Taste Culture Reader

Taste is recognized as one of the most evocative senses. The flavors of food play an important role in identity, memory, emotion, desire, and aversion, as well as social, religious and other occasions. Yet despite its fundamental role, taste is often mysteriously absent from discussions about food.Now in its second edition, The Taste Culture Reader examines the sensuous dimensions of eating and drinking and highlights the centrality of taste in human experience. Combining both classic and contemporary sources from anthropology, philosophy, sociology, history, science, and beyond, the book features excerpts from texts by David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Pierre Bourdieu, Brillat-Savarin, Marcel Proust, Sidney Mintz, and M.F.K. Fisher as well as original essays by authors such as David Sutton, Lisa Heldke, David Howes, Constance Classen, and Amy Trubek. This edition has been revised substantially throughout to include the latest scholarship on the senses and features new introductions from the editor as well as 10 new chapters.The perfect introduction to the study of taste, this is essential reading for students in food studies, anthropology, sensory studies, philosophy, and culinary arts.

For the “Sensory Formations” series, Korsmeyer has compiled a collection of previously published essays about the aesthetics of taste. She arranges the essays into eight segments, commencing with a scientific review of the biological and physical processes of taste, then moving on to environmental and cultural impacts on how human beings experience and describe the taste of what is consumed. Korsmeyer includes classic writing on taste from Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Jean-Franc¸ois Revel, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant, as well as works by contemporary food historians such as Sidney Mintz and Darra Goldstein, and food writers M. F. K. Fisher, Margaret Visser, and Amy B. Trubek … Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; faculty and general readers., The Taste Culture Reader is a fantastic text for anyone interested in food and sensory experience. This new edition retains classic texts while broadening the already interdisciplinary scope of this excellent reader. An excellent tool for the classroom., This collection is destined to become a classic in the field of food studies, as it reflects the original edition’s key strengths and includes new material that adds coherence and depth. This multidisciplinary exploration expands our understanding of taste, and should be of interest to anyone who eats., A marvelous interdisciplinary collection that ranges from biology through the social sciences to philosophy and literature has just gotten better. If you have ever thought about food, you will find much intellectual nourishment here; if you have never thought about it, this is the place to begin., The Taste Culture Reader provides splendid material to introduce a variety of themes.

Carolyn Korsmeyer is Professor of Philosophy at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, USA