Project Research
Food How does food evoke certain memories and emotions and as a consequence stimulate consumer desires.
Phoebe Day
Contents...
1.
Introduction and Methodology
2.
“The Rise of the Foodie”
3.
Celebrity and Food
4.
Fashion and Food
5. Food: the Experience and the Senses
6. Conclusion
Introduction and Methodology
In recent years food and all things surrounding food have become incredibly popular and thus this topic will provide an interesting area to delve into and figure out what it is that has made food become fashionable. The subject of food has a vast array of areas to explore which will enable the study to contain a rich body of research. The study will take a detailed look at food from all aspects, for instance, blogs, books, restaurants, celebrity chefs and food trends, to obtain a fully rounded view of what it is that makes food so popular with such a variety of people. A mix of primary and secondary research gather a broad spectrum of information to figure out what it is about food that people find interesting, and how that can be summarised and turned into a final major project. The bulk of the investigation will come from looking into how popular food has become, and how the term ‘Foodie’ is now widely recognised, and the rise of celebrity chefs and their restaurants, for instance how Nigella Lawson’s book was outselling 50 Shades of Grey on ‘Amazon’. Leading on from this, how food is represented in the fashion world, and how it is perceived and used in different ways. Finally, how food is not purely nourishment, it’s about the experience of eating, the feelings it conjures, how it is more of a dining event, to be enjoyed and savoured. From these topics the main question of the investigation will be ‘how does food evoke
certain memories and emotions and as a consequence stimulate consumer desires’.
The Rise of The Foodie “Food is the new sex, drugs and religion. Cookery dominates the bestseller lists and TV schedules. Celebrity chefs become lifestyle gurus and cooking is referred to as a high art. Steven Poole has had his fill of foodism; Get Stuffed.” ‘The Guardian’ (1)
Food is no longer viewed as simply ‘food’. If anything the last word that would come to the mind of a foodie critic today would be nourishment. Food has saturated many areas of the media and people’s lives in recent years, much more than 10 years ago when food programmes, celebrity chefs and Michelin starred restaurants were few and far between, only the true Foodie’s would be interested. Now according to Steven Poole; ‘Foodie’ has pretty much everywhere replaced ‘gourmet’ losing its snobbish connotations and being something people take pride in being.’ (2) Food and everything to do with food has become fashionable. Poole quotes ‘modern food knight’ Michael Pollan who outlines an ideology of ‘foodism’ as “a yearning for food to be able to fill a spiritual void, food is about spirituality and expressing our identity”(3) an ideology not too dissimilar to that of fashion. It is this strange comparison to these areas that has drawn me into to researching each aspect of this supposed ‘gastroculture’ we’re going through. Fashion is about new trends and style icons. Now we have food trends and chef icons to contend with, and in some cases the two areas are blurring. Nigella Lawson for example her book ‘Nigellissima’ was one of the ten bestselling books on Amazon in September 2012. In December 2012 five of the top ten books on Amazon’s Bestseller list were food books.(4) Food has experienced a rapid inflation and this is why research into the major areas it has infiltrated would provide an interesting stepping stone to create a final project combining the best parts. Food has become more than just food, to many people it’s a way of life;
“My 20th birthday party was all about booze, my 30th was all about drugs, and now I realise that my 40s are about food.” Alex James the Blur Bassist/ Cheese Farmer(5) Alex James also said that ‘food becomes not only spiritual nourishment but art, sex, ecology, history, fashion and ethics. It even becomes…a universal language.
Food is a brilliant way to connect with everyone. I used to think music was a universal language. But if you go to Africa and play a Blur song, someone will have to translate. Give them cheese though and they can instantly taste it and react.”(6) It is the universal appeal of food and the way it makes people feel that is most intriguing. How has the rise of the foodie affected what we do and how we do it?
