'One Who Cannot Eat Well, Cannot be Happy:' Negotiating the Role of Czech Gastronomy and Cuisine by Experts.
Abstract
"We are willing to accept substitutes; we lack not only self-confidence but also education in the basic attributes of human life. ... Normal food ended before the war, sometime around [19]38-39, and that went on until [19]89," says the celebrity chef Zdeněk Pohlreich on behalf of Czech eating and cooking practices as they are portrayed in his TV show.
Czech experts on gastronomy - gourmets, critics, and celebrity chefs - mostly agree that socialism in former Czechoslovakia has had a profoundly negative influence on the level of Czech gastronomy today. This paper will explore the narratives that the experts use to talk about the transformation from socialism, the role of tradition, the future of Czech gastronomy and the role of experts and lay people in the transformation of gastronomy.
The paper will show how and why gastronomy, hospitality and cuisine have become contested areas where the transformation of society is negotiated. The paper will draw on interviews with experts on gastronomy and author's long-term participant observation in three luxury restaurants in Prague, Czech Republic.