Constructing Global Tastes: A Comparison of Two Cultural Intermediaries in the Field of High-End Cuisine

Abstract

ABSTRACT The paper elucidates the influence of cultural intermediaries (CIs) at the global level by studying their role in one cultural field, culinary culture. We examine the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list and the Michelin Guide, the two most referred to global evaluative systems in fine-dining. By making a systematic comparison of these CIs’ judgment devices and dispositions, our study elaborates on three key aspects of cultural intermediation: first, the qualification of goods and services is often contested and legitimacy can be achieved by drawing on differing resources. Second, we show that cultural intermediation has acquired a global dimension. Changing practices of CIs and their increasingly global reach have precipitated a partial reversal of the previous flow of culinary knowledge and talent from the global North to the global South, contributing to the construction of new canons of taste in the field. CIs now bestow worth not only on individual market actors (restaurants/chefs) but also on the countries from which they originate. Third, by highlighting the competition between the two CIs, we are able to show the changes both CIs have felt compelled to make during the last decade or so.