‘Molecular gastronomy’ was invented by scientists to apply physics and chemistry to restaurant and home cooking, and is best known today through the world’s number one restaurant, elBulli, in Spain. This article examines molecular gastronomy as it is practised by three types of producers in different locations: by professional scientists in the laboratory, through a case study of its founders Nicholas Kurti and Hervé This; by professional chefs in the restaurant, through a case study of Ferran Adrià at elBulli; and by amateur ‘foodies’ in the home, through a case study of foodie called Rob. It argues that molecular gastronomy is particularized in each location, as it is tied to the scientist’s goal of ‘culinary enlightenment’, the chef ’s goal of ‘culinary creativity’, and the foodie’s goal of ‘gastronomic education’. In doing so, it contributes to debates about the shifting boundaries of science and expertise in late modernity.
Food is increasingly central to consumer culture today. From fine dining restaurants to farmers’ markets, stainless steel kitchenware to celebrity chef cookbooks, there is a stylish array of culinary commodities available for fashioning our identities. Yet this occurs at a time when commodity consumption more generally is under greater question as a site of self-making, with the rise of anti-consumerist sentiment. This article examines how people negotiate these issues in their identity formation, by focusing on those for whom food is central to their sense of self: ‘foodies’. I draw on theories of consumption, identity and material culture, in particular the work of Daniel Miller, to examine ethnographic research undertaken with foodies in Melbourne, Australia.
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