Ethnocentrism is an attitude in which it is believed that one’s own culture or the manifestations of a culture are superior to the others. Food is one of the preferred objects of ethnocentric attitudes or thoughts, whereby a group of people or a person show superior attitudes towards certain foods that, in a context, represent certain characteristics.
We know that food also represents a set of symbolisms with different meanings on many occasions shared by a group. This happens, for example, with the so-called national cuisines – which actually only respond to cultural manifestations of a region, which exist on many occasions even before the nation states existed. Ethnocentrism in kitchens is to believe that a type of cuisine or certain types of dishes are superior in technique, taste and sophistication to other kitchens. Such is the case, for example, of the domination that French cuisine exercised in the world, by influencing with its techniques, preparations and presentations to kitchens in other places. For a long time there was an ethnocentrism to French cuisine, considered the mother of high cuisine.
Although apparently today it is an outdated issue, today’s ethnocentrism in relation to food is more oriented towards taste. Taste contains highly subjective elements. Although there is a sophisticated neuro-sensitive apparatus by which we distinguish smells and tastes and the combinations of these, the reality is that in the connections of taste and food preferences, a whole complex apparatus is activated that has to do with personal history, and the collective, experiences, emotions and other factors, intervene in the way in which we perceive flavors, but also in which we build taste. Taste is one of the factors that determine our preference for certain foods. And as has been repeatedly demonstrated, taste is also constructed sociologically based on different factors that have to do with symbols of status, belonging to a group, educational level, socioeconomic level, among many other factors.
Faced with all this tangle of variables that intervene in the construction of taste, today it is easy to fall into the ethnocentrism of thinking that whoever eats differently, who does not appreciate a certain type of food for its preparation, origin, cost or meaning, is someone inferior. culturally. And samples of ethnocentrism in taste occur when, for example, a dish emanating from popular culture is judged as something of a lesser category. Paradoxically, many of today’s most sophisticated kitchens take inspiration from popular kitchens, no more, no less.
Judging people’s taste or food preferences as something inferior “to the taste they should have” is nothing but a sign of ignorance about the difference, and the little depth of reflection towards the circumstances that intervened for a person to build subjectively, your taste or preference for certain foods, or certain flavors. Taste and culinary theory contribute a lot to the understanding of our diet and the pursuit of well-being through food, but if flavor and preferences are not contextualized with the totally subjective human factor, any attempt to “evangelize” about of what should be the taste, is in vain.
Twitter: @lilianamtzlomel
Food and society columnist
POINT AND HOW
Food and society columnist. Gastronaut, observant and foodie. She is a researcher in the sociology of food, and a nutritionist. She is president and founder of Funalid: Foundation for Food and Development.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx