Restaurant Culture

"Restaurant culture" is encoded by a number of floating signifiers. Here are some of the most obvious:- Celebrity chefs or restaurateurs- Newly created dishes- Celebrity design concepts- Ingredient driven cuisine (market, seasonal, high quality, artisanal, sustainable, just plain expensive, etc...)- A recognizable brand- Cuisine which breaks with tradition (often a specific tradition); formerly known as "fusion", but that's a signifier which doesn't bring home the bacon any more- Destination dining- Exclusive (hard to reserve)- Expensive- Authentic- Local/regional

And a concrete example is the popular use of "Kobe" or "Wagyu" as signifiers in contemporary NYC restaurants, and the slippery nature of what is signified thereby. I might also cite the suggestion that a chef "spent some time in x country" as a floating signifier in the realm of authenticity.

Responding to an obvious objection, this model of "restaurant culture" is to be sharply distinguished from the French culture of gastronomic "restauration", which can be traced from eighteenth century France through to the disciples of Escoffier as a fairly unbroken line - and which, is a playing field for a different set of signifiers. It is, nevertheless, often part of the "restaurant culture" schtick that it poses as a natural evolution of the classical French mainstream.

1. This "restaurant culture" does not necessarily bequeathe good restaurants.

2. It is unsurprising that many countries around the world have, as yet, failed to import this interesting socio-cultural construct - and yet that failure is often represented as a remarkable deficiency.-- () 19:05, 8 October 2008 (UTC)Ref 1. [http://mouthfulsfood.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t9223.html]