The 1998 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery
Report by Barbara Santich
The 1998 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, on the theme of
Food in the Arts, took place at St. Antony's College, Oxford, in early September.
Nearly 60 papers (or performances) were presented over the two days, in concurrent sessions;
it always happens that whichever session you choose to attend,
one of the other two is invariably more interesting.
Most interpreted 'the Arts' as painting, literature or film; oddly, very few followed
Carême's reasoning (placing pâtisserie among the fine arts as a branch of sculpture)
and treated cookery as one of the Arts.
(My contribution was in this area: if there is an 'art of cookery', what is it?)
The Symposium began with a plenary session at which the various Sophie Coe awards were announced
and Theodore Zeldin, as usual, introduced the theme. Arguing that the place of food in the arts
has diminished (with little evidence except that there is no study of food at universities),
Theodore posed the question to be answered: Why is this so? In earlier times, he continued,
eating was a total sensory experience and the production of food occupied most of the population.
'Citizen', he reminded the audience, meant participating in a common meal.
Since the Enlightenment, however, the ranking of the senses has changed, with more importance
being given to sight and sound and less to smell and taste. In addition, medicine has reinterpreted
the meaning of food.
Theodore believes that the arts of the kitchen have been neglected in favour of the arts of
the table; we eat for conviviality.
(The subject of his next book, incidentally, is conversation, which Theodore considers the supreme art.)
The culinary arts have become the domain of specialists, so that they have become segregated,
compartmentalised. He stressed the need to emphasise conviviality so as to give food a more
central place in the arts, and referred to the role of the symposium (both classical and contemporary)
in the development of conviviality and of the table as a place where other arts can meet.
Most of the subsequent papers went their merry way with little regard for Theodore's remarks,
so that in his closing address he expressed regret that the symposium did not reach a conclusion,
though coming close in the session discussing the art of cookery.
So he gave his own reason as to why food does not figure in knowledge in the same way as in other arts.
In books and paintings, for example, the reader or spectator is obliged to think about whatever
he or she is reading or viewing; food, in his opinion, doesn't have the same effect.
Many of us in the audience protested vehemently at this point, and so the place of food in the arts
remained unresolved.
Ideas explored or expressed in individual papers included the use of particular foods to
represent the body image of the individual targeted in satirical art of the late eighteenth/early
nineteenth century; attitudes towards food on the part of Russian futurists in the early twentieth
century (they disagreed with the bellicose nature of Italian futurism, but wanted to change
the way people ate); Salvador Dali's enthusiasm for exploring the world through the mouth;
and the use of rice flour to decorate floors and walls of houses in Bengal, and the food motifs
in these decorations (this art is ephemeral, but the expression is considered the important aspect).
The role of food in film was addressed, and two films on the subject of food were screened:
Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers, and a Czech animated film entitled simply 'Food'.
One paper looked at the chile pepper motif in art, craft and commerce (and there were plenty
of examples at Oxford: chile peppers on t-shirts, ties, hats and bags).
One session grouped papers discussing food in fiction, stimulating discussion of the reliability
of fictional accounts of eating, and whether they were as valid as 'real', objective history.
Finally, there was a group of papers on the arts of the table, ceramics and china.
The 1999 Symposium - dates yet to be determined - has a specific theme: dairy products and
non-dairy products which have some affinity with dairy products, such as soy milk;
for 2000 the theme will again be more general, either Food and the Emotions, or Food and Love,
or Food and Memory, or Food in/of the Twentieth Century.
For information, contact Jane Levi, email
oxfordsymposium@dial.pipex.com
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