Experimental Dining: Performance, Experience and Ideology in Contemporary Creative Restaurants

Experimental Dining explores the work of four world-leading creative restaurants, Noma, elBulli, The Fat Duck, and Alinea, using ideas from performance studies, cultural studies, philosophy, and economics to understand the creation of the dining experience as a multisensory performance. It examines the construction of the restaurants' worlds, creative methods, and the broader ideological frames within which their work takes place. The author argues that the experimental restaurant's practice can appeal to more than idle curiosity for novelty and can be unsettling, revealing, provocative, evocative, personal, political, experimental, and considered, thoughtful, and sensual. The primary readership will be academics, researchers, and scholars in food studies, performance studies, and the philosophy of everyday life, cognitive science, and sensory studies.

Format: Hardback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 21 January 2022
Publisher: Intellect Books

Experimental Dining delves into the captivating world of four renowned creative restaurants: Noma, elBulli, The Fat Duck, and Alinea. Drawing inspiration from diverse fields such as performance studies, cultural studies, philosophy, and economics, the book explores the intricate process of crafting the dining experience as a multisensory performance. It delves into the construction of these restaurants' unique worlds and their innovative creative methods, examining the profound impact of dining on the overall ideological frameworks within which their work thrives. By bringing together ideas surrounding food, philosophy, performance, and cultural politics, Experimental Dining offers an interdisciplinary perspective on the practice and experience of creative restaurants. The author contends that while the experimental restaurant operates within the realm of an economy of experiences, its impact extends beyond mere novelty. It possesses the potential to be unsettling, revealing, provocative, evocative, personal, political, experimental, considered, thoughtful, and sensual. In essence, the food event can be considered art.

The primary audience for this book will consist of academics, researchers, and scholars specializing in food studies, performance studies, and the philosophy of everyday life, cognitive science, and sensory studies. It will serve as a valuable resource for supplementary reading on courses focused on Food and Performance. Additionally, chefs, gastronomes, restaurateurs, and artists alike may find it intriguing and informative.

Weight: 558g
Dimension: 177 x 252 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781789383430
Edition number: New ed