Celebrity and Food With the rise of the foodie comes the rise of the faces we associate with this gastro culture. Within the foodie culture, just as with fashion and the celebrities we see, there appears to be more figures within the food world that can also take on the name ‘celebrity’. Celebrity culture is a major part of people’s lives, celebrity couples parading their perfect relationships, reality stars and their exposures, TV personalities whom we watch and hang off their every word each morning and now celebrity chefs that exhibit a plethora of skills people wish they had. This is what makes celebrity chefs popular, they all possess a skill, but the difference between them and the average celebrity is that they are allowing us to tap into that skill. It is also possible for us to be catapulted into their celebrity world through their restaurants. In a sense it is like being invited into your favourite celebrities’ kitchen. We can experience what it is that makes them so popular. We can have our own slice of what it is that makes them better than the average ‘cook’. ‘The shared meal elevates eating from a mechanical process of fuelling the body to a ritual of family and community, from the mere animal biology to an act of culture.’ Michael Pollan (1) People visit a restaurant for the social experience, to enjoy the company, the environment, or be it the particular status of the eatery. It is rare that someone will chose a restaurant based entirely on the food they offer. Celebrity chefs are keying in to this. People do not think of the amount of money they will be spending on a three course meal, that falls by the way side as they are going purely for the experience and the story that follows, the status that dining out at celebrity restaurants brings. Much the same as if a celebrity is seen with a particular designer bag or an up and coming designer’s dress, people more often than not, want the same thing so they can share that with the celebrity in question. Money rarely comes into the picture. This leads on to celebrity endorsement. Celebrities saturate the media in all areas; every brand has a celebrity ambassador to boost sales, fashion more than any. There is a continuing obsession with celebrity chefs. More and more they are being used to endorse products, the most obvious being Jamie Oliver and his involvement with ‘Sainsbury’s’. Jamie Oliver is now considered to be a ‘super chef ’ and is the definition of this chapter. He started out as a small chef from Essex and his infiltration onto television has propelled him into the celebrity world. He has had multiple television series’ and books, restaurants and charitable campaigns. There aren’t many areas which Jamie Oliver hasn’t appeared in. ‘Sainsbury’s’, logically used Oliver as the face of their brand, he was and still is one of the most well-known faces of food in the world and guarantees full exposure for their brand and products. Much as Kate Moss is to fashion Jamie Oliver is to food.
Jamie Oliver Statistics (2) Top Seller on Amazon (Jamie’s 15 Minute meals) December 2012 25 Television series’ to date shown in over 40 countries Named the most powerful and influential person in the hospitality industry (Caterersearch.com 100) 2005 – 2010 and again in 2012 Awarded an MBE in 2003 Debut book The Naked Chef topped Best Seller Charts in 1997 Oliver was the face of Sainsbury’s for 11 years 2012 named Britain’s second biggest selling author since records began Total book sales of £126 million, second only to J.K Rowling, Harry Potter
Published around 20 books to date One cannot turn on the television of late and not come across a food based programme. Sky television has five channels that are dedicated purely to food (Good Food, The Food Network). But even on regular terrestrial television it is hard to switch on and not find something food based or a chef being interviewed on a lifestyle programme. So even if these celebrity chefs do not endorse one product in particular we see them using their favourites and thus we want to use them too. In 2002 one in seven British adults had bought a new ingredient as a result of watching a television cookery show. Mintel (Impact of Celebrity Chefs on Cooking Habits July 2002) (3) An example would be Delia Smith, she was the instigator of a number of basic products seeing a rise in sales, prunes, cranberries and liquid glucose being the examples. The mere mention of a product by a chef of the moment can make people buy it, the ‘Delia effect’. (The Collins Dictionary) The Mintel reports’ hypothesis was ‘as the British become more reliant on convenience and fast food there is a tendency to revere cooking as a worthy craft in its own right. Thus celebrity chefs are the purveyors of this craft by association’. As well as the rise of the foodie and the rise of celebrity chefs we see on a day to day basis, we have also seen a rise in quick, unhealthy foods, purely for convenience as people do not have the time to concentrate on preparing a fantastic meal each night much like the ones we see prepared in front of us while we watch the television. It is ironic in a sense that, in general, people have less time to cook for their families after a hard day at work, but apparently more time to watch a celebrity figure on the television doing just that. Is it because in an ideal world the majority of the population aspires to be a chef? We watch these food gurus on our screen in the hope that one day we will prepare
something similar when time allows, have we become ‘hobby cooks’? The report summarises with saying there is a contradiction between convenience based food culture and the very high number of chefs on television. The more the public rely on convenience food the greater the fascination for television programmes and chefs. The loss of traditional food skills have created preconditions where the celebrity chef can flourish. Consequently we are creating a pedestal for these celebrity chefs to be placed upon, they have a craft the majority of the population have lost, we look to them as better than ourselves on some levels, not too dissimilar to the idols we have in the fashion sphere, some look at celebrities lives as a model for their own, they believe their lives are worth coveting. The whole debate of celebrity culture now submerges into food culture, again bringing the topics of fashion and food closer together.
