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Food as Cultural Commons - Coggle Diagram
Food as Cultural Commons
Cultural commons refer to cultures expressed and shared by a community. Symbol, style, belief, etc. make different tangible and intangible form of culture that can be understood as intellectual resources shared by a community.
Unlike common pool resources, cultural commons does not get exhausted as they are non-rival in consumption. Eg music, literature.
Gastronomy and recipes are shared resources and collective creations, which have been passed on over time.
The resources such as recipes or ways of using natural resources and so on appear as shared resources. A chef can chose any ingredients or recipe to make a dish for his menu.
Culinary common is also a cultural common. Since the onset of humanity, food and its institutions has emerged from the necessity of supporting life.
Cultural common like culinary has three components:
A. Selection of natural resources used in the food (selection between eatables and non eatables differ from country to country. Also the ways of preparation, cooking food and even eating and drinking styles differ)
B. Second, gastronomic commons is built on the basis of 'culinary cultural commons'
(Gastronomy appeared when people could differentiate the nutritive function of food from its pleasure dimension)
C. Gastronomic commons develops and increase the heritage dimension of culinary commons.
In the 1970s Paul Bocuse, the famous French chef, created V.G.E. truffle soup, a luxury dish dedicated to the President of France at the time and named after his initials.
For Levi-Strauss (1964), South American Indian cuisine is can be segregated between le cru (the raw), le cuit (the cooked) and le pourri (the putrefied)
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UNESCO has chosen the “gastronomic meal of the French” to feature on its list of the world’s intangible heritage
According to UNESCO experts, French cuisine is a festive meal that brings people together to enjoy the art of good eating and drinking and celebrate important moments in the lives of individuals and groups. Menu composition, laying the table, matching the meal to the wine are some of the elements of this gastronomic heritage.
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In case of cultural commons the question is not about overuse in case of natural resources but to produce and develop them. Culinary commons is a shared resource and cultural heritage that is accessible to everyone in any place of the world. For eg. One can sell a pizza in England or India despite it being originally from Italy.
Culinary and gastronomic heritage is defined in time and space. Heritage is the product of the past. It is also a subject of evolution, new resources can be added in the form of recipes or cooking methods, etc.
The spatial dimension of heritage derives from the relationship between heritage and communities. Some resources are unique to certain places. For eg. The constitution of gastronomic districts. Most of gastronomy heritage have a identity centric relation with the original territory.
The relation between gastronomic commons or local heritages and spatial location is nevertheless complex and evolutionary
For example: In France during 1990 most of the restaurants were located along from Paris to Nice. In 2010 distribution of restaurants changed and were distributed across five regions. These regions now dominate as “Gastronomic France” because they represent 51.4 percent of the restaurants within the hexagon
Some geographical locations have advantage because of the tourism demand in those areas due to the presence of tourism infrastructure and important heritage sites. The major reason for the polarization of gastronomic establishment of restaurants is due to the concentration of activities in the cities.
In 2010, Paris and Lyons contain 10 percent of the French restaurants selected in the Michelin Guidebook. The restaurants are located in cities exercising a strong power to attract customers, workforce, and based near the most important French area
In France many producers work in gastronomic markets and thus we find a spatial concentration of them in the big touristic cities with competition between restaurants. In cultural districts, economic development is based on interaction between place and heritage goods.
A. A gastronomic district is composed of a productive core: the restaurants and their chefs who are members of regional or national associations.
B. The second level is composed of the producers of the gastronomic commons, i,e. the restaurants’ suppliers.
C. The suppliers of equipment and miscellaneous services for restaurants, besides the production process as a Gastronomic district, generate several activities.
D. The culinary institutions, and local and educational organizations that maintain and promote the gastronomic culture
Therefore a gastronomic district can be defined as:
A. Based on specific resources (knowledges, recipes, farm produce unique to the place)
B. Based on synergies (market, skills and resources that generate economic gain)
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