{Freire, P. (2017 ⦋1968⦌) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, London:} Pen-guin Modern Classics.

• Mazac, R. & Tuomisto, H. L. (2020) The Post-Anthropocene Diet: Navigating Future Diets for Sustainable Food Systems. Sustainabil-ity Vol. 12 (6), 2355, https://doi.org/10.3390/su12062355. • McGregor, A. & Houston, D. (2018) Cattle in the Anthropocene:

Four Propositions, Transactions of the Institute of Brittish Geogra-phers, 43:3-16, DOI: 10.1111/tran.12193

• Sneijder, P. & te Molder, H. (2009) Normalizing ideological food choice and eating practices. Identity work in online discussions on veganism, Appetite, 52: 621–630

Web based sources

• Course syllabus, https://www.sh.se/rest-api/cpl/sylla-bus?code=1141MJ&period=20173&lang=sv

Empty calories?

Donna Isabella Caroline Sundbo, (University College Absalon)

As a result of a number of factors, importantly the postmodern society of plenty, food has gone from a scarcity to a ubiquitous abundance. This has led to changing eating patterns of consumers, who can now get what they want when they want it, often for an affordable price. In the last few dec-ades, however, another concomitant pattern has also changed. There are not only changing patterns of eating, there are also changing patterns of food consumption of a different, and in fact immaterial, nature (Cleave 2019). There is in Western society (and many other societies on earth) an increasing fascination with food, a pattern which is explored through em-pirical examples.

Drawing on the postmodern semiotic concept of hyperreality (Baudrillard 1994), the increased time, focus and resources devoted to the idea of food (as opposed to real food) is described, and the concept is ex-tended into the realm of food as a new concept called hyperfood. This can be defined as the notion of food – unlike actual food in its physical form – which varies from more abstract conceptions to more concrete graphic rep-resentations, and which not only influences but also increasingly becomes confluent with real food in a number of intricate ways which affect the eve-ryday lives of consumers as the signifiers and the signified are merging. More than actual food, hyperfood has become the true sign of what Bour-dieu (1984) termed distinction, the marker of group membership such as for example class belonging, and a tool for the identity work of the individ-ual.

This development is driven by a number of actors with very different aims, and it has a multitude of impacts. Hyperfood is explored by outlining how it is linked to three trends in the postmodern society which can explain its recent prevalence. It is also linked to the concept of culinary capital (Peter Naccarato & Kathleen Lebesco 2012) to show how it affects this concept theoretically and empirically by discerning two types of culinary capital, and how the nature of capital affects this changing consumption pattern of hyperfood.

References

• Baudrillard, J. (1994). Simulacra and simulation. University of Michigan press.

• Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. Harvard university press.

• Cleave, P. (2019). Food as a leisure pursuit, a United Kingdom per-spective. Annals of Leisure Research, 1-18.

NAFS Workshop 2020:

Foodways at a crossroads: Sustainability, Gastronomy and

Rethinking the traditions of how to Eat.

This is a workshop proceeding from our NAFS workshop at the

School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts & Meal Science, Örebro

University

www.oru.se

issn 1652-2656 isbn 978-91-87789-43-4