Taste as Experience: The Philosophy and Aesthetics of Food

164 Pages·2016·1.09 MB·English

by  Nicola Perullo

TASTE AS EXPERIENCE
Arts and Traditions of the Table
ARTS AND TRADITIONS OF THE TABLE: PERSPECTIVES ON CULINARY HISTORY
ALBERT SONNENFELD, SERIES EDITOR
For a complete list of books in the series, see Series List.
TASTE AS EXPERIENCE
THE PHILOSOPHY AND AESTHETICS OF FOOD
Nicola Perullo
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2016 Columbia University Press
Italian edition: Il Gusto come esperienza, copyright © 2012 Slow Food Editore S.r.l.
Via della Mendicità Istruita, 45–12042 Bra (Cn) Italy
Phone: [phone]; Fax [phone]
[email protected]—www.slowfood.it—www.giunti.it
All rights reserved
E-ISBN 978-0-231-54142-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Perullo, Nicola, 1970-
[Gusto come esperienza. English]
Taste as experience : the philosophy and aesthetics of food / Nicola Perullo. — American edition.
pages cm. — (Arts and traditions of the table)
Translation of: Il gusto come esperienza. Bra, 2012.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-17348-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Gastronomy. 2. Taste. I. Title.
TX641.P47313 2016
641.01'3—dc23
2015024701
A Columbia University Press E-book.
CUP would be pleased to hear about your reading experience with this e-book at cup-
[email protected].
Cover design: Mary Ann Smith
Cover image: © Pando Hall/Getty
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author
nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since
the manuscript was prepared.
CONTENTS
Preface to the American Edition
Foreword by Massimo Montanari
INTRODUCTION
The Project
Difficulties and Resistances
Possibilities and Perspectives
FIRST MODE OF ACCESS: PLEASURE
Pleasure, Enjoyment, and Intelligence
Pleasure, Image, and Pathology
Criticism and the Look of Childhood
Pleasure as Nature in Culture
The Ethics of Pleasure: Good That Does “Good”
SECOND MODE OF ACCESS: KNOWLEDGE
Learning About Quality, Cultivating Taste
Tasting the World
Dressed Taste, Image, and Representation
Taste, Conflicts, and Culture
Curiosity, Expertise, Criticism (with Risks Included)
Taste and Sustainability: The Good That Grounds the Good
Taste and Diet
THIRD MODE OF ACCESS: INDIFFERENCE
Essen Non Est Percipi
Contingent Indifference
Compulsive Indifference and Atmospheric Indifference
The Neutral
The Extension of Pleasure and the Limits of Gustatory Exclusivism
THE WISDOM OF TASTE, THE TASTE OF WISDOM
Taste and Pleasure, Experience, and Wisdom
Wise Expertise (Epicurus, Hume, and Dewey)
Regulation Without Rules
Flexibility: The Forest and the Coast
Conviviality: Discord and Gustatory Empathy
Take My Advice

Notes
References
Index
PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION
WHEN GOOD IS THE WISDOM OF TASTE: THREE STEPS TO A BETTER
PERCEPTION IN EXPERIENCING FOOD
To demonstrate how honored and pleased I am to have this book
translated into English for the American edition, I would like to briefly
depict the motivation that generated it. This essay is the result of the
intertwining of my theoretical reflection as a philosopher and my practical
experience as a food and wine lover over the past twenty years. My initial
interest in wine and food at the beginning of the 1990s was by chance,
and only after a certain number of years was my expertise directed
toward a theoretical path. Nevertheless, the theorizing that you will find in
these pages is heterodox and not systematic. In fact, I have always found
the valorization of food that doesn’t take into account its experiential,
narrative, and practical dimension to be paradoxical. Today this paradox
looms large: there are numerous conventions, in many disciplines or
cross-disciplines, on the importance of taste and gastronomy in which
care is not taken to organize good convivial settings, to eat good food or
drink good wine. Indeed, in some cases, there is only speaking and no
eating. Either one speaks or one eats: this aut aut expresses a
dichotomous and hierarchizing point of view on which much of our culture
is based. Instead, the convivial experience proposes a different
perspective in which real eating and metaphorical eating intertwine.
In effect, in the humanities and in philosophy there are different ways
of approaching food as a theme of study, but I believe that increasing
interest in this matter has been driven mainly by two different strategies.
The first one can be called the “rising strategy”: food is important
because it is Culture with capital C, that which is also called “high” culture
in contrast to “simple” and “material” culture. This strategy has already
been clearly expanded today. The second strategy, on the other hand,
can be named the “lowering strategy”: food is important because all