We explain what gastronomy is, its history, the types that exist and its importance in culture. Also, Mexican gastronomy.
What is gastronomy?
gastronomy It is the discipline, understood as an art, that studies the relationships of human beings with their way of eating and with the cultural environment in which cooking takes place.
Gastronomy provides an approach to culture using food as a central axis. It deals with both cooking techniques, nutritional data and food sciences, as well as the professional management of flavors and aromas in the preparation of a culinary dish.
Gastronomy is not simply the taste for food or cooking. In fact, this discipline deals with multiple cultural appreciations around cooking and food, such as the choice of ingredients, the tradition around food or the religious influence on the way of eating.
Not every cook is a gourmet, not even those who carry the “chef” label. A true gourmet is one who is dedicated to experimenting, discovering, investigating, understanding and generating documentation about the way we human beings eat in different cultures.
See also: Custom
History of gastronomy
The history of gastronomy dates back to classical antiquity, when the first recipe books emerged partly driven by the presence in Imperial Rome of food from various corners of Africa, Asia and northern Europe.
The traditional Roman diet was then greatly enriched, which also turned the act of eating into a ceremonial act in which food was introduced before incorporating it into the banquet, intended for the nobles and the rich. There was no shortage of writers on food then, such as Lucullus and Marcus Gravius Apicius.
Subsequently, The Middle Ages were greatly influenced by Byzantine and Arabic cuisine heirs of the Greek and Roman, especially in the areas in which the Moors dominated, such as southern Spain (Al-Andalus) or Italy.
Gastronomy was highly valued in this long period in which, paradoxically, famine and misery abounded. Culinary treatises such as The form of Curryby Richard III of England, or Daz Buch von guter Spiseanonymous German work.
With the European Renaissance, gastronomy gained even greater prominence, especially in France where the baroque and the Bourbon dynasty promoted the arts of good eating among the nobility, even in times when the common people were hungry.
This undoubtedly had its impact on the French Revolution of 1789. One of the greatest gastronomic treatises of the time was Art of cooking, pastry, biscuits and canning (1611) by the Spanish Francisco Martínez Motiño.
Already in the Contemporary Age, gastronomy became popular and was no longer exclusive to the aristocratic sectors. However, it eventually became a mark of class and distinction again, only this time at the hands of the bourgeoisie.
With the birth of restaurants and canned food (during the Industrial Revolution), a food paradigm changed forever in the West, as Brillat Savarin reviewed (Physiology of taste1826) or Alexandre Dumas (Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine1873).
With the arrival of the 20th century and the mass production of food, gastronomy diversified enormously distinguishing among other things “signature” cuisine or “artistic” restaurants, from fast food. In this framework was born the nouvelle cuisinewhich tries to combine tradition and simplicity in a new way of cooking.
Types of gastronomy
We can distinguish some different types of gastronomy:
- National gastronomy It has a strong link with the national identity of a country or culture, and involves elements of its tradition or history. For example: German, Armenian, Arabic cuisine.
- Gastronomy Gourmet It involves “signature” cooking methods, that is, avant-garde culinary trends.
- Vegan gastronomy It does not use any type of animal derivatives in its preparations (no meat, dairy products, or eggs) and instead chooses vegetables, fruits and cereals.
- Macrobiotic gastronomy It is governed by macrobiotic principles, that is, by a balance (ying-yang) between foods related to the biochemical composition of the organism.
- Religious gastronomy That which is shared by different peoples that have a similar religious culture, such as Jewish, Islamic food, etc.
Importance of gastronomy
Gastronomy gives us the opportunity to incorporate into the artistic and cultural context an aspect that formally seems neglected, which is cooking. Although it is not considered among the Fine Arts, culinary art is undoubtedly one of the most widely practiced and with greater nuances, variants and cultural baggage of humanity.
Gastronomy, like other disciplines dedicated to the study of the various aspects of human culture, tells us who we are and where we come from from our way of cooking.
Mexican gastronomy
The gastronomy of Mexico is one of the most famous in America and the West, given that reflects the complex and extensive process of cultural marriage that took place in this country during the 500 years of European colonization.
Spanish food, original indigenous food and some Negroid contributions make up a gastronomy of enormous personality, recognizable throughout the world for its use of corn tortillas, grains, sauces and, above all, spicy food (chili pepper).
It is an extremely diverse gastronomy in which Each Mexican state intervenes in a different and decisive way even generating a current within the US border states with Mexico, known as “Tex-Mex” (Texas-Mexican).
Continue with: Popular art
References
- “Gastronomy” on Wikipedia.
- “What is gastronomy?” in Gastronomy Courses.
- “When we talk about gastronomy, what do we talk about?” (video) in Open Training.
- “What is Gastronomy” in The Reluctant Gourmet.
- “Gastronomy” at Berkeley Library at the University of California.
- “Gastronomy” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
