Culinary Man and the Kitchen Brigade: Normative Subjectivity in Western Fine Dining Traditions (Routledge Food Studies)

Culinary Man and the Kitchen Brigade offers an exploration of the field of normative subjectivity circulated within western fine dining traditions, presenting a theoretical analysis of the governing relationship between the chef, who embodies the Culinary Man, and the fine dining brigade. The book offers a unique treatment of western haute cuisine’s interlocking regime of labor and aesthetics and theorizes the underexplored kitchen brigade as a model of disciplinary formation.It deploys a heterogeneous set of disciplinary discourses and practices which have the effect of consolidating monopolies on epistemic authority and governance.Each position within the brigade’s hierarchy is subject to distinct, though related, disciplinary practices.Thus, chapters identify the specific practices pertinent to each brigade subject, while also illuminating how they fit together as a coherent hegemonic project.The application of Wynterian and Foucauldian insight to the fine dining brigade offers a po