How Might Gastronomy be a Suitable Discipline for Testing the Validity of Different Modern and Postmodern Claims About What May be Called Avant-Garde?

Abstract

Between the years 1996–2007 many interesting academic developments occurred in gastronomy, culinary arts, and culinary science and technology studies. In that period, undergraduate and postgraduate master's degrees were inaugurated from Brighton to Auckland, and serious research leading to master's and doctoral awards was undertaken. In these studies the importance of gastronomy and culinary/table arts in our individual everyday lives became a focus for further exploration and research. The restaurant meal experience has many implications socially, scientifically, economically, and aesthetically. This article addresses some suggestions of how the aesthetic/artistic experience may be integrated into achieving meaning, socially and scientifically, raising more than answering some questions about the place of the meal experience in our everyday lives. Also, it explores the links and differences between the technological, aesthetic, scientific, and social dimensions of the meal experience from the perspectives of philosophers and scientists who help us think about the issues surrounding the restaurant meal experience.