The Restaurants Book: Ethnographies of Where we Eat

Is the restaurant an ideal total social phenomenon for the contemporary world? Restaurants are framed by the logic of the market, but promise experiences not of the market. Restaurants are key sites for practices of social distinction, where chefs struggle for recognition as stars and patrons insist on seeing and being seen. Restaurants define urban landscapes, reflecting and shaping the character of neighborhoods, or standing for the ethos of an entire city or nation. Whether they spread authoritarian French organizational models or the bland standardization of American fast food, restaurants have been accused of contributing to the homogenization of cultures. Yet restaurants have also played a central role in the reassertion of the local, as powerful cultural brokers and symbols for protests against a globalized food system. The Restaurants Book brings together anthropological insights into these thoroughly postmodern places.

Table of Contents:
Amuse Bouche: Restaurants, Ideal Postmodern Institutions David Beriss, University of New Orleans and David Sutton, Southern Illinois University SMALL PLATES * Chapter One: Tight Spaces and Salsa-Stained Aprons: Bodies at Work in American Restaurants, Karla Erickson, Grinnell College * Chapter Two: Forming Family Identity in an American Chinese Restaurant, Michael Hernandez, Southern Illinois University * Chapter Three: Tasting Wisconsin: A Chef's Story, Amy Trubek, University of Vermont MAINS * Chapter Four: Side Dish Kitchens: Japanese American Delicatessens and the Culture of Nostalgia, Christine Yano, University of Hawaii * Chapter Five: Familiarity, Ambience and Intentionality: An Investigation into Casual Dining Restaurants in Central Illinois, Derek Pardue, Washington University * Chapter Six: Revolution is a Dinner Party: Cultural Revolution Restaurants in Contemporary China, Jennifer Hubbert, Lewis and Clark College * Chapter Seven: Ethnic Succession and the New American Restaurant Cuisine, Krishnendu Ray, New York University * Chapter Eight: From Khatchapuri to Gelfite Fish: Dining Out and Spectacle in Russian Jewish New York, Eve Jochnowitz, The New School University * Chapter Nine: Daughters, Duty and Deference in the Franco-Chinese Restaurant, Winnie Lem, Trent University * Chapter Ten: Authentic Creole: Tourism, Style and Calamity in New Orleans Restaurants, David Beriss, University of New Orleans * Chapter Eleven: Food, Family and Tradition in Northern Italy: The Rise and Fall of a Michelin-Starred Family Restaurant, Gerald Mars, University College London and London Metropolitan University DESSERT * Chapter Twelve: Tipping: An Anthropological Meditation, David Sutton, Southern Illinois University Digestif Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University

About the Author :
David Beriss is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Orleans and author of Black Skins, French Voices: Caribbean Ethnicity and Activism in Urban France. David Sutton is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Southern Illinois University. He is the author of Memories Cast in Stone: The Relevance of the Past in Everyday Life and Remembrance of Repasts: An Anthropology of Food and Memory. Both are published by Berg.

Review :
The volume succeeds in making readers understand that restaurants do more than simply feed people - they transmit culture, encourage socialization, and express the values of a particular place. Reading this book makes it obvious that we do not choose to eat at a restaurant just because we like the food. The book has left me hungry for more such 'snapshots' of food and culture. From this collection emerges an understanding of restaurants as spaces of negotiation where gender, race, ethnicity, and memory are produced and reproduced as dynamic interactions ... a rich, welcome volume. High recommended.