Italian food and urban culture: from the Middle Ages to the present day

意大利美食和城市文化：从中世纪到现在

• 批准号: AH/E506100/1
• 负责人: John Dickie
• 金额: $ 2.79万
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2007 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FE506100%2F1
• 关键词: Italian; food; urban; culture; Middle

Prominence in the 1980s coincided with Italy's entry into the consumer era. By tracing the development of leading vast business interests have evolved around the worldwide market for Italian food. And those interests have created a very distinct image. Recipe books, supermarket product lines, television programmes, etc. all foster a *rural* picture of Italian cuisine. According to this stereotype, Italian food derives from peasant traditions and its paradigmatic home is the olive groves and vineyards of Tuscany. The same stereotype is widespread in Italy too.This rural image is profoundly misleading. Italian food is the product of a distinctively *urban* culture. For a millennium, the cities of the peninsula have been where all the factors that shape gastronomy have been concentrated: wealth, resources, markets, consumers, expertise, political power, social and labour diversification, snobbery, publishing, scholarship, and so on. Thus the development of Italian food culture in all its diversity can most effectively be traced through cities.Despite the large body of historical research in this field (see Case for Support), there is still no monographic narrative history of Italian food from its origins to the present day. Nor is there a history that places the city at the centre of its approach. The book that will be the main output of my research aims to fill those gaps. The urban matrix of Italian food was established in the Middle Ages, approximately with the restoration of the cities' economic and political fortunes in the eleventh century. For each period since that time, I choose two or three representative cities in which to contextualize an analysis of the primary sources, while using them to illuminate broader developments, and compare the chronology and themes of food history to changes in Italian society.Aims and objectivesAims: (i) to investigate the distinctively urban matrix of Italian food in a long-period historical analysis; (ii) to explore three key features of Italian cuisine in historical perspective: its diversity across different localities; its patterns of regional a. national uniformity; its transportability. Objectives: (i) to produce, by means of an accurate historical account, a better understanding of Italian food; (ii) to disseminate findings both to the academic community and to a wider public, and stimulate informed debate about Italian food and diet.The research during my AHRC leave relates to the following:Minnesota. The home of Ancel Keys, the researcher who did most to establish the link between diet, cholesterol and heart disease. By popularising the health benefits of the 'Mediterranean diet' in his 1959 bestseller Eat Well, Stay Well, Keys revolutionized perceptions of Italian food both. My research aims to trace Keys's influence on Italian food culture through newspaper coverage and recipe books since the early 1960s.Parma. Parma is the home of one of Italy's biggest food companies, Barilla. Its rise to Barilla brands, I aim to show how they shaped and reflected the aspirations of urban consumers.Bra, Piedmont, home of the Slow Food movement. The movement is highly historically aware, and promotes territorially-based food traditions and the idea of the 'Slow City'. By debating with the movement's leading figures, I will reflect on the current state of Italian food.Applications, benefits.Italy is a key reference point in public thinking about food issues. Italy, or at least a media-constructed version of Italy, is the imaginary home of what good food is supposed to be. Moreover, most of the western world can now be considered'urban', in that its consumers benefit from a range of food choices that, in earlier eras, was only available to the city elites of Medieval and Renaissance Italy. For these reasons, shifting public understanding of Italy and Italian food would help foster a less romanticized and more productive public discussion about what we eat.

20 世纪 80 年代的辉煌恰逢意大利进入消费时代。通过追踪领先的发展，意大利食品的全球市场已经产生了巨大的商业利益。这些兴趣创造了一个非常独特的形象。食谱书、超市产品线、电视节目等都塑造了意大利美食的“乡村”形象。根据这种刻板印象，意大利美食源自农民传统，其典型发源地是托斯卡纳的橄榄园和葡萄园。同样的刻板印象在意大利也很普遍。这种乡村形象具有极大的误导性。意大利美食是独特的“城市”文化的产物。千百年来，半岛上的城市一直是塑造美食的所有因素的集中地：财富、资源、市场、消费者、专业知识、政治权力、社会和劳动力多元化、势利、出版、学术等等。因此，意大利饮食文化的多样性发展可以通过城市最有效地追踪。尽管这一领域有大量的历史研究（参见支持案例），但仍然没有关于意大利饮食从起源到现在的专题叙述历史。也没有历史将这座城市置于其方法的中心。这本书将成为我研究的主要成果，旨在填补这些空白。意大利美食的城市矩阵建立于中世纪，大约在十一世纪城市经济和政治命运的恢复。自那时以来的每个时期，我都会选择两到三个代表性城市，对主要来源进行语境分析，同时用它们来阐明更广泛的发展，并将食品历史的年代和主题与意大利社会的变化进行比较。目的和目标：（i）在长期历史分析中研究意大利食品独特的城市矩阵； (ii) 从历史的角度探讨意大利美食的三个关键特征：其在不同地区的多样性；其区域格局为a．全国统一；它的可运输性。目标： (i) 通过准确的历史记录，更好地了解意大利美食； (ii) 向学术界和更广泛的公众传播研究结果，并激发有关意大利食品和饮食的知情辩论。我在 AHRC 休假期间的研究涉及以下内容：明尼苏达州。安塞尔·凯斯 (Ancel Keys) 的故乡，这位研究人员在建立饮食、胆固醇和心脏病之间的联系方面做出了最大贡献。凯斯在 1959 年的畅销书《吃得好，住得好》中宣传了“地中海饮食”的健康益处，彻底改变了人们对意大利食物的看法。我的研究旨在通过报纸报道和食谱书籍追踪 20 世纪 60 年代初以来 Keys 对意大利饮食文化的影响。帕尔马。帕尔马是意大利最大的食品公司之一百味来 (Barilla) 的所在地。对于 Barilla 品牌的崛起，我的目的是展示它们如何塑造和反映城市消费者的愿望。Bra，皮埃蒙特，慢食运动的发源地。该运动具有高度的历史意识，并促进基于地域的饮食传统和“慢城”的理念。通过与运动领导人的辩论，我将反思意大利食品的现状。应用、好处。意大利是公众思考食品问题的一个关键参考点。意大利，或者至少是媒体构建的意大利，是想象中的美食之乡。此外，西方世界的大部分地区现在可以被视为“城市”，因为其消费者受益于一系列食物选择，而在早期，这些食物选择只有中世纪和文艺复兴时期意大利的城市精英才能享用。出于这些原因，改变公众对意大利和意大利食物的理解将有助于促进关于我们吃什么的不那么浪漫化和更富有成效的公众讨论。