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Rachel
BLACK

Associate fellow, Anthropology - United States

Contact details

Email.
rblack@conncoll.edu
Personal Website.
https://www.conncoll.edu/directories/faculty-profiles/rachel-black/

Research topics

SCIENTIFIC PROJECT

"Traditions and transformation of French cuisine in Lyon:  the case of immigrant cooks and chefs"

Lyon is center stage for collaboration and exchange between French and foreign culinary professionals, who come from all over the world to train in the city’s culinary schools and restaurants. These foreigners are not only learning about French culinary traditions, they are leaving their mark through their ingredients, techniques and ways of doing that they bring to Lyonnais kitchens.

This research looks at how foreigners are changing French cuisine and what this means for the image of French culinary arts, long seen as a monolith of French culture. Ethnographic research will be used to observe how cultural forms are negotiated in the kitchen and beyond.

Through participant observation, interviews and media analysis, this research investigates how the actors in culinary fields push the boundaries of how French cuisine is defined. This changing cultural identity is an indicator of the plurality of French identities and the place of immigrant cultures in French culture and everyday life. As a long-standing hub of culinary excellence, Lyon is the ideal field site for this research.

 

 

 

Activities / Resume

BIOGRAPHY

 

Rachel E. Black is a professor of Anthropology at Connecticut College. Her research focuses on issues of food and wine in Italian and French culture. Black is the author of Cheffes de Cuisine: Women and Work in the Professional French Kitchen (2021), Porta Palazzo: The Anthropology of an Italian Market  (2012), and co-editor of Wine and Culture: From Vineyard to Glass (2013). Black is currently co-editing a volume on the role of chefs as cultural change makers.