Why the Slider Stuck: How a Baby Fish Burger Captured a Nation’s Palate Kim Knight A dissertation submitted to Auckland University of Technology in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Gastronomy 2019 School of Hospitality and Tourism Auckland University of Technology ABSTRACT If eating is an act of self-identification then what does the uptake of a new food trend by an entire country say about that nation? The slider – a baby hamburger that originated in the United States – was an unknown foodstuff in 2011 New Zealand when celebrity chef Al Brown put a fish version on the menu of his Auckland restaurant, Depot Oyster Bar and Eatery. Less than five years later the restaurant was selling an average of 285 sliders a day (Brown, 2014) and the slider had become an unlikely restaurant signature dish that, from 2013, had its position strengthened by mass media food publications which promoted slider recipes for home cooks. This study seeks to understand how and why the slider was introduced, popularised and embedded in New Zealand, via participant interviews with industry experts and content analysis of selected food media. Gastronomic theory around the rise of smart-casual restaurants (Pearlman, 2013), the marketing power of nostalgia (D. Bell & Valentine, 2013) and the role of media in taste-making (Blank, 2007; Shrum, 1996) is applied to create an understanding of the slider’s popularity and, potentially, New Zealand’s gastronomic identity. The research suggests that the synonymy of the New Zealand slider with its celebrity chef initiator is considered crucial – Depot’s aesthetic is the “Kiwi bach” (a colloquial term for the New Zealand holiday home) and the fish slider pays homage to the white bread fish sandwich enjoyed as part of a childhood summer meal around the kitchen table at the New Zealand bach. The original American slider has been reimagined for a nostalgia-hungry New Zealand consumer; however, its ongoing embeddedness relies on another aspect of the New Zealand’s gastronomic identity – its non- identity. While New Zealand’s postcolonial culinary culture has, historically, been tied to the United Kingdom immigration wave of the 19th century (Burton, 2009; Simpson, 1999), this research posits the slider as proof of an ongoing appetite for the new and novel; a youthful hunger for change that has created a national gastronomic identity that is, more than ever, a work in progress. i TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................. i TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... ii LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... iv ATTESTATION OF AUTHORSHIP ............................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................................... vi PROLOGUE ............................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................... 2 1.1 Research Aim ............................................................................................................ 3 1.2 Dissertation overview ............................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................ 5 2.1 A brief history of the slider ....................................................................................... 5 2.2 Making taste and the cultural omnivore ................................................................. 9 2.3 The rise of smart-casual dining ............................................................................. 10 2.4 The role of mass media in taste-making.............................................................. 13 2.5 Interim summary ...................................................................................................... 16 CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................. 17 3.1 Research questions ................................................................................................ 17 3.2 Ontology, epistemology and research paradigms.............................................. 17 3.3 Paradigm choice ...................................................................................................... 19 3.4 Qualitative research methodology ........................................................................ 20 3.5 Data collection, sample and analysis ................................................................... 22 3.6 Ethics and study limitations ................................................................................... 27 3.8 Interim summary ...................................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER 4. EATING AT THE NEW ZEALAND TABLE............................................................... 30 4.1 From postcolonial “meat-and-three” to international smorgasbord ................. 30 4.2 Hello hamburgers .................................................................................................... 33 4.3 Enter the slider (and meet Al Brown) ................................................................... 35 4.4 Taking it to the people ............................................................................................ 37 4.5 Interim Summary ..................................................................................................... 38 CHAPTER 5. FINDINGS – INTERVIEWS AND MEDIA ANALYSIS ............................................... 40 5.1 The interviews - What the experts thought ......................................................... 40 ii 5.2 Media analysis: How reporters, reviewers and food writers sold the slider ... 48 5.2.1 Close, but no slider – 2010 ............................................................................................. 49 5.2.2 Depot debuts and the slider is defined – 2011 ............................................................ 49 5.2.3 The slider goes properly public – 2012 ......................................................................... 51 5.2.4 New Zealand Woman’s Weekly readers meet the slider – 2013 .............................. 53 5.2.5 The mass appeal of the slider – 2014 ........................................................................... 53 5.2.6 The slider subverted – 2015 ........................................................................................... 54 5.2.7 Hamburger versus slider – NZWW and Cuisine .......................................................... 55 5.3 Interim summary ...................................................................................................... 58 CHAPTER 6. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................................... 59 6.1 Smart-casual and the power of nostalgia ............................................................ 59 6.2 Class, cultural omnivorism and celebrity ............................................................. 62 6.3 Self-identity and the slider ..................................................................................... 64 6.4 The media as messenger ...................................................................................... 68 6.5 Taking the slider home ........................................................................................... 70 CHAPTER 7. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 73 REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 76 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................... 92 Appendix A. Indicative questions prepared for participant interviews. ................. 92 Appendix B. Participant consent form. ....................................................................... 93 Appendix C. Auckland University of Technology Ethics Committee approval . ... 94 Table A1. Recipe titles and bread components for hamburgers and sliders, published in New Zealand Woman’s Weekly and Cuisine, 2010-2015 ................. 96 iii LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Main wrapper type listed in hamburger and slider recipes published in New Zealand Woman’s Weekly and Cuisine, 2010-2015 ............................................. 56 Table 2 Main filling ingredient in hamburger and slider recipes published in New Zealand Woman’s Weekly and Cuisine, 2010-2015 ............................................. 57 Table A1 Recipe titles and bread components for hamburgers and sliders, published in New Zealand Woman’s Weekly and Cuisine, 2010-2015 .................. 92 iv ATTESTATION OF AUTHORSHIP “I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person (except where explicitly defined in the acknowledgements), nor material which