The Taste of Place: A Cultural Journey into Terroir Amy Trubek

Taste has the power to create a sensory bridge to a living reality ‘outside the matrix’ … one that promotes the activity of knowing as accessible, engaging and corporeal, rather than one pre-tuned for reception.” (Haden, p. 356)

Key Concepts Food View (attitudes and values) Terroir (relation between place and taste) Gastronomy (background knowledge) Eco-gastronomy (quality plus sustainability) (Re)education of the palate

The concept of terroir Terroir originated in the world of wine. How does the wine express the unique qualities of place: cultural traditions as well as geo-ecological conditions. Associated with culinary tourism in the early post-industrialization of France (Michelin stars) Became a key world in the more recent growing movement to “relocalize” food. How to create terroir in the US (a white settler society without deeply rooted food cultures.

Terroir Relation between taste and place. Not yet part of our common sense. Emphasis on quality and authenticity. A value for small scale and artisanal production (skill is in the hands of the producer). Terroir is culturally produced. What the relationship between place and taste is made to mean.

Food View Trubek invents this word on the model of “world view.” How does our culinary experience express our values and ideas about food? Compare the food view of France as seen in the short film on school lunch in Paris. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovO18E-hgew

French Food View Deeply rooted regional traditions Connection to the rural A deep regard for the civilization of the table A social as well as a political investment in conserving local cuisines. The incorporation of taste education into the school curriculum.

American Food View A loss of connection to place. A disregard and disdain for the rural. A value for convenience and efficiency. A political investment in industrializing agriculture. A puritanical rejection of the sensorial aspects of food. Concern with taste and quality are labeled elitist. The difference is not just cultural, but powerful economic forces at work (Cargill in the history of the destruction of the American family farm)

Global/Local “Placing or localizing food is our bulwark against the incredible (and increasingly menacing) unknowns of our interdependent global food system” (Trubek p. 12). Part of having control over the situation is by “retaining locally important traditions and practices” (p. 86)

Taste-making “Fixing practices to a certain time and place and then creating a value for these practices is now a cultural undertaking” (Trubek, p. 31). The role of tastemakers: activist chefs such as Alice Waters. Farm-to-School and Edible Garden Movements. Conservative backlash against locavore culture (2007 OED word of the year)

Gastronomy A deeper connection to our food and where it comes from. Complex interdisciplinary knowledge. Nature/Geography/Agriculture/Culinary Technology/Culture. An older word coming back into vogue Eco-gastronomy (taste, place, and sustainability)

Eco-gastronomy University of New Hampshire: http://www.unh.edu/ecogastronomy/ University of Gastronomic Sciences (Slow Food University) Seattle Central Culinary Program

Re-education of the Palate Semaine du Gout (Week of Taste) French School Lunch Programs A social and political value for taste, quality, and an understanding of how to eat (savoir faire), supported by government programs.

Tasting Olive Oil As an exploration of gastronomy Harold McGee (author of On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA7FAlUkqiw&feature=relmfu

Terroir of Olive Oil Closely linked to geography, the semi-arid regions of the Mediterranean Deeply rooted in the soils, bringing up minerals. Expressing the influence of plant communities A diverse array of cultivars adapted to micro-ecological niches. A long culinary history of use. An artisanal economy insures quality. Olive oil should be seen as a seasonal product.

Resources http://www.oliveoilsource.com/page/nancys-tasting-advice “A Slippery Business: The Trade in Adulterated Olive Oil.” http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/08/13/slippery-business Thomas Mueller, Extravirginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil.