Challenges to flavour : influences on the cultural identity of cuisines in the Australian foodscape

Abstract

In Australia at the beginning of the 21st century, there is a diversity of cuisines to be explored, many of which are vital markers of culture and identity. An integral part of a cuisine's migration process is its acclimatisation into the Australian setting, where it seeks a balance between drawing on local ingredients sources and maintaining the characteristics of its identifiable cultural flavours. In this thesis I explore how the integrity of a cuisine's flavour is both retained and transformed in the dynamic culinary environment of multiculturalised Australia. The study is framed by a metaphorical Australian culinary framework-the foodscape-in order to address the social constructions of food and flavour at a particular time and place in the Australian environment. I observe how the impressions of three cuisines-Vietnamese, Italian and Australian-are managed from the perspectives of food media, cookbooks, restaurants and chefs in order to consider how cuisine is represented to their communities of taste whose collective interests includes a shared identity with food culture. In order to exert a dominant influence on the perception of cuisine, food news media uses restaurant reviews, interviews with notable food experts and articles suggestive of culinary expertise to enforce a particular view. Cookbooks are another source through which cultural flavours are perceived in the foodscape, reflecting the assimilation of migrant cuisines into the Australian foodscape through their narratives and recipe collections. Chefs and restaurants provide the reality of the cuisine experience, and manage the impressions of their cuisine by both the arrangement of their restaurant spaces and their cooking styles. All of these sources recognise the tensions that exist between preserving flavour integrity and adapting and developing in the Australian foodscape. The study found that migrant cuisines undergo transformative stages of acceptance into the Australian foodscape, and are able to retain their individuality despite the cultural pressures they encounter. It suggests that chefs with a background of migrant cuisine maintain their culinary integrity by utilising flavour principles and techniques inherent in their cuisine, often enhanced with quality Australian produce. It further indicates that there has been a development of a unique contemporary Australian culinary style relying on a framework of traditional training overlaid by thoughtful application of flavours from migrant cuisines. A final reflection deliberates on the development of a unique contemporary Australian culinary style.

Date of Award	2012
Original language	English