Food and identity: other factors

When I first started reading about food and identity I used to gloss over the parts which highlighted the role played by factors such as globalisation and commercialisation. I wasn’t interested in this. I liked reading about the sentimental stuff. But the more I have read, the harder it has been to ignore and now that I am going to be writing my dissertation on the subject I can’t afford to overlook it.

Funnily enough, when I was writing about my own food memories in my last post I started writing about my childhood obsession with English junk food and realised that, subconsciously, I had been influenced by these other factors. I loved stocking up on English junk food on childhood visits to the UK from Australia. I was keen on the ‘Olde' English hard-boiled sweets that you couldn’t get in Oz, but I was also interested in the different brands and flavours of crisps and sweets available. I thought it novel that the colours of crisp packets indicated different flavours in the UK. When I was back in Australia last Christmas, I found some old journals from my trips to England. I had actually stuck the empty crisp and chocolate wrappers in them, along with ticket stubs, postcards and other ‘memories’.

Click to read more ...

Interview with Shaun Richards: Food and National Identity

Meet Shaun Richards, my oldest friend. We first met when we were less than a year old in the UK when his family came to stay with mine in Cambridge. I have no memories of this, of course, but I do remember living with Shaun's family in their beautiful home on Sydney's northern beaches when I first moved to Australia. 

My family ended up moving to Balmain, about an hour's drive away, so I didn't see Shaun that often, but we developed a great friendship and I looked forward, in particular, to our big family Christmases. Food was a significant part of these days for me and I wondered whether Shaun had similar memories of them.

The theme of this interview follows on from the first podcast in this series, focusing again on food, memory and identity. This short video introduces Shaun and some of the themes in the interview.

I explore with Shaun whether he thinks there is such a thing as Australian cuisine and if there are any links between his national identity as an Australian and his foodways. It turns out that for Shaun being an Australian is no longer a big part of his identity. So what is? Listen to the podcast to find out.

Interview with Alex Carvajal: Food and national identity

Introducing one of my dearest friends, Alex Carvajal. This is the first in a series of interviews with friends, classmates, colleagues and acquaintances talking about their food interests (and mine).

Alex and I have known each other since I moved to London about 6 years ago. I had known him for about two years before I found out that he used to be a chef. That night we bonded over our love of food, and it has continued to be a focal point of our conversations ever since.

I have created this short video to introduce you to Alex and some of the themes covered in the interview. 

The main focus of this interview is on his Colombian heritage and how this has influenced his foodways in Britain. This ties in with the theme on the blog this week, which is around food and identity. In the interview Alex talks about his memories of Colombia, the important links for him between food and family, as well as sharing food, and his take on Colombian and British cuisines.

Having spoken to Alex so much about food in the past, I was surprised how much I learnt in conducting this interview. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did. 

Food and identity: the sentimental stuff

For all that wider social and cultural processes, such as globalisation and commercialisation, have a part to play in shaping the links between food and identity (see my last post), for now I want to focus on the part we can all relate to: childhood memories, nostalgia, family connections and traditional values.

The unit we did on food, memory and identity for the MA Anthropology of Food was one of my favourite topics and has become the main focus of my studies. The core readings we did for that unit all touched on migration in one way or another and this is probably why it resonated with me.

I was born in Cambridge, England, but grew up in Sydney, Australia. I have always felt a strong attachment to England, one that my sister, who was born in Australia, does not share. I always felt compelled to come back here. As a kid growing up in Australia, I was proud of my English heritage. In some respects it defined me, or I wanted it to. I was sad when I returned to England and people told me I had an Australian accent.

Click to read more ...