One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. Virginia Woolf
Fashion and Food Moving on from the idea of celebrities in food, there is the idea of food used in the fashion world. It is apparent after researching that in fact food has become fashionable. Food and fashion merge foremost in advertising, with one of the most recognisable campaigns being Coca Cola, and their collaborations with various designers (Karl Lagerfeld, Jean Paul Gaultier). Coca Cola know their target audience tends to have an interest in fashion and thus they use well known designers to further endorse this product. Coca Cola advertising campaigns are always used as examples of strong, successful adverts, they are leaders in their field. It is telling then to say that one of the most successful companies in the world (ranked at number 59 in Fortune500 2012 list of America’s highest earning corporations, and number 1 in the beverage industry) (1) uses fashion to further their successes. With reference to previous chapters this shows how both fashion and food are areas that people still want to spend money on, there is a rise in popularity in both of these areas. Referencing a more high fashion campaign, The Dolce and Gabanna Autumn, Winter 2012 adverts have a strong feel of a true Italian family scene, with food being at the crux. Food, its effects on people, being in a family environment, the theatre of eating and the general experience eating provokes, are things that one of the biggest houses in fashion want to be associated with their brand. The positive feelings of food and how that can advance the way people view the clothes you sell is testament to how food and fashion are viewed in our society. It is clear that the audiences of both food and fashion are now not too dissimilar, proving how the opinions have changed over recent years. People in the world of food were rarely considered to be fashionable there were food icons and fashion icons, living completely separate lives. Now as the two are merging more as are the people we associate with it. Nigella Lawson is both a recognised food ‘guru’ but she is now being recognised as a fashion icon. With regular appearances in Sunday style magazines, best dressed lists and even appearances in Vogue, she has become a regular in both worlds. As the fashion world pays more attention to ‘plus sizes’ and real women, Nigella seems to shine through. “I remember reading that Elizabeth Hurley had said ‘it’s either the size 6 jeans or the cookie jar’ - and I remember thinking ‘well she wants the size 6 jeans and I want the cookie jar - fair enough, we’re both happy.’’ Nigella Lawson (Vogue April 2012) (2) Jacqueline Jacek is another figure in food that is joining the two worlds together. Jacek is an American chocolatier who has decided that the chocolate experience should be likened more to that of buying haute couture. She has named herself a ‘cocoanista’ she believes that food is fashion and her chocolate shop is not just a shop it is a boutique. Customers are invited to come and chose their couture chocolates with the help of a chocolate stylist. A true merge of fashion and food. Her seasonal chocolate collections are named after fashion icons, ‘The Audrey’ and ‘The Stella’ as examples. She believes that people should be just as proud of what they eat as what they wear.(3)
‘What’s in your pantry and on your plate have become a form of self-expression much like a fabulous pair of Christian Louboutins, or absolutely anything vintage. Just as the label ‘fashionista’ evokes an entire lifestyle, so, too, does the term ‘foodie.’ Martha Stewart (Huffington Post.) (4) Another true merge of fashion and food comes from chef and food designer Roland Trettl, his exhibition in Berlin sees models wearing beautifully crafted couture creations, made entirely of food. The food really is fashion as he creates pieces that are inspiring in both the fashion and the food world. This leads to how food is being shown in the media. Over recent years the way we see food has become a lot more like fashion. The way it is photographed for instance, food is enhanced for the photograph with things being added that aren’t physically edible, for example hairspray, just to make it look more attractive to the viewer. The style of photography is more polished, with a high end finish much as you would see in fashion publications. Even if the photograph isn’t for print, the standard is higher than ever before, even if it is just on a blog. Many food blogs have a high quality finish, just as fashion blogs and fashion photography. The way food programmes are filmed are similar to the fashion world also, the slick polished nature of the camera work adds to the viewing experience, looking at the product as fantasy, and something that not everyone can achieve or own adds to the appeal of both fashion and food. It is clear that as Martha Stewart mentioned the term ‘fashionista’ and the term ‘foodie’ have their own connotations; it is only recently that the connotations are becoming more similar. Is it the case now that to be a foodie is fashionable? In fashion there are trend predictions, now there are food trend predictions. ‘There are three major trends for 2012, ‘food on a stick’, cake pops for instance that we are starting to see in places like Starbucks, ‘small bites with big taste’, everything in miniature, set to be big in buffet seasons, and ‘food memories’ Christine Couvelier, food trend watcher (The Canadian Press) (5) People take pride in the produce they choose, the meals they create and the places they go to enjoy the food they love, much as people take pride in the clothes they buy, the way they style themselves and indeed where it is they choose to buy the clothes they love.
