Reverse cultural globalization: The case of haute cuisine in one global city

Abstract

This paper examines the flows of culinary knowledge, expertise and practitioners from previously peripheral locations to one global centre, London and defines it as a process of reverse cultural globalization. It focuses on chefs as the agents of change and, to a lesser extent, the effects of the cultural change. This process of reverse globalization, which has emerged during the current decade, is connected with the emergence of a new and influential culinary intermediary, the list of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, as well as with the new gastrodiplomacy conducted by several middle-income economies. Two kinds of effects of this process of reverse globalization are examined: the degree to which the new cuisines have undermined the established culinary hierarchy, particularly the place of French cuisine at its apex; and the cultural and economic impact on chefs’ home countries. The method adopted is qualitative and inductive, and the argument relies on data collected in interviews with twelve chefs/owners of restaurants that have introduced a previously peripheral cuisine to London during the last decade or so.