The shaping of food tastes
This reading group, which strongly encourages participation from scholars and nonscholars alike, will investigate food tastes and their development over time. Central
preoccupations will include how food tastes are shaped, as well as the internal and external
pressures that determine their evolution. Through a multidisciplinary perspective and close
reading of relevant texts, we will examine a series of wide-ranging case studies, mostly (but not
exclusively) drawn from the Canadian context. Topics will include the problematic notion of
“good food”, the role and importance of literary meals and discourses on food, the influence of
food celebrities, food history and its place in our appreciation of contemporary meals, and
emerging food practices.
This group seeks to engage the English-language community and thereby extend the
network already established by a lively discussion group for francophone scholars and food
professionals led by Julia Csergo of UQAM.
Seminar leaders:
Laura Shine
Laura.r.shine@gmail.com
Concordia University (Humanities)
Nathalie Cooke
nathalie.cooke@mcgill.ca
IPLAI Fellow, Dept of English and History, McGill
Alexia Moyer
alexia.moyer@mail.mcgill.ca
McGill Institute for the Study of Canada and Department of English
Meeting dates and time:
Thursdays: 18h30-20:30
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Reading group notes
Evening's group organizer responsible for bringing one representative recipe to the class for
discussion and circulation.
1. Format
2-hour discussions. 15 min context and presentation, then discussion among attendees. Ask
each to prepare two questions on the week’s text. Possibly potluck format so that we take turns
bringing small eats and drink?
2. Topics and sessions
Overall topic: The shaping of food tastes, mostly within a Canadian context but with an eye to
what’s happening elsewhere in a comparative perspective.
3.
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Driving questions
Is taste shaped from the outside? Global fashions, etc.
External vs internal pressures on taste
Difference between fashions and fads. Case studies in Canada and the world
TOPICS:
For each topic, there will be one primary text and some additional suggested readings.
a) Sept. 24
What do we talk about when we talk about food?
Primary Text:
 Ferguson, Priscilla P. Word of Mouth: What We Talk About When We Talk About
Food. , 2014. Print.
Suggested Readings:
 Gopnik, Adam. “What’s the Recipe?” The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the
Meaning of Food. New York: Knopf, 2011. Print.
 Gopnik, Adam “What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Food?” The Table
Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food. New York: Knopf, 2011.
Print.
b) Oct. 8
What is “good food” and how can we talk about it? Ethics, nutrition, pleasure, taste, etc.
Primary Text:
 Biltekoff, Charlotte. “Introduction.” Eating Right in America: The Cultural Politics
of Food and Health. Durham [u.a.: Duke Univ. Press, 2013. Print.
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Suggested Readings:
 Swanson, Paul D. “We Are What We Eat: The Origins and Current Legal Status of
‘Natural’ and ‘Organic’ Food Labels. Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and
Culture. Web Exclusives. 2012. Internet Resource.
 Levenstein, Harvey A. "Introduction" to Fear of Food: A History of Why We Worry
About What We Eat. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2012. Print.
 Carstairs, Catherine. “The Granola High: Eating Differently in the Late 1960s and
1970s.” Edible Histories, Cultural Politics: Towards a Canadian Food History. Eds,
Iacovetta, Franca, Marlene Epp, and Valerie J. Korinek. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 2012. Print.
c) Oct. 22
Literary meals: How/why do writers feed their characters?
Primary Text:
 Gilbert, Sandra M.: "Add Food and Stir: Life in the Virtual Kitchen" The Culinary
Imagination: From Myth to Modernity. New York : W.W. Norton & Company,
2014.
Suggest Readings:
 Gopnik, Adam. “What Do We Write About When We Write About Food?” The
Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food. New York: Knopf,
2011. Print.
 Atwood, Margaret. “Introduction.” The Canlit Foodbook: From Pen to Palate - a
Collection of Tasty Literary Fare. Don Mills, Ontario: Totem Books, 1987. Print.
d) Nov. 12
How to change and influence taste when faced with an initial negative
reaction/perception/affect?
Primary Texts: Excerpts from
 Beardsworth, Alan, and Teresa Keil. Sociology on the Menu: An Invitation to the
Study of Food and Society. London: Routledge, 1997. Print.
 Lai, Bun. “Invasive Species Menu of a World-Class Chef,” Spec. Issue of Scientific
American. 309 (3). Web.
Suggested Readings:
 The Contribution of Insects to Food Security, Livelihoods and the Environment,
http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3264e/i3264e00.pdf;
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

Verbeke, W. "Profiling Consumers Who Are Ready to Adopt Insects As a Meat
Substitute in a Western Society." Food Quality and Preference. 39 (2015): 147155. Print.
Eat the Invaders, http://eattheinvaders.org/.
e) Nov. 26
Anonymity in Cookery:
As Elizabeth Driver proposes, “Today personal celebrity is highly valued and anonymous
culinary writing is rare, but look into the past, pseudonyms, unnamed compilers, and
collective authorship were more common for cookbooks” (Driver 11). We will examine
various forms of anonymity in cookery.
Primary Text:
 Golick, Greta. “Marginalia in Anglo-Canadian Cookbooks.” Reading Notes. Eds,
Hulle D. Van and Mierlo W. Van. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004. Print.
Suggested Readings:
 Luce Giard “Doing Cooking.” Practice of Everyday Life: Volume 2: Living and
Cooking. Eds, Michel de Certeau, Luce M. Giard, and Pierre Mayol. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2014. Internet resource.
 Tye, Diane “Baking for a Third Place.” Baking as Biography: A Life Story in Recipes.
Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2010. Print.
 Excerpts from The Home Cook Book. Toronto: Rose Pub. Co, 1888. Internet
resource.
Dec. 3
Celebrity influence and testimonial.
Primary Text:
 Inglis, Fred. “Introduction.” A Short History of Celebrity. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2010. Print.
Suggested Readings:
 Selections from Powell, Julie. Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny
Apartment Kitchen. New York: Little, Brown and Co, 2005. Print.
 Selections from Barr, Luke. Provence, 1970: M.f.k. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard,
and the Reinvention of American Taste. , 2013. Print.
 Johnston, José, Alexandra Rodney, and Phillipa Chong. "Making Change in the
Kitchen? a Study of Celebrity Cookbooks, Culinary Personas, and Inequality."
Poetics. 47.1 (2014): 1-22. Print.
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Dec. 17 (discussion leaders: Mélissa Simard and Amie Watson)
Food history has become interesting to the public. Why? Is this a new phenomenon?
Yesterday we cooked and ate, today we enjoy food tours… why? Are food tours new?
Primary Text:
 Long, Lucy M. Culinary Tourism. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004.
Print.
 Kay Russell and Linda Keller, "Ethnic and Regional Foodways in the United States:
the performance of group identity"
Suggested Readings:
 Culinaria Exhibit https://omeka.library.ualberta.ca/exhibits/show/culinaria/intro
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