Karin Lucas – The format of food
Karin Lucas – The format of food
With her work "The format of food", Karin Lucas follows her interest in food in the global context and justifies her thesis that despite the vast number of different dishes there are only a limited number of fundamental ways of preparation that she calls food formats. On the basis of the theories of Claude Lewis Strauss, which describes cultural knowledge in food preparation techniques, the author analyses the different types of preparation styles for basic raw ingredients which is obviously dependent upon certain conditions - the properties of the ingredients, environmental conditions, and cultural codes - and hypothesises upon these. The goal of this elaborate analysis is a logical order, whereby Karin Lucas can attribute all the dishes of the world (excluding luxury food and drinks) to a total of fifteen food formats.
The author describes these formats and their sub formats systematically (see display of formats), and assigns them worldwide researched cuisines or recipes. The result of good sound work is surprising as a contradiction: for just by editing them to the few formats and their categorization along basic work principles or chemical reactions the author manages to make the immense variety of world cuisine and the unmanageable multiple variations between different dishes comparable.
In this way the different products of the world’s cuisine can be correlated. The author makes a valuable contribution to the reduction of cultural prejudice, with her work that crystalizes the different eating habits or dishes. In addition, the work provides a sort of compendium to international culture, a good foundation for criticism of the food industry’s finished products.