Food; The Experience and The Senses Throughout all areas of the topic much of the main focuses surround how the food makes people feel, the atmosphere they ate it in, who it was that cooked it, and the memories it conjured up. It is the experience and how food appeals to all the senses which are most intriguing about how we view food now, how the ‘gastroculture’ has changed food from just being purely nourishment, to being important, considering all aspects of the eating experience. Earlier in the document explains how people are still going out to eat regardless of the recession, 77% of 447 internet users aged 16+ have increased spending on eating dinner out as of August 2010 Mintel Report - Impact of the Recession on Eating Out Habits - UK - October 2010 (1)
The reasons people stated for eating out included: Reasons for eating out: Rank 1 % Rank 2 % Rank 3 % A regular treat 25 8 6 For a personal/ special occasion or celebration 19 13 10 Catch up with friends 14 13 9 To relax and unwind 11 13 9 Just felt like it 7 7 10 Something different to normal meals 6 8 10 For a romantic meal /date 4 8 6 Chance to get out of the house 4 7 9 To avoid cooking/ washing up 3 5 5 No food at home 2 1 2 To take advantage of a promotion 1 4 6 Bored with home cooked food 1 2 2 For business 1 1 1 For national holidays/ celebrations 1 3 None of these 2 Base: 1,803 internet users aged 16+ who have visited any venue for a sit down meal Source: GMI/Mintel
From the table it is evident that people are eating out mainly to treat themselves, to celebrate something and to catch up with friends, there wasn’t even an option that was related to the food itself. Not one person said they eat out for the food. The table highlights how people eat out for the experience they receive and the company they keep rather than what it is they are eating. This is a key point in the research document.
In recent years, Heston Blumenthal has utilised the fact that people are enjoying the experience of food more and more. His restaurant ‘The Fat Duck’ encompasses what it is to fully experience a dish. It is a multi-sensory experience for the diner, including sounds and smell all of which will enhance a particular meal. Blumenthal is another celebrity chef who has gained success with the rise of the foodie culture. It is this experiential dining that is most fascinating in the new food culture, as mentioned before, people are not purely interested in food as nourishment anymore, they want a fully rounded experience one of which they can talk about and re-live long after is has ended. Dining experiences need to be enhanced in fresh new ways to guarantee the success of restaurants. ‘Give me the place, the story, the people who make the food. Give me the experience of the food and the enjoyment. Make my eating experiential.’ John McKenna (The Irish Times) (2)
Something that Blumenthal does do more than any other chef on the market is draw on people’s memories of food, in particular childhood memories. Food memories was a trend for 2012 picked out by Christine Couvellier but this research has highlighted that when people are asked to talk about food, it is more often than not that they will talk about their fondest memories of food and where it was they ate it, this has always been the case not just for 2012. The food one eats can be either worsened or enhanced by the memories associated with it. Chef Morgan Meunier chose to take the theme of memories and apply it to his own tasting menu. Meunier grew up in the Champagne region of France and recalls his childhood eating experiences as ‘magical’ however when he came to London in the 90s the majority of his customers had ‘traumatic’ memories of school dinners (3). So Meunier is attempting to change childhood memories and bring change to the dishes
many people would never touch. To change someone’s memory and expectations of food is ambitious yet Meunier is still keying into the fact that food memories are popular, whether good or bad, it is the experience they enjoy. It is the experience and memories of food that has made up the focus for primary research. A question in a series of interviews conducted was ‘what is your fondest food memory?’ 90 per cent of the interviewees recalled a memory of either their childhood or one with their families. It is clear that food plays a pivotal part in special occasions and times that are memorable. Similar in some cases to fashion, in people’s memories they recall what they wore, what they ate and whom they were with; a point that joins food and fashion together again. Another question asked was ‘what reminds you of home?’ in this case it was not the answers as such that were interesting but the actual asking and the buzz the question generated. It was seeing how people react and become animated when prompted to talk about their early memories of food, it encourages them to think of the things they love and this in turn elicits a response that shows how much food means to people and just how much of a lead role it plays in people’s memories. ‘Dining with one’s friends and beloved family is certainly one of life’s primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul satisfying and eternal.’ Julia Childs (4) Experiential events have also been up and coming in the fashion world over recent years. Not just in fashion but experiential theatre for example has been drawing people in. It is something a little different to the norm that people are always interested in. Consumers always want something original that not many people have, something which tells a story and something they will have a memory of. It is these things that allow experiential events to come to the forefront of marketing and stimulate consumers in a vast spectrum of the market.
Conclusion
This research document aimed to find what it was that has made the topic of food so popular. A detailed look into the four main areas covered has unearthed answers to; 1) How we have originally seen a rise in the ‘foodie’ with people finding food and all things surrounding food to be a hobby. Something people are even seeing as fashionable and no longer for just one portion of society but something for everyone. 2) Also how the people within the food sphere have such an impact on the lives of the consumer. Be it with how or what they cook, what they watch on television, what books they read, what produce and brands they buy and in cases such as Nigella Lawson, how they look. Before this research it was not evident the extent to which the celebrities in food had become so influential. 3) Surprisingly, how the topics of both fashion and food are merging more and more. Two areas that on first thought would appear to be at opposite ends of a spectrum are continually blurring. For instance; celebrity icons, we have both influential figures in the food world as well as fashion. The saturation of food in the media, television programmes being at the forefront. Food is becoming evidently more apparent in fashion publications, campaigns and events with examples cited earlier including food in Vogue and high end fashion houses using food experiences to advertise. Also how the two areas in advertising are becoming similarly highly polished both in printed publications (food magazines echoing layouts of fashion magazines) and online with both food and fashion blogs looking similar in their layout and feel. 4) Finally how the way we view food has changed dramatically. Now people place a high regard on the experience they have with food. Food is no longer just nourishment there is a whole world surrounding the topic which has intrigued both professionals and consumers alike. The memories people have of food and experiential events are evidently important in more diverse selection of peoples’ lives, foodie or not. It is these conclusions that can be drawn which lead to further answering the question ‘how does food evoke certain memories and emotions and as a consequence stimulate consumer desires’. Food has a way of making a personal connection with a consumer. Something as simple as a childhood memory of something you used to eat instantly takes you back to that place when you eat it again. As in many marketing campaigns it is the tool of making it personable that entices a consumer. Food has a way of doing this in the easiest of ways. Food can be utilised in this way to be one of the most successful ways of stimulating consumer desires.
‘So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.’ Franz Kafka (1)
Words (excluding quotes)- 3989 Research bibliography: Chapter One; The Rise Of The Foodie 1) Poole, S. (2012). The Foodie Backlash. The Guardian. September (Review), 1-4. 2) Poole, S. (2012). The Foodie Backlash. The Guardian. September (Review), 1-4. 3) Poole, S. (2012). The Foodie Backlash. The Guardian. September (Review), 1-4. 4) Amazon.co.uk. (2012). Bestsellers. Available: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/bestsellers/books/ref=sv_b_2. Last accessed 30th December 2012. 5) Poole, S. (2012). The Foodie Backlash. The Guardian. September (Review), 1-4. 6) Poole, S. (2012). The Foodie Backlash. The Guardian. September (Review), 1-4.
Chapter Two; Celebrity and Food 1) Anon.. (2012). -. Available: http://dinerswelcome.tumblr.com/page/2. Last accessed September 2012. 2) Anon.. (2012). Jamie Oliver. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Oliver#Career. Last accessed 30th December 2012. Hastings, C. (2012). Pukka! Jamie sells £126,400,000 of cookery books and goes second after JK Rowling in top fifty all-time most valuable authors list. Available: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2200368/ Pukka-Jamie-sells-126-400-000-cookery-books-goes-second-JK-Rowling-fifty-time-valuable-authors-list. html. Last accessed 30th December 2012. Anon.. (2012). Books & Media. Available: http://www.jamieoliver.com/books-and-media/. Last accessed 30th December 2012. 3) Anon.. (2002). Impact of Celebrity Chefs on Cooking Habits. Available: http://academic.mintel.com/dis play/35320/. Last accessed October 2012. Chapter Three; Fashion and Food 1) Anon.. (2012). Fortune 500. Available: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/snap shots/100.html. Last accessed 30th December 2012. 2) Vogue Blog. (2012). Nigella Bites. Available: http://www.vogue.co.uk/blogs/the-vogue-blog/2012/04/20/nigel la-lawson-vogue-festival-interview. Last accessed 9th October 2012. 3) Anon.. (2012). About. Available: http://jacekchocolate.com/about/. Last accessed 10th November 2012. 4) Gold, M. (2012). High-end shops cater to taste for food as fashion. Available: http://www.edmontonjournal. com/life/fashion/High+shops+cater+taste+food+fashion/7447921/story.html. Last accessed 30th October 2012. 5) “Fondue offers small bites, big taste on a stick; Diners warm up to re-dipped trend.” Canwest News Service. (August 28, 2012 Tuesday 07:00 PM EST ): 976 words. Nexis UK. Web. Date Accessed: 2012/11/02. Chapter Four; Fashion, the experience and the senses 1) Anon.. (2010). Impact of The Recession On Eating Out Habits In The Uk. Available: http://academic.mintel. com/display/551355/. Last accessed 1st January 2013. 2) “Food that brings us back to our roots.” The Irish Times. (June 5, 2012 Tuesday ): 662 words. Nexis UK. Web. Date Accessed: 2012/11/02. 3) “Monsieur M, memory man.” The Sunday Times (London). (October 28, 2012 Sunday ): 296 words. Nexis UK. Web. Date Accessed: 2012/11/02 4) Arlen, W. (2012). Food For Thought . Available: http://www.willcookforfriends.com/p/food-for-thought- quotes.html. Last accessed October 2012. Conclusion 1) Arlen, W. (2012). Food For Thought . Available: http://www.willcookforfriends.com/p/food-for-thoughtquotes.html. Last accessed October 2012.
Images: 1) Couple eating; tumblr_m6k2gzGtyL1qc4v7mo1_400 Available at http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/food Accessed 8th October 2012 2) Nigella Lawson, Stylist Magazine Cover. Available at http://www.esquire.com/blogs/food-for-men/nigella-lawsoncaramel-photo-6612325. Accessed 25th October 2012 3) James Deam; tumblr_mb2fvv53dM1qc4v7mo1_400 Available at http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/food Accessed 8th October 2012 4) James Franco; tumblr_lvwew9QJD91r0u2hfo1_500 Available at http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/food Accessed 8th October 2012 5)2 images Dolce&Gabanna 2012 campaign; Available at http://styleblog.ca/2012/06/27/dolce-gabbana-fall-2012-adcampaign/Accessed 8th October 2012 6)Coca cola images; tumblr_m4kyuvziDw1qc4v7mo1_500, tumblr_mb47lxlzYX1rf95w9o1_500 Available at http:// www.tumblr.com/tagged/coca+cola+ Accessed 29th September 2012 7)Chanel food; tumblr_m99evabqVF1res0u5o1_500 Available at http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/chanel+food Accessed 8th October 2012 8)Roland Trettl images; tumblr_ljah7cLTUL1qgohxno1_500 tumblr_lwidt6f1u31qc4v7mo1_400 Available at http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/roland+trettl Accessed 17th Novemeber 2012 9)Fashion food image; 070112_final Available at http://simplybreakfast.blogspot.co.uk/ Accessed 17th November 2012 10)Dinner table image; tumblr_m7xkt19BKB1qc4v7mo1_1280 Available at http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ italian+dinner+ Accessed 9th November 2012