Tasting as a social practice: a methodological experiment in making taste public

ABSTRACT

Based on fieldwork in the UK and Portugal, this paper considers the relationships between cultural analyses of taste and the embodied activity of tasting. As part of a wider project on the multiple ontologies of ‘freshness’, the paper conceptualises taste as an emergent effect of tasting practices. Drawing on evidence from a series of ‘tasting events’ (where research participants were recorded shopping, cooking and eating a meal with friends and family), the paper explores the multiple dimensions of taste concluding that even the most personal and sensory aspects of tasting food involve a social dimension which we interpret through the lens of practice theory. The paper identifies three specific dimensions of tasting as a social practice involving food’s material and visceral qualities; the links between embodiment and emotion; and the contextual significance of family and social relations. Our findings contribute to recent debates about ‘making taste public’, even in the apparently private context of household consumption.

RÉSUMÉ

Reposant sur des études sur le terrain menées au Royaume-Uni et au Portugal, cette communication examine les rapports entre les analyses culturelles du goût et l’activité concrète de la dégustation. Dans le cadre d’un projet plus vaste étudiant les ontologies multiples de « la fraîcheur », elle conceptualise le goût comme un effet qui émerge des pratiques de dégustation. En faisant appel aux données résultant d’une série d’« activités de dégustation », pendant lesquelles on a enregistré les personnes prenant part à la recherche pendant qu’elles faisaient leurs courses, cuisinaient et consommaient un repas avec leurs amis et leurs familles, cette communication explore les multiples aspects du goût et parvient à la conclusion que même les aspects les plus personnels et sensoriels de la dégustation de nourriture impliquent une dimension sociale que nous interprétons à travers le prisme de la théorie pratique. Elle identifie trois aspects spécifiques de la dégustation en tant que pratique sociale concernant les qualités matérielles et viscérales de la nourriture; les liens entre le concret et les émotions; et la signification contextuelle de la famille et des rapports sociaux. Nos résultats s’ajoutent aux débats contemporains autour du thème « rendre le goût public », même dans le contexte clairement privé de la consommation des foyers.

RESUMEN

Basado en el trabajo de campo en el Reino Unido y Portugal, este artículo considera las relaciones entre los análisis culturales del gusto y la actividad incorporada de la degustación. Como parte de un proyecto más amplio sobre las múltiples ontologías de la ‘frescura’, el artículo conceptualiza el sabor como un efecto emergente de las prácticas de degustación. Basándose en la evidencia de una serie de ‘eventos de degustación’ (donde los participantes de la investigación fueron registrados comprando, cocinando y comiendo con amigos y familiares), el documento explora las múltiples dimensiones del gusto y concluye que incluso los aspectos más personales y sensoriales de la degustación de alimentos implican una dimensión social que interpretamos a través del lente de la teoría de la práctica. El documento identifica tres dimensiones específicas de la degustación como una práctica social que involucra las cualidades viscerales y materiales de los alimentos; los vínculos entre incorporación y emoción; y la importancia contextual de las relaciones familiares y sociales. Nuestros hallazgos contribuyen a los debates recientes sobre ‘hacer público el gusto’, incluso en el contexto aparentemente privado del consumo en los hogares.

KEYWORDS:

• Food
• taste
• social practice
• UK
• Portugal

MOTS-CLEFS:

• Nourriture
• goût
• pratique sociale
• Royaume-Uni
• Portugal

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• Comida
• sabor
• práctica social
• Reino Unido
• Portugal

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the editor, Elaine Ho, and the anonymous referees for their constructive comments on earlier drafts of the paper. Thanks also to Dr Angela Meah, who undertook the UK fieldwork but chose not be credited as a co-author, and the participants for their generosity in assisting with our research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In a later work, Abbots (2017) focuses on eating as an embodied experience, mediating and mediated by the relationship between food’s matter and meaning. Her approach raises important questions of embodiment and power, knowledge and values, including whether agency can be located in the materiality of food itself.

2. We have sought to be consistent in using ‘sensory’ to apply to the physical senses through which our minded bodies encounter food, ‘visceral’ to refer to the bodily realm where feelings, sensations and moods are experienced – sometimes quite abruptly – and ‘embodied’ to refer to the multiple bodily sensations through which we experience food, combining specific senses such as sight, smell and taste (cf. Hayes-Conroy, 2010, p. 734.)

3. Funded by ESRC (ES/N009649/1).

4. A multiple ontologies approach insists that the various dimensions of ‘freshness’ (recently harvested, not frozen or highly processed, good tasting etc.) are not simply different representations of essentially the same thing but are ontologically distinct (referring to different material properties or things). While this approach draws on Mol’s inspirational work on atherosclerosis in The Body Multiple (Mol, 2002), in our work it leads to an analysis of the way ‘freshness’ is enacted or performed and to the various effects or consequences of these enactments.

5. In her account of dish-washing and related domestic practices, Martens comments that ‘talk is good for getting at the organisational dimensions of dish washing, but not so good for getting at activity’ (Martens, 2012, 4.3).

6. We have written elsewhere about the significance of laughter and different kinds of humour in food-related research (Jackson & Meah, 2019).

7. Compare Wiggins (2002) on the social significance of (various kinds of) gustatory ‘mmms’.

8. It may be significant (as one of our referees suggested) that mint is a trigeminal stimulant, affecting the ophthalmic, maxillary and mandibular nerves which together create sensations in the face and mouth – but we do not have the expertise to pursue this argument further.

9. Hayes-Conroy and Hayes-Conroy define viscerality as referring to the realm of internally-felt sensations, moods and states of being which are born from sensory engagement with the material world (Hayes-Conroy & Hayes-Conroy, 2008, p. 462).

10. This example also shows that the distinction between public and private is a fairly arbitrary one, blurring the conventional distinction between the private as domestic and the public as the world beyond the home.

11. Hayes-Conroy (2010) reaches a similar conclusion when she argues that we cannot expect to directly grasp each other’s visceral realities but that we may be able to access these phenomena through the co-creation of imagined bodily empathies.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [ES/N009649/1].