Ninth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

The Michelin Guide is a leading culinary tourist guidebook that has selected and promoted a high quality of Metropolis food in leading tourist cities. In Bangkok food tourist spaces, the narration of street food stalls background of which firstly promoted Thai-ethnic local food in 2018 is showing how and why a prominent group of Thai-Chinese daily food is deserved to be consumed. To explore such answers, this study aims to analyze the narration of food history of selected street food stalls in Michelin Guide Bangkok 2018 by applying the theories of narratology and the concept of representation to use as main concepts. Bangkok food street is Southeast Asian culinary heritage that has the uniqueness of origination and innovation handed down by Thai-Chinese families, the most influential immigration on the establishment of culinary food street culture in Bangkok. In data sources, the history of each stall comprises the engagement of family generation enduring with globalization, the heritage of creation of culinary techniques, the philosophy of chefs represented through their own stories, and relation to Bangkok communities. These components represent the image of Bangkok as the Metropolis of globalized food culture, identities of Thai-Chinese chefs as the guru of precious recipes as well as extended new values of consumption in tourism space. The mainstream of food history of Thailand, long been focused on royal and elite culinary stories, is paralleled with ordinary, fast-food stories based on the process of re-conceptualization an idea of cultural significance and eatery styles in Bangkok urbanization.