Interesting. When I encounter claims that this or that country's food
is or is not a cuisine, your(Belasco's) first component, "a limited
number of 'edible' foods" seems to be just the opposite in other
people's minds. For instance, France has a cuisine because its foods
and preparation are varied and sophisticated. On the other hand Germany
does not have a cuisine because it is a cold climate where the "limited
number of 'edible' foods" are potatoes, turnips, cabbage and sausage.
One writer declared that Spain did not have a cuisine because Spaniards
lived on snack foods. Although I find it hard to believe that Spaniards
subsist on tapas at the home dining table, if they indeed do, then it
seems to me that tapas would fall under "a preference for particular
food (techniques)" and would indicate that Spain did, indeed, have a
cuisine.

Andy & Bob -- Belasco's definition seems designed for scientists to
evaluate the food systems of primitive cultures to determine if one
society can be singled out as different when compared to its neighbors.
The definition does not seem to lend itself easily to comparisons
among, say, European countries that have somewhat different foods and
cooking techniques and whether the cookery of one meets some abstract
definition of "cuisine" and another does not.

Cookie



ASmith1946 wrote:
> There are several definitions of cuisine. I like Warren Belasco's best:
>
> "Drawing largely on anthropological sources, I define cuisine as a set of
> socially situated food behaviors with these components: a limited number of
> "edible" foods (selectivity); a preference for particular food (techniques); a
> distinctive set of flavor, textural, and visual characteristics (Aesthetics); a
> set of rules for consuming food (ritual); and an organized system of producing
> and distributing the food (infrastructure). Embedded in these components are a
> set of ideas, images, and values (ideology) that can be "read" just like any
> other cultural "text."
>
> Source: Warren Belasco, "Food and the Countercultu A Story of Bread and
> Politics," in Raymond, Grew, ed., Food in Global History. Boulder, CO: Westview
> Press, 1999. 276.