The Restaurants Book

Is the restaurant an ideal total social phenomenon for the contemporary world? Restaurants are framed by the logic of the market, but promise experiences not of the market. Restaurants are key sites for practices of social distinction, where chefs struggle for recognition as stars and patrons insist on seeing and being seen. Restaurants define urban landscapes, reflecting and shaping the character of neighborhoods, or standing for the ethos of an entire city or nation. Whether they spread authoritarian French organizational models or the bland standardization of American fast food, restaurants have been accused of contributing to the homogenization of cultures. Yet restaurants have also played a central role in the reassertion of the local, as powerful cultural brokers and symbols for protests against a globalized food system. The Restaurants Book brings together anthropological insights into these thoroughly postmodern places.

ISBN 1845207556   Pages 256 ISBN13 9781845207557 (What's this?)   Volumes 001 Publisher A & C Black Publishers Ltd   Weight (grammes) 390 Imprint Berg Publishers   Published in Oxford Format Paperback   Height (mm) 234 Publication date 01 Dec 2007   Width (mm) 156 Library of Congress GT2853   Spine width (mm) 14 DEWEY 306.481   Academic level Tertiary education DEWEY edition DC22

		List of Illustrations
		Acknowledgments
		Notes on Contributors
		Starter: Restaurants, Ideal Postmodern Institutions by David Beriss and David Sutton		1
		Small Plates
1		Tight Spaces and Salsa-stained Aprons: Bodies at Work in American Restaurants by Karla Erickson		17
2		Forming Family Identity in an American Chinese Restaurant: One Person's Transformational Process by Michael Hernandez		25
3		Tasting Wisconsin: A Chef's Story by Amy Trubek		35
		Mains
4		Side Dish Kitchens: Japanese American Delicatessens and the Culture of Nostalgia by Christine Yano		47
5		Familiarity, Ambience and Intentionality: An Investigation into Casual Dining Restaurants in Central Illinois by Derek Pardue		65
6		Serving the Past on a Platter: Cultural Revolution Restaurants in Contemporary China by Jennifer Hubbert		79
7		Ethnic Succession and the New American Restaurant Cuisine by Krishnendu Ray		97
8		From Khatchapuri to Gefilte Fish: Dining Out and Spectacle in Russian Jewish New York by Eve Jochnowitz		115
9		Daughters, Duty and Deference in the Franco-Chinese Restaurant by Winnie Lem		133
10		Authentic Creole: Tourism, Style and Calamity in New Orleans Restaurants by David Beriss		151
11		Food, Family and Tradition in Northern Italy: The Rise and Fall of a Michelin-starred Family Restaurant by Gerald Mars		167
		Dessert
12		Tipping: An Anthropological Meditation by David Sutton		191
		Digestif: Postprandial Imaginings by Michael Herzfeld		205
		References		209
		Author Index		229
		More...

The volume succeeds in making readers understand that restaurants do more than simply feed people - they transmit culture, encourage socialization, and express the values of a particular place. Reading this book makes it obvious that we do not choose to eat at a restaurant just because we like the food. Virginia Moench, Gastronomica The book has left me hungry for more such 'snapshots' of food and culture. Society for the Anthropolgy of Food and Nutrition (Online Review)

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