“What’s Cooking?” is a bi-monthly update on all things related to CHEFS. In this inaugural edition: news of CHEFS members who have been busy presenting at conferences in the UK and abroad, submitting grant applications, running workshops, writing journal papers, and developing research projects and networks.
I’m very pleased to report that there are now tangible outcomes as a result of our fantastic discussions at the June CHEFS café event, regarding how to raise our visibility. Thanks to Jason Ruffell’s design expertise, we now have a logo, promotional postcards, and pop-up banners. Please let me know if you’re in need of the banners for a CHEFS-related event, and/or the postcards to distribute to your networks.
To look forward to: our first research blog will be out shortly, and plans are shaping up for two CHEFS events for the coming year, one focused on the cultures and markets of sparkling wine (November) and one focused on place making, community and brewing (January). Specific dates and details will be circulated in the near future.
Cheers, Jen
Please send your updates (up to 200 words) of what you’re up to for the November “What’s Cooking?” edition (to j.smith1@shu.ac.uk) by the 28th of October.
Member Updates (in the order they were received!)
Di Dean, Katie Dunn, Pallavi Singh and Wei Chen have submitted an expression of interest to Leverhulme for a project on ‘Intergenerational Attitudes Towards Household Food Waste: A Cross Cultural Perspective.’
CHEFS was well represented at the June CK conference, with presentations from Saloomeh Tabari, David Egan and Helen Egan (The ‘third place’ role of the café in people’s lives: A comparison of the Islamic café to the Western café); Cecile Morris, Peter Schofield and Craig Hirst (Attitudes towards breastfeeding in public); and Jennifer Smith Maguire (Making tastes, making markets: Thinking about the role of cultural intermediaries in building a fine wine consumption culture in China). You can find their presentations on the CHEFS blog site, via the linked titles above.
In addition to a presentation at the CK conference, Jennifer Smith Maguire presented her research on cultural intermediaries and their role in making a fine wine culture in China at the University of Toronto (hosted by the Department of Sociology and the Culinaria Research Centre) and in Hong Kong, at the International Conference on Wine Markets and Cultures of Consumption—Asia’s first academic Asian wine conference. On the back of the Hong Kong conference, she’s been invited to join the International Partners’ Research Network of the UNESCO Chair for Culture and Traditions of Wine (hosted by the University of Burgundy). Working with colleagues from the University of Leicester and University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Jen submitted a £600k+ application to the AHRC in May, for a three country comparative study of agri-food heritage in developing economies; the application was ultimately unsuccessful. Jen is now developing a bid with a colleague at Lancaster University Management School on sustainability, innovation and food/drink SMEs, which will be submitted to the recently launched Research and Capacity Building Grant Scheme of the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and the British Academy of Management.
Congratulations to John Dunning, who has recently successfully completed the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Diploma in Wines and Spirits (DipWSET). This involved over two years of study with extensive theory and blind tasting examