Paper Short Abstract:

Cookbooks and menus have been powerful tools for organizing discourses about the proper meal, giving priority to consumption of animal sourced foods. Inspired by Mary Douglas, the paper discusses if it is possible to unwrite the menu hierarchy, making space for plant based food to become proper meals in all kinds of social settings?

Paper Abstract:

Cookbooks and menus have been powerful tools for organizing discourses about the proper meal. The culinary texts were mostly organized around the main source of proteins, often with meat in focus. Headings such as Red meat, White meat, Game, Fish and seafood, etc are examples of an hierarchic structure favouring the consumption of animals. Green dishes, if on the menu, were offered as side dishes or as small dishes between the main courses, but with a few exceptions not considered to be stand alone meals.

The transition towards sustainable food systems require a reduction of meat consumption. But is it possible to unwrite the menu hierarchy, making space for plant based food to become proper meals in all kinds of social settings? The paper builds on ongoing ethnographic studies of chefs and domestic cooks working to challenge meat based definitions of proper meals. With examples from the Nordic countries, the paper asks questions concerning the development of plant based meals. How do they affect social relations? How can they be presented and sold on fine dining restaurants? Inspired by Mary Douglas, the paper aims to decipher a vegan meal, in all its symbolic, linguistic and material components.