An esthetic theory of the subversive sublime of Ital cuisine

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to understand the relationship between esthetics and transformative projects for the material world through a comparative inquiry into the substance and form of French cuisine, especially French pastry, and Rastafari Ital, a vegan cuisine originating in Jamaica. Working from Kant’s esthetic theory of the beautiful and the sublime, I historicize and problematize both culinary traditions in relation to gender and species hierarchies as sites of colonial legacy. My argument is that these hierarchies, which are both psychological and physical, operate through culinary esthetics. If one is to understand the decolonizing potential of alternative foodways such as Ital, it is necessary to query the work being done by food both on the level of substance (ingredients) and form, which is indexical of hierarchies of group utility. It is when both substance and form point toward alternatives to colonial hierarchies that a food practice becomes restorative. Using Charles Sanders Pierce’s triadic relationship of the sign, I demonstrate how Rastafari Ital, in contrast to French cuisine, eschews the object of the nation-state in favor of Mother Earth through an alternative esthetics of the beautiful and experience of a primal sublime.

KEYWORDS:

• Rastafari
• Ital
• French pastry
• gender
• esthetics of food
• veganism
• postcolonialism

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maria Ann Noland

Maria Ann Noland is a PhD candidate in the Anthropology and Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University.