A cultural field in the making: Gastronomy in 19th-century France

The gastronomic field in 19th-century France is taken as a model for the analysis of cultural fields as characteristically modern phenomena. The antecedents of the field are located in a new economic, institutional, and ideological context. But its foundations are laid by a spectrum of gastronomic writings (journalism, cookbooks, proto-sociological essays, political philosophy, and literary works) that proposed an expansive, nationalizing culinary discourse. It is this discourse that secured the autonomy of the field, determined its operative features, and was largely responsible for the distinctive position of this cultural field.