Cultural Politics of Food Taste and Identity

<i>The Cultural Politics of Food Taste and Identity</i>examines the social cultural and political processes that shape the experience of taste. The book positions flavor as involving all the senses and describes the multiple ways in which taste becomes tied to local translocal glocal and cosmopolitan politics of identity. Global case studies are included from Japan China India Belize Chile Guatemala the United States France Italy Poland and Spain. <br/> <br/> Chapters examine local responses to industrialized food and the heritage industry and look at how professional culinary practice has become foundational for local identities. The book also discusses the unfolding construction of local taste in the context of sociocultural developments and addresses how cultural political divides are created between meat consumption and vegetarianism innovation and tradition heritage and social class popular food and authenticity and street and restaurant food. <br/><br/>In addition contributors discuss how different food products-such as kimchi quinoa and Soylent-have entered the international market of industrial and heritage foods connecting different places and shaping taste and political identities.