Abstract
How can the wine cellar/fridge reveal the challenges and opportunities of implementing sustainable practices in restaurants? Although food storage and preservation are practices that have shaped human history and food culture, they have been insufficiently addressed from a sustainability perspective. Hence, the paper’s aim is to explore the relationship between the restaurants’ workers perceptions of sustainability and wine storage practices and facilities. By focusing on the latter, using ethnographic methods such as observation and semi structured interviews with restaurant staff, I explore how different ideals of sustainability and quality are at play in restaurants in Sweden. Storage practices, both traditional and modern, such as the use of technology to prolong the sensory quality of wine, are an entry point to investigate how sustainability is enacted by the restaurant industry. This ongoing study explores how different “food imaginaries” that originate from discourses and practices surrounding sustainability and quality, permeate into restaurants and its personnel’s beliefs. It shows how these culinary infrastructures not only secure wine quality but also may add to its value, and sometimes are at the center of the restaurant concept. Furthermore, it presents that there is a discrepancy between the ideals of sustainability commonly expressed by the restaurant staff regarding other food stuffs and wine. Finally, it portrays that wine´s cultural value is discussed in different terms when it comes to sustainability as wine cannot be always locally produced and the perceived sensory attributes of more sustainable wines are sometimes considered undesirable or merely as not tasting good.
Presenters
Julia Cristina Carrillo OcampoPhD Student, Department of Food, Nutrition and Culinary Science, Umeå University, Sweden
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
Restaurant storage, Sustainability, Hospitality and wine, Culinary arts
