Divorced Eggs and the Culinary Field: Bourdieu, Field Theory, and the Chef

Abstract

In this article I seek to utilise Bourdieu’s field theory to examine the relation between the artistic and culinary fields. I examine how the field has changed since the mid-twentieth century and how, since the 1960s, the autonomy of the chef drastically changed the culinary field. Focusing upon elite chefs of the twenty-first century, such as Ferran Adrià and Massimo Bottura, I analyse how European haute cuisine has developed and how dialogues between the chef and diner have become a defining feature of contemporary haute cuisine. Overall I examine how this autonomy occurred and what it potentially means for haute cuisine in the future. Throughout, I reference the concepts of Bourdieu’s field theory, legitimation, and heteronomy/autonomy to explain how these changes within the culinary field occurred and what it means for the field.