Food and Catering in One Woman's Creative Performance of Ethnic
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
FOOD AND CATERING IN ONE WOMAN'S CREATIVE PERFORMANCE OF ETHNIC AND GENDER IDENTITY by ©Andrea Antal A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Folklore Memorial University of Newfoundland August 2011 St. John's Newfoundland Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-81965-4 Our file Notre r6f6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-81965-4 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciaies ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada Abstract This is a study of food and catering. In this thesis I focus on the multiple meanings food can play in the life of a caterer - Anna (of Hungarian ethnicity) - and her clients. Catering can be conceived as folkloric performance, for it contains the most important aspects of a folk drama: front, back stage, role distribution, teamwork, etc. Food and catering can also express ethnicity. Foodways provide a whole area of performance in which statements of ethnic identity can be made. In Anna's case, food is a fluid creation; she creatively brings together European, American, and even Asian taste trends. Her combinations, adaptations, and modifications express her flexible cooking style. She also uses food to earn a living and to build a reputation for herself in a small North American city. The power struggle between men and women can be expressed through food, just as in Anna's case. She also uses food to reinforce family ties among the members of her family. ii Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the essential and gracious support of many individuals. First and foremost I offer my sincerest gratitude to my Hungarian friend, Anna, who has supported me throughout my thesis with her patience whilst letting me into her life, sharing with me her vast knowledge of cooking, and allowing me to get a good insight into the particularities of catering. I attribute the level of my Masters degree to her encouragement and effort. Without her help this thesis would not have been completed. I am also grateful to the customers whose homes we have visited. I am indebted to those clients and interviewees who agreed upon being part of my project. I am grateful to Memorial University for financial support through the two-year fellowship and a number of research assistantships. Special thanks go to my helpful supervisor, Dr. Diane Tye. The supervision, guidance and support that she gave, and the information that we have exchanged truly helped the progression and smoothness of my thesis. This thesis would never have been completed without the encouragement and devotion of my family and friends. I am thankful for the support of the small Hungarian community, to my landlord, and to my family who relentlessly supported me in the tiresome process of thesis writing. Last but not least, I am grateful to my loving husband, Zoltan, for his constructive, ingenious and creative ideas and for his constant, enduring and tenacious support. in Table of Contents Page Chapter One: Introduction 1 1.1. Food Matters 1 1.2. Eating & Ethnicity 4 1.3. Multiple Cuisines 7 1.4. Occupational Folklife 11 1.5. Characteristics of the Catering Company 16 1.6. The Story behind the Scenes 23 1.7. Fieldwork Experiences 27 1.8. Chapter Outline 29 Chapter Two: Catering as Folkloric Performance 31 2.1. "Ten More Minutes... We're Almost There": Insights into the Particularities of Catering 31 2.2. "This is Not the Real Me - But Will Do It Anyways ": Fictive and Mundane Roles in Catering 36 2.3. "Food is Good, Food is Love, Food is Beautiful": Catering as Work of Art 40 2.4. "Good Teamwork Makes Catering Rock": The Network of Co-Workers 45 2.5. "Being in the Spotlight, Ready for Action": On the Front Stage 54 2.6. "Performing the Kitchen Life": In the Backstage 59 Chapter Three: Food as Creative Manipulation of Ethnicity 65 3.1. Ethnicity as Identity Marker 66 3.2. "I Don't Cook Hungarian Anymore": The Fluid Character of Ethnic Foodways 76 Food Repertoire Performing Creative Ethnicity - Authenticity and Americanization Style of Presentation 3.3. An "Almost Prefect" Hungarian Evening 100 The Circumstances of the Event Setting the Table Serving the Food Food as Tangible Site for Memory Chapter Four: Food and Gender 117 IV 4.1. Food as Site of Power Relations between Men and Women 118 4.2. Mothers - Daughters Connecting through Food 127 Chapter Five: Conclusions 132 Bibliography 138 v List of Figures Figure 1. Table of Cold Appetizers at One of the Catering Events 21 Figure 2. Zoltan Performing his Role of a Bartender at a Retirement Party 38 Figure 3. Sauted Mushroom in White Wine Sauce 90 Figure 4. Devilled Eggs 91 Figure 5. Customers Surrounding the Food Table 96 Figure 6. Final Version of Setting the Table 103 Figure 7. Setting the Table in Hungarian Style 104 Figure 8. Fatback Pork Consumed Raw 107 Figure 9. Daniel's Colourful Plate with Cold Appetizers 107 Figure 10. Anna Serving the Stew Ill Figure 11. Apple Squares Ready to be Served Ill VI CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Food Matters The idea for this thesis began with the observation that many of the most interesting social and cultural aspects of life in our contemporary world feature food. It is an understatement to say that food is important. On a national level, it represents one of Canada's most significant industries and exports. On an individual level, there is nothing more basic. Food is both an essential of life and a frequently indulged-in pleasure. If you cannot eat, soon enough you will not be able to stay alive. But food is also a symbolic marker of membership (or non-membership) in practically any sort of social grouping. Food can express creativity and diversity. As psychologist Paul Rozin puts it, "food is fundamental, fun, frightening, and far-reaching" (Belasco 2002, 2). Its meanings and usages extend far beyond nutritional maintenance. Food, observes anthropologist Arjun Appaduraj, is a "highly condensed social fact" and "a marvellously plastic kind of collective representation" (Belasco 2002, 2). Food indicates who we are, where we came from, and what we want to be. I first recognized food as a tool of creative expression with deeper significance than simple sustenance in the summer of 2009, soon after my arrival in Atlantic Canada from Romania. While completing my graduate program I was introduced to Anna, who had operated a small catering company for more than twenty years. A Canadian citizen of Hungarian descent, she had built a name for herself as a caterer by creatively bringing together European, American, and even Asian taste trends. She provided food for events 1 organized by companies (Christmas parties, retirement parties, etc) as well as individuals (anniversary parties, birthday parties, etc). I have chosen not to identify Anna's exact location in an effort to provide her with anonymity, but she lives in a city where many of the inhabitants know each other. Here word of good food travels fast and Anna's reputation as a caterer spreads by word of mouth. The success of her catering business rests not on advertising, but solely on oral tradition. Soon after I met Anna, she offered me part-time employment. As I helped prepare and serve food at catered events, I began to develop an appreciation for the many meanings Anna's food expressed for the caterer and her clients. In this thesis I explore several interrelated questions concerning the meanings of food for Anna and her catering business. I ask how food becomes an occupationally based performance of both ethnicity and gender: How does this catering business accommodate local tastes and foodways? Which are the foods that have built Anna's reputation as a good caterer? What characterizes her presentation of North-American and European cuisines? How does she combine the "exotic"