Table Of ContentTHE COLONIALITY OF MODERN
TASTE
This book analyzes the coloniality of the concept of taste that gastronomy constructed
and normalized as modern. It shows how gastronomy’s engagement with rationalist
and aesthetic thought, and with colonial and capitalist structures, led to the desensu-
alization, bureaucratization and racialization of its conceptualization of taste.
The Coloniality of Modern Taste provides an understanding of gastronomy that
moves away from the usual celebratory approach. Through a discussion of nine-
teenth-century gastronomic publications, this book illustrates how the gastronomic
notion of taste was shaped by a number of specifically modern constraints. It com-
pares the gastronomic approach to taste to conceptualizations of taste that emerged
in other geographical and philosophical contexts to illustrate that the gastronomic
approach stands out as particularly bereft of affect. The book argues that the under-
standing of taste constructed by gastronomic texts continues to burden the affective
experience of taste, while encouraging patterns of food consumption that rely on
an exploitative and unsustainable global food system.
This book will appeal to students and scholars interested in cultural studies,
decoloniality, affect theory, sensory studies, gastronomy and food studies.
Zilkia Janer is a Professor of Global Studies and Geography at Hofstra University
in Hempstead, New York.
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Edited by Juan Carlos Finck Carrales and Julia Suárez-Krabbe
The Coloniality of Modern Taste
A Critique of Gastronomic Thought
Zilkia Janer
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Routledge-Research-on-Decoloniality-and-New-Postcolonialisms/book-series/
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THE COLONIALITY OF
MODERN TASTE
A Critique of Gastronomic Thought
Zilkia Janer
Cover image: Gargantua’s Meal by Gustave Doré. Photo courtesy of
Bibliothèque nationale de France.
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Zilkia Janer
The right of Zilkia Janer to be identified as author of this work has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-032-36403-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-36417-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-33183-4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003331834
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Dedicado a Sanjib
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction: What Is Gastronomy? 1
1 The Narrative of Gastronomic Progress 19
2 Desensualizing Taste 43
3 Bureaucratizing Taste 66
4 Racializing Taste 91
5 Taste, Otherwise 120
Conclusion: The Gustatory Logic of Consumer Capitalism 152
Index 171
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When I began reading the classics of nineteenth-century gastronomy, I was not
planning to write a book on the subject. However, I did not find in gastronomic
texts the sensuous celebration of the pleasures of the table for which they are known.
What I found was much more ambiguous and problematic. This book is the result
of my efforts to explain the discrepancy between the reputation of gastronomic
texts and what I found in them.
This book is the culmination of many years of work across disciplines and con-
tinents. I would not have been able to write it without the help of many generous
people who took an interest in my project. My gratitude to all of them goes beyond
what I can express in a few lines.
I am thankful for the feedback given by co-panelists and participants at con-
ferences organized by the Association for the Study of Food and Society, the
Cultural Studies Association, the Latin American Studies Association and the Asian
Borderlands Research Network, where I presented preliminary versions of many of
the arguments developed in this book. In particular, Krishnendu Ray, Ken Albala,
Amy Reddinger and Lena Burgos-Lafuente gave engaging responses to my talks. I
am also grateful to Nandana Dutta, Xonzoi Barbora, Siddiq Wahid and Preminder
(Pami) Singh for inviting me to give lectures at Gauhati University, the Guwahati
campus of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, the Awantipora campus of the
Islamic University of Science and Technology and the India International Centre,
respectively. The insightful comments of the audience of these lectures kept coming
to my mind while writing the manuscript.
I am grateful to Tejbir Singh, editor of Seminar, and to Kanak Dixit, founding
editor of Himal Southasian, for publishing my earliest thoughts on the geopolitics
of taste. I thank Prasenjit Duara, Anne Feldhaus and Andrea Lorene Gutiérrez for
generously taking the time to respond to queries and offering productive research
Acknowledgments ix
leads. I am also grateful to Walter Mignolo for being a constant source of inspiration
and encouragement.
The exchange of ideas that helped me develop my argument took place in kitch-
ens and at table as much as at libraries and academic conferences. The Janer fam-
ily in Puerto Rico and the Baruah family in Assam, India, have been responsible
for my life-long sensory education. I cannot thank them enough. I will always be
grateful to those who have further expanded the range and depth of my gustatory
understanding: Sabyasachi (Shobo) Bhattacharya, Khin Khin Khant, Dolly Kikon,
Amrith Lal, Jacob Mathew, Mrinal Miri, Sujata Miri, A.S. Panneerselvan, Kalpana
Raina, Sabita Radhakrishna, Arshiya Sethi, Shahid Siddiqui, Roongfa Sringam and
Siddharth Varadarajan. While each one of them helped me appreciate specific taste
cultures, collectively they taught me to experience food in a more fully sensorial way.
Leaves of absence and a series of modest grants from Hofstra University allowed
me to conduct research at the National Library of France, the British Library and
the New York Public Library. I am indebted to my colleagues in the department
of Global Studies and Geography for their support, as well as to Pepa Anastasio,
Suzanne Berman, Chandler Carter, Brenda Elsey, Vicente Lledó-Guillem and
Kathleen Wallace for offering advice on their respective areas of expertise. Finally,
I thank Sanjib Baruah for our daily feasts of stimulating conversation.
