Legitimising amateur celebrity chefs’ advice and the discursive transformation of the Slovene national culinary identity

Abstract

This article seeks to discuss the legitimation strategies of the two Slovene amateur celebrity chefs Luka Novaks and Valentina Smej Novak and the consequent call for a discursive transformation of the Slovene culinary identity. Using as a tool Van Leeuwen’s legitimation strategies, it seeks to understand the discursive construction of the chefs’ authority, that is, how do they legitimise their call for a change in Slovene eating habits, focusing on the introductory texts found in their cookbooks. Second, it concludes that by doing this, they have not only constructed themselves as the new authorities in Slovene cooking but also advocated the new middle-class taste as the only acceptable taste in Slovenia, that is, the contemporary Slovene national cuisine. Their call for transformation, however, seems contradictory, as they, on the one hand, draw on tradition and expert authority and, on the other hand, refute this in order to be able to position themselves as equal to these authorities.