Gastronomy meaning, synonyms: We explain what gastronomy is, its history, the types that exist and its importance in culture. Also, Mexican gastronomy.
What is gastronomy?
Gastronomy is the discipline, understood as an art, that studies the relationships of the human being with his way of eating and with the cultural environment in which cooking takes place.
Gastronomy provides an approach to culture using food as a central axis. It deals with cooking techniques, nutritional data and food sciences, as well as the professional management of flavors and aromas in the preparation of a culinary dish. You must read about Archaeology once.
Gastronomy is not simply the love of food or cooking. In fact, this discipline deals with multiple cultural aspects surrounding cooking and food, such as the choice of ingredients, the tradition surrounding food or the religious influence on the way of eating.
Not every cook is a gourmet, not even those who bear the label of “chef”. A true gourmet is someone who is dedicated to experimenting, discovering, researching, understanding and generating documentation on the way in which human beings eat in different cultures.
History of gastronomy
The history of gastronomy dates back to classical antiquity, when the first recipe books emerged, partly driven by the presence in Imperial Rome of foods from various corners of Africa, Asia and northern Europe.
The traditional Roman diet was then greatly enriched, which also turned the act of eating into a ceremonial act in which food was introduced before being incorporated into the banquet, intended for the nobles and the rich. There was no shortage of writers on food, such as Lucullus and Marcus Gravius Apicius.
Later, the Middle Ages were greatly influenced by Byzantine and Arab cuisine, heirs to Greek and Roman cuisine, especially in areas where the Moors dominated, such as southern Spain (Al-Andalus) or Italy. Maybe you should definitely read about Feudal Lord once.
Gastronomy was highly valued in this long period when, paradoxically, famine and poverty abounded. Culinary treatises such as The Forme of Curry by Richard III of England or Daz Buch von guter Spise, an anonymous German work, were common.
With the European Renaissance, gastronomy gained even greater prominence, especially in France, where the Baroque and the Bourbon dynasty encouraged the arts of good eating among the nobility, even in times when the common people were starving.
This undoubtedly had its impact on the French Revolution of 1789. One of the greatest gastronomic treatises of the time was Arte de cocina, pastelería, bizcochería y conservería (1611) by the Spaniard Francisco Martínez Motiño.
Already in the Contemporary Age, gastronomy became popular and was no longer exclusive to the aristocratic sectors. However, it eventually became a mark of class and distinction again, only this time at the hands of the bourgeoisie.
With the birth of restaurants and canned food (during the Industrial Revolution), a food paradigm changed forever in the West, as outlined by Brillat Savarin (Physiology of Taste, 1826) or Alexandre Dumas (The Grand Dictionary of Cuisine, 1873).
With the arrival of the 20th century and mass food production, gastronomy diversified enormously, distinguishing, among other things, “signature” cuisine or “artistic” restaurants from fast food. In this context, nouvelle cuisine was born, which attempts to bring together tradition and simplicity in a new way of cooking.
Types of gastronomy
We can distinguish a few different types of gastronomy:
- National gastronomy: It has a strong link with the national identity of a country or culture, and involves elements of its tradition or history. For example – German, Armenian, Arab gastronomy.
- Gourmet gastronomy: It involves “signature” cooking methods, that is, cutting-edge culinary trends.
- Vegan gastronomy: It does not use any type of animal derivatives in its preparations (neither meat, nor dairy, nor eggs) and chooses vegetables, fruits and cereals instead.
- Macrobiotic gastronomy: It is governed by macrobiotic principles, that is, by a balance (ying-yang) between foods related to the biochemical composition of the organism.
- Religious gastronomy: That which is shared by different peoples who have a similar religious culture, such as Jewish, Islamic food, etc.
Importance of gastronomy
Gastronomy gives us the opportunity to incorporate into the artistic and cultural context an aspect that formally seems neglected, which is that of cooking. Although it is not considered among the Fine Arts, culinary art is undoubtedly one of the most widely practiced and with the greatest nuances, variants and cultural baggage of humanity.
Gastronomy, like other disciplines dedicated to the study of the various aspects of human culture, tells us who we are and where we come from, based on our way of cooking.
Mexican gastronomy
Mexican gastronomy is one of the most famous in America and the West, since it reflects the complex and extensive process of cultural pairing that took place in this country during the 500 years of European colonization.
Spanish food, indigenous food and some Negroid contributions make up a gastronomy of enormous personality, recognizable throughout the world for its use of corn tortillas, grains, sauces and especially chili peppers.
It is an extremely diverse gastronomy in which each Mexican state intervenes in a different and decisive way, even generating a trend within the states bordering Mexico in the USA, known as “Tex-Mex” (Texas-Mexican).
