Food neophobia, a condition characterized by a reluctance or avoidance of unknown foods and meals, may influence food choice, and is also associated with body mass and familiarity with food items. ...This study aimed to analyze the associations between food neophobia, familiarity with French cuisine, body mass, and French restaurant menu food choices in a sample of 203 young Polish women. The Computer-Assisted Web Interview (CAWI) method was used in the study. The food choice questionnaire used for assessment was based on a model French restaurant menu, with dishes planned using a 2 × 2 factorial design for the components of neophobic potential (unfamiliar to Polish consumers) and animal-based components. Food neophobia, familiarity with French cuisine, and body mass were considered independent variables. The food neophobia scale (FNS) developed by Pliner and Hobden was used to assess food neophobia among respondents. The results showed an association between food neophobia and familiarity with French cuisine and French restaurant menu food choices (p ≤ 0.05), but no association with body mass was observed (p > 0.05). The respondents with a high level of food neophobia chose dishes with neophobic components (for soups and desserts) less often compared to those with a low neophobia level, and in the absence of such an association, they chose dishes with animal-based components (for starters and main courses) less often (p ≤ 0.05). The respondents who declared that they were familiar with French cuisine chose dishes with animal-based components (for starters and desserts) more often than those with no familiarity, but a reverse association was observed for soups (p ≤ 0.05). Based on the findings of the study, it may be concluded that food neophobia and familiarity with French cuisine may be important determinants of food choice within a French restaurant menu. The study did not show any association between body mass and the choice of dishes from the model French restaurant menu. The findings suggest that the presence of unfamiliar and animal-based ingredients may reduce the frequency of choosing specific dishes within a French restaurant menu, which may reduce the diversity of individuals’ diets.
The Whiteness of French Food Cohen, Mathilde
French politics, culture and society,
06/2021, Volume:
39, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Food is fundamental to French identity. So too is the denial of structural racism and racial identity. Both tenets are central to the nation’s self-definition, making them all the more important to ...think about together. This article purports to identify and critique a form of “French food Whiteness” (
blanchité alimentaire
), that is, the use of food and eating practices to reify and reinforce Whiteness as the dominant racial identity. To do so, it develops four case studies of how law elevates a fiction of homogenous French/White food as superior and normative at the expense of alternative ways of eating and their eaters—the law of geographical indications, school lunches, citizenship, and cultural heritage.
Culture in France, as well as its society, is changing. Mobility, the decline of traditional religiosity, and the takeover of global cultural patterns are just a few manifestations of the evolution ...of French contemporary culture. Based on the concept of culture transfer by French scientists, Michel Espagne and Michael Werner, and Gordon Mathews’ “cultural supermarket”, the author will present examples and effects of infiltration of foreign cultures and attempts to maintain the distinctiveness and cultural identity of the French.
This article focuses on the practice of French cuisine in Shanghai and questions the permanence of this professional niche. It combines an anthropological approach to culinary techniques with a ...sociological approach to workforce migration, tracing the ways in which the discourse and practices of chefs and maîtres d'hôtel working in French cuisine's restaurants employ forms of ethnocultural and technical legitimacy. The case of Shanghai, a city undergoing rapid transformation in its modes of consumption, provides a clear illustration of the shifts that have occurred over the last ten years in the hierarchy of Western migrants and Chinese locals: the symbolic and material privileges offered to the former are beginning to disappear, and professional recognition is increasingly becoming based on savoir-faire and a strong work ethic.
Revealing paradoxes abounded in early Third Republic French representations of the marmiton, or culinary apprentice. Investigative reportage and reformist discourse exposed apprentices’ miserable ...existence while still depicting these young fellows as playful and carefree. Conversely, popular marmiton mythology, particularly in children’s literature, idealized culinary apprenticeship, amid glimpses of harsh living and working conditions, while also highlighting admittedly rare opportunities for ambitious apprentices to achieve substantial public success. Max Jacob’s children’s book Histoire du Roi Kaboul Ier et du Marmiton Gauwain provides an emblematic example with its parodic fairy-tale rendering of celebrity chef Auguste Escoffier’s extraordinary triumphs. Ultimately, while enchanting, the rosy popular vision of the magical marmiton obfuscated exploitative child labor practices underpinning the whole culinary enterprise in this supposed golden age of French gastronomy.
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