Abstract
The paper focuses on experience in the context of "experiential gastronomy." It describes the processes, agents, bodies, materialities, and discourses, which contribute to the production and consumption of experience as commodity. The analysis of experience and the process of experiencing draws upon the theoretizations of affect and shows how affect contributes to the production of value in luxury gastronomy.
The interpretation of gastronomic experience is placed within a larger historical, political and economic context and shows that affective labor and consumption require the existence of subjects that are capable of being affected. The paper is based on participant observation conducted in a luxury restaurant and interviews with its employees and guests.