Proceedings of the Ninth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy
Review by Sarah Shepherd
Jane Adams sent us a copy of the recently published proceedings from the Australian Gastronomy Symposium of 1996. Sarah Shepherd, postgraduate student in history at the University of Adelaide, agreed to review it.
Jane Adams, ed. Proceedings of the Ninth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy: Food and Power (no publishing information).
It seems remarkable that a publication of symposium proceedings could be six years in the pipeline, but, well, many a slip, as the saying goes. The Proceedings of the Ninth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy: Food and Power (1996) have only recently been forthcoming. It must be said that this time lag has done no favours to the quality of the product. However, despite wonky editing of some papers and the sheer absence of others from the collection, what survives of the Ninth Symposium still has much to offer. "Food and Power" is clearly a theme that has the capacity both to titillate and to provoke.
Co-convenor Alan Saunders states in the introduction that the Ninth Symposium was never meant to be "idealistic or noble", and perhaps this is so. Nonetheless, the Symposium was, once again, the scene of intense debate. Some of the contention may have derived from the fact that papers, and symposiasts, differ in their interpretations of the nature of power and their attitudes towards it. Keynote speaker Bruce Kraig outlines the range early in his discussion, beginning with political and cultural power, power as influence, dominion or hegemony (later termed "power over") and moving on to generative, productive forms of power ("power to…"). Papers explore the nexus of power and food in relation to six main ‘sites’ or playgrounds: the world, the State, the household, the body, the soul, and the future. The field is clearly huge and the range of papers correspondingly vast. Historical, anthropological, economic, political, nutritional and literary analyses all have their place.
Exactly how democratic is a hotdog? A hamburger? Participants were divided as to the value of industrialised food promoting social equality. What is the effect of transnational corporations on food supply? On farmers? On physical environments? The body itself proved to be the most violent battleground. Whether it should be construed as a scientific paradigm, a social construct or both was the subject of heated discussion, as were the ethics and economics of the "foodaceutical" industry. Altogether, appreciation for the enabling power of consumerism, technology and absolutist rule seems to have been outweighed by concerns about power imbalances in the food world, which feed the abuse of power by corporate giants, ecological cowboys and industrial flavour fraudsters. Perhaps this was, again, counterbalanced by faith in the power of collectivity, a faith expressed primarily through communal acts of food preparation and consumption.
One of the abiding strengths of the Symposia of Australian Gastronomy has been their meals, which are a way "to get the intellectuals and the practitioners together" (p. 120) and thus are also "deeply implicated in the themes of the symposi[a]" (p.4). They have often been notable for drama, passion and intellectual rigour. At this symposium, it certainly seems that the meals contributed a profoundly visceral edge to the contemplation of power. Serge Dansereau’s Futurist Dinner, featuring "Breast of Artificially Inseminated Duck" accompanied by "Hydroponic Vegetables & 86-17-93a Potatoes" and a "Par-baked Bread Roll" with "Mono-Unsaturated Butter Blend" seems to have left an unsavoury taste in the mouths of many. Served in its own vacuum-pack with scissors on the side, it was a style that "many diners couldn’t handle", according to Alan Saunders, and represented "a rather extreme, and to most, undesirable perspective of the future" (p.80), in the worlds of Sarah Adey.
The final Power of Food and Sex banquet, a tour de force by Lew Kathreptis and Chris Manfield, sounds as though it would have been entirely at home on the set of Moulin Rouge. "A celebration and a satire of pleasure and power", it was vibrantly peopled by slaves, priests and drag queens. Its ironies were supposedly "lost on some of the more prudish diners" (p. 102), but it’s unlikely that the caviar failed to please. In contrast to Max Lake’s "ultimate paradox of the power of flavour", that "less is more" it seems to have been a case of reckless excess being just enough.
A different kind of power was explored through the Poverty Lunch, in which symposiasts were summoned from the exercise yard of the former Darlinghurst Gaol, bowls in hand, to line up for a ladleful of (admittedly high-class) institutional tucker. This must have helped bring home, literally at a gut level, the fundamental message of Jeanette Fry’s paper, "’White with four’: Food on the Inside". The use of food as a tool of power, of control, can be devastating. Beyond the issues of choice and self-determination, denying someone access to sufficient palatable, nourishing food constitutes a profound denigration of their human dignity and worth. This has implications on the world, national and personal levels as well as the institutional.
The Sixth Symposium touched upon some important questions about the relationship of gastronomic philosophy to economic, social and political realities at all the various sites of power. How does gastronomy help us forward? Barbara Santich formulated the gastronomic ethos thus: "We enjoy the pleasures of the table, we enjoy our (gastronomic) way of life, which involves a respect for food and the nature from which it came — a measured respect, which condones neither waste nor destruction." (p. 7). This statement acknowledges an implied responsibility — namely, to oppose waste and destruction of good food or of the socio-cultural structures which support a balanced, well-nourished life.
If this is the social responsibility of the gastronomer, how is it to be fulfilled? Several speakers emphasized the role of consumers in helping to shape the market. Tim Flannery spoke cogently about the need to rethink agriculture in Australia, giving practical support to the rural sector for smaller scale, regionalised production. Tony Webb of the Australian Food Policy Alliance made an impassioned statement of the challenge on the global stage: "The price of peace, somebody said, is eternal vigilance. I suggest we now need to get much more mature. … We need to research [the] issues … put together the arguments and then begin to campaign."
These issues are equally live six years down the track. Gastronomy may be a symbiosis of sensuality and intellect, as noted by Hugh Wennerbom, (p. 117), but for its own survival it must also have a practical and political expression. In the twenty-first century, cultural, consumer and personal power co-exist uneasily with mega-corporate economic powers, a fact which needs to be well digested by the gastronomically inclined. Or, to borrow from Sweeney and Foord: "You want to eat it? Don’t take it for granted" (p. 72).
The proceedings are available from Jane Adams at 02 9360 9380; jacom@ozemail.com.au at $25.
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