Gastronomica

University of California Press is pleased to announce Gastronomica‘s new editorial collective, which will be chaired by Daniel Bender (University of Toronto), Simone Cinotto (University of Gastronomic Sciences), and Amy Trubek (University of Vermont).

The Collective will assume editorial leadership of Gastronomica in January 2019, following the conclusion of Lissa Caldwell’s tenure.

Amy, Dan, and Simone are delighted to be working together on Gastronomica and are looking forward to the publication of their inaugural issue in May 2019 (Vol. 19, No. 2).

They say, “This is a terrific opportunity for Gastronomica. Our new editorial collective brings together scholars from across the world and voices from across this growing field. With such varied perspectives, we can help bring together the breadth and depth of scholarship in food studies and reach new academic, public, and activist audiences. We are excited to bring new features to the journal and some great special issues, including an inaugural issue highlighting “What’s Next?” in food studies. Our editorial collective is designed to reflect the social imperatives, public commitments, and scholarly depth of food studies. We are excited to bring together so many diverse voices in shaping the next chapter of the journal.”

UC Press extends its warm appreciation to Gastronomica‘s outgoing Editor-in-Chief, Melissa L. Caldwell (University of Santa Cruz) who has helmed the journal since 2012.

Caldwell says, “Gastronomica has always been ahead of its time both in featuring the most important conversations about food and in identifying emerging trends that challenged conventional wisdom and subsequently changed entire fields of study. It has been a privilege to serve as Editor and to have collaborated with food scholars, practitioners, activists, and enthusiasts from all over the world. I am deeply grateful to the many people who have contributed in so many ways to the journal—authors, reviewers, readers, critics, members of the editorial board, and of course my stellar behind-the-scenes editorial staff. I am thrilled that the journal will be in excellent hands and am looking forward to seeing where they take the journal and the field of critical food studies journeys next.”

Rachel Lee, Journals Manager at UC Press, says, “I’m enthused about the future of Gastronomica. As one of the Press’s flagship journals since its launch in 2001 under Darra Goldstein, this prestigious publication has long held an influential space in the field of food studies. As we approach Gastronomica’s second decade in publication, the deep experience of the editorial collective will provide essential direction to this maturing discipline.”

About The Editorial Collective

Daniel Bender is the founding director of the University of Toronto’s Culinaria Research Centre. The author or editor of five books, he is currently writing a book on food, empire, and tourism. He is a co-convenor of the international “City Food: Lessons from People on the Move” research collaboration.

Simone Cinotto is Associate Professor of Modern History at the Università di Scienze Gastronomiche in Pollenzo, Italy, where he is the Director of the master’s program “Master of Gastronomy: World Food Cultures and Mobility.” He is the author of The Italian American Table: Food, Family, and Community in New York City (University of Illinois Press, 2013) and Soft Soil Black Grapes: The Birth of Italian Winemaking in California (New York University Press, 2012); the editor of Making Italian America: Consumer Culture and the Production of Ethnic Identities (Fordham University Press, 2014), which won the 2015 John G. Cawelti Award for the Best Textbook/Primer of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association; and the coeditor, with Hasia Diner, of Global Jewish Foodways: A History (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). He is on the editorial board of Food, Culture, and Society and Global Food History among other journals and book series.

Amy Trubek is Professor in the Nutrition and Food Sciences department at the University of Vermont and Faculty Director for University of Vermont’s graduate program in Food Systems. She is the author of three books: Haute Cuisine: How the French Invented the Culinary Profession (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000), The Taste of Place: A Cultural Journey into Terroir (University of California Press, 2008) and Making Modern Meals: How Americans Cook Today (University of California Press, 2017).

Since 2014, Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies has partnered with University of London’s SOAS Food Studies Centre to co-sponsor a Distinguished Lecture Series for leading scholars, students, journalists, practitioners and members of the public to engage in critical conversations about the nature of food, the interconnectivity of contemporary food systems, the role of food in daily life, and emerging trends in food studies.

In advance of the next event on March 21, Alan Warde, Professor of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester and Professorial Fellow of Manchester’s Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI), offers readers a sneak peak of his upcoming lecture, “Changing Tastes: The Effects of Eating Out” 

There continues to be some suspicion of the catering trade, that its products may be bad for health, may waste the money of the poorer sections of the population, and may erode the bonds of the family. In this, it is part of wider concerns about the over-extension of markets and market logic into the realm of everyday life. Repairing to restaurants may entrench poor quality mass culture, reduce capacities for self-provisioning by eliminating cooking skills, and replace mutually enriching social interdependencies with impersonal and instrumental economic exchange.

In this talk I examine, in the light of a range of empirical evidence, what are the effects increases over recent decades in the habit of eating out. I explore how eating out has been affected by, but also how it mediates, the impact of major social, cultural, and economic changes. The focus is on the forces of globalization, commodification and aestheticization and their counter tendencies. I illustrate the talk with detailed evidence from a re-study of eating out in three English cities. In 1995 a survey and some interviews were conducted. These were repeated in 2015, allowing for systematic assessment of change over a 20 year period.

By examining how eating out in restaurants and the homes of family and friends has changed—how manners, menus, companionship, and mobility have evolved—I assess the impact of fundamental cultural and structural shifts on taste and the practice of eating. The talk will also address issues of method and of explanation of taste.

Alan Warde is Professor of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, a Professorial Fellow of Manchester’s Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI). Research interests include the sociology of consumption, the sociology of culture, and the sociology of food and eating. Current projects are concerned with applying theories of practice to eating, analyzing change in eating behavior in Britain, and conducting a re-study of an earlier investigation of eating out in Britain.

The SOAS Food Studies Centre is an interdisciplinary centre dedicated to the study of the political, economic, and cultural dimensions of food, historically and in the contemporary moment, from production, to exchange, to preparation, to consumption. The Centre’s primary purposes are to promote research and teaching in the field of food studies at SOAS and to facilitate links between SOAS and other individuals and institutions with an academic interest in food studies.

The lecture will be held on March 21 from 6:00-8:00 PM at the​ Wolfson Lecture Theater, Paul Webley Wing (Senate House), SOAS, University of London. The event is free and open to the public. However, we encourage all guests to register to guarantee a place.