What is Gastronomy?
By Avi Schlosburg
Upon telling friends, family, and strangers alike that one is pursuing a graduate degree in Gastronomy, students are often faced with an incredulous look accompanied by a query along the lines of, “so, you’re in culinary school?” or even, “so, you’re studying stomachs?” An understandable response certainly, as Gastronomy is one of those nebulous terms that is part of the vernacular of a very small, but rapidly expanding group of people. While both the culinary arts and the stomach are essential facets of Gastronomy as a whole, there is much more to the field.
Jean Anthelme Brillat Savarin, the famed 18th-century French lawyer and epicure best known for the axiom, “tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are,” is also credited with having been the first to really define Gastronomy in his tome, The Physiology of Taste (La Physiologie du goût). Savarin described Gastronomy as, “the knowledge and understanding of all that relates to man as he eats. Its purpose is to ensure the conservation of men, using the best food possible."
While the first part of his definition is arguably the best way to define Gastronomy in one sentence, the second half is one worthy of heated debate. Defining the concept of “best food” or even “good food” is one that Gastronomy students are consistently challenged with and can rarely, if ever come to a consensus on. Famed 20th century French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss stated, “food is good think,” and this sentiment could not be more applicable when considering Savarin’s notion of “best food possible,” as every person, community, and country has a unique understanding of what “food”, “good food”, or the “best food” means to them.
Gastronomy, as its students study, practice, and progress it today, wholly revolves around Savarin’s idea that it is an all-encompassing field, both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary by its very nature. Ranging from the study of agriculture in urban environments to international commodity trade, from what role our senses play in shaping our individual and cultural notions of food to the various roles pots and pans have played in crafting culinary traditions across the world, Gastronomy can be defined as nothing short of holistic. It utilizes historical, anthropological, economic, socio-cultural, and scientific theories and methodologies, while embracing the sensual, experiential, and hands-on aspects that makes food and eating worth studying, and ultimately, worth living and dying for.
While there is a wide range of foci and career goals amongst Gastronomy students, from food writing to policy advocacy, sustainable entrepreneurship to urban farming, all Gastronomy students recognize that each of these are an essential piece of the puzzle moving forward. That, in order to achieve global, national, regional, and community-based food systems providing equitable access to sustainably produced foods imbued with taste, texture, and cultural significance, these seemingly disparate, yet entirely connected roles must continue to be filled, and flourish.
Policy cannot be influenced without the support of the widely read food writer; sustainable food businesses cannot thrive without the sustainable farmer; equitable urban food access cannot be achieved without the cultural anthropologist’s research on unique traditions that define every city; and stifling the diet-related disease epidemics currently plaguing virtually every single country in the world will never, ever be fully achieved without significant sociological, anthropological, and cultural comprehension of what food means to each and every one of us, and the roles it plays in all of our lives.
Urban Agriculture Takes Root at BU
The Gastronomy Program's urban ag class is sowing some seeds and exploring the place of food production in cities. Follow our adventures on our blog, Gastronomes Garden, as we grow at the Fenway Victory Gardens and gather knowledge from gardens throughout Boston.
Congratulations to our most recent graduates
Congratulations are due to Sashanna Caldwell, Perrin Long, John Pladocostante and Barbara Rotger, who received the Master in Liberal Arts in Gastronomy at last night's Metropolitan College Commencement ceremony.
We take our hats off to you.
Gastronomy Graduate Barbara Rotger featured in the Boston Globe
Gastronomy graduate Barbara Rotger was featured in the Boston Globe today. Barbara was interviewed about her fascinating research on recipe collections. See our recent blog post to read more about Barbara's work and graduating project.
Alumna profile: Karoline Boehm-Goodnick
by Erin Carlman Weber
When Karoline Boehm-Goodnick took a sharp detour from her plan to be a lawyer, she encountered some accurate pessimists.
“Everyone was so negative when I told them I was going to culinary school. And everything they said—that you’re not going to make any money, that you always have to work holidays—it’s all true.”
But the Gastronomy graduate isn’t complaining. She made a good move in abandoning a future of court briefs, depositions, and juries to pursue her current life as the general manager of a bakery who moonlights as a food writer, photographer, and food stylist. Her Gastronomy studies took her to Argentina for five months, where she researched malbec for her thesis. And now, back stateside and living in San Francisco with her husband, she has a hectic but happy life, mixing work in a professional kitchen with other food-related pursuits.
Boehm-Goodnick has her hands in a bit of everything at Mission Pie, a Bay Area bakeshop and café. She spends time in the kitchen, on administrative detail, and manages the front of house staff. She also occasionally runs classes for the public. With these educational efforts, she leans on her Gastronomy knowledge, using it to place food and drink in a larger cultural picture.
But for this culinary multitasker, Sheryl Julian’s food writing class was the most “monumental” part of her BU education. The course kick started her freelance writing and food styling work. Since then, she’s been a regular contributor to The Boston Globe and has written for several other publications and websites. She’s happy to be maintaining what she calls “the beauty of the balance,” moving her culinary and writing careers forward simultaneously.
And despite the occasionally chaotic nature of her various jobs, Boehm-Goodnick is sure she’s in the right place. “There’s nothing in this world I’d rather be doing. I’d die in an office setting," she says.
Looks like law school would have been a bad move after all.
Keep up with Karoline on her blog, Karoline’s Kitchen.
A grateful farewell
Now that the semester has come to a close, so has my time as editor of this site. The process of building, launching, and maintaining the Gastronomy at BU blog was a wonderfully instructive experience, and I'd like to thank Dr. Black for the opportunity. My gratitude also goes out to all who contributed writing, ideas, suggestions, and other help this semester. Your support and efforts helped this blog develop into an interesting peek into the lives, work, and activities of Gastronomy students and faculty. And I'd be terribly remiss if I didn't acknowledge Annaliese DeNooyer, without whom this site would be a little less lovely. You'll notice her photos all over the place, including the ones below from the end-of-semester potluck that Emily Olson organized last week. The meal was as impressive as I've come to expect from my fellow Gastronomers, and a tasty way to wrap up the last few months. I look forward to breaking bread with you all again in the fall, and to watching this site grow and evolve over the coming semesters.
Enjoy summer! (If it ever arrives...)
- Erin Carlman Weber, Spring 2011 Communications Graduate Assistant
Jacques Pépin named Honorary Doctor
Gastronomy Program founder, Jacques Pépin, has been named Honorary Doctor of Human Letters by Boston University. Pépin will be honored on May 21, 2011 at Commencement.
In addition, there will be a series of lectures, discussions and demonstrations entitled "The French-American Connection with Jacques Pépin."
Wednesday, May 18, and Friday, May 20, 6 p.m.
Wednesday: The French-American Connection
Kyri Claflin, lecturer in the MLA in Gastronomy program at Boston University, will introduce our speakers: William Keylor, BU professor of history, who will discuss political connections between the two countries; and Jonathan Ribner, BU associate professor of art history, who will present "The Unstill Life: A Transatlantic Perspective." These talks will be followed by a panel discussion, moderated by Dr. Claflin, featuring French chefs discussing their experiences emigrating to the United States. We are proud to have Jacques Pépin, Jean-Claude Szurdak, Jean-Jacques Paimblanc, Raymond Ost, and Jacky Robert as our distinguished panel guests. The event will be followed by a reception.
$20
Meets in the Conference Auditorium of the George Sherman Union (GSU) Building, 775 Commonwealth Avenue, 2nd Floor.
Friday: Jacques Pépin: Remembrance of Things Past
Jacques Pépin was born in Bourg-en-Bresse, near Lyon, where his first exposure to cooking was as a child in his parents' restaurant, Le Pélican. Today, Pépin is one of America's best-known chefs, cookbook authors, and cooking teachers, with 26 books—including his autobiography, The Apprentice—and numerous articles to his credit. He has also hosted ten acclaimed cooking series on public television. Pépin, along with Julia Child, helped found the Certificate Program in the Culinary Arts and the Master of Liberal Arts in Gastronomy at Boston University, where he continues to teach each semester. Pépin and his colleague, noted chef Jean-Claude Szurdak, will return to Boston University to recreate a complete bistro meal from Le Pélican, using Pépin's mother's recipes and recalling the beginning of his apprenticeship. Regional wines will be paired.
$150, includes copy of The Apprentice
Meets in the Demonstration Room,
808 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 117.
For more information, please contact the Office of Lifelong Learning.
Graduating Project: Kristen Shelly’s Recognition of Novel Colors in Fruit-Flavored Beverages
by Kristen Shelly
When a banana with vibrant yellow skin and mottled age spots sits in the produce section, it sends a clue to the shopper that this banana is best for baking or immediate gratification. This banana will decidedly not wait for breakfast in three days. Without color, such snap decisions to eat, store, or toss food would be nearly impossible. Appearance is the first thing consumed during a meal, and anyone who has sat down to an otherwise delicious dinner of white rice, baked chicken, and cauliflower knows the added value of herbs or the pop of a carrot.
Vision as a sensory complement to taste first interested me in Experiencing Food through the Senses (MET ML 715). What most caught my attention was how oddly colored foods could captivate or disgust consumers. This led to a final paper that situated and deconstructed the myth of blue food. While writing this, sensory studies formed the bulk of my research: scientifically designed tests and surveys that tease out how color influences flavor. I was struck by how many studies disregard the potential importance of these novelty colors. With all of the food products congesting grocery shelves that boast “fun” colors such as blue-raspberry and pink lemonade, couldn’t these color and flavor pairs form an acceptable response in these studies?
Some more recent work has taken an interdisciplinary focus, looking at culture and age rather than assuming that all participants share the same experiences. For my thesis project I folded this approach into a taste test and survey of common fruit flavors to ascertain color and flavor pairings between a younger and older population. My hypothesis was that a younger demographic with more exposure to novel-colored foods would classify these color and flavor pairs as acceptable or appropriate, despite the labeling of such pairs as inappropriate in many studies.
Well, my hypothesis was wrong! But it raises so many more interesting questions. The younger group more often chose conventional colors for their responses, and with more strength than the older group. For some flavors, the older group lacked cohesion in their replies, with color selections all over the map. Surprisingly, the only novel color pair to take the spotlight was pink with lemon, in the older group. Was pink lemonade more popular in the past? With the semester coming to an end, someone else will have to tackle that. What’s certain is that I will be overanalyzing food colors long after finishing the program.
Student Profile: Emily Olson
Hometown: Memphis, Tennessee
What did you do before enrolling in the program?
In a former life, I was a corporate communications specialist for FedEx Services at the headquarters in Memphis. I managed strategic events and initiatives (involving employees, executives, or customers) for the corporation and enjoyed the benefits of travel throughout the United States.
After five years, I decided to turn in my badge and move to Chicago to attend culinary school at Kendall College. For my internship, I joined Frontera Foods, a specialty Mexican foods company owned by Chef Rick Bayless and business partners. I assisted the culinary director and marketing manager with quality assurance testing, recipe development, and flavor research projects. I also spent several weeks in the kitchens of Topolobampo and Frontera Grill learning the fine art of mole, picking up "kitchen Spanish," and understanding the complexity of the Mexican cuisine. Upon graduation in 2008, I assumed the role of associate culinary and marketing manager for six months due to the marketing manager's maternity leave. Managing the portfolio of Frontera's salsas, frozen pizzas, and cooking sauces in addition to developing private label products (from concept to hitting a store's shelf) for national retailers was a huge task, but I learned a great deal about the specialty foods business and the inner workings of food manufacturing.
After Frontera Foods, I joined a boutique consultancy, Food Marketing Support Services, as a project manager and later was promoted to operations team leader. The company uses sensory science and consumer research to develop or tweak foods and beverages for Fortune 500 companies. Having no prior experience in sensory science, the learning curve was uphill and shed some light on a whole new way of viewing food R&D. After a turn of events due to a job loss, I dusted off the application I'd been eyeing for a while, decided it was time to apply to BU's Gastronomy program, hope for an acceptance, and move to the East Coast.
Why are you studying Gastronomy?
I always wanted to know how food connected cultures and why we eat what we eat. The Gastronomy program offers coursework in areas that fill in the blanks from my undergraduate and culinary school studies. Exposure to a liberal arts education was new to me, and it's opened my eyes to theories, frameworks, and writers that I didn't know existed.
What would you like to do after you graduate?
There are 57 things I would like to do, but its difficult to project what that picture will look like in May 2012. A PhD interests me, but I would prefer for that to be fully funded. Furthering my wine education would be stellar as would working for a start-up specialty food company or creating my own company from scratch. I've always wanted to combine business with food. It's just a matter of putting the pieces together.
Favorite Gastronomy course so far:
This might be an easy way out, but all of my classes have been my favorite. Each course connects to another or introduces a new idea. For example, the Theory and Methodology class provided a foundation and basic understanding of ethnography which lead me to enroll in Carole Counihan's ethnography course for a deeper dive.
Practicing Gastronomy rescheduled for May 4
In order to allow people to attend Neil Coletta's going away gathering before Wednesday classes, we have rescheduled the Practicing Gastronomy discussion. Our chat with Chefs Collaborative program director Leigh Belanger will be held the following Wednesday, May 4, from 4:45 to 5:45pm.
Please drop in on Neil in room 117 from 5 to 7pm on Wednesday, April 27 and wish him well as he prepares to begin graduate studies in Buffalo, New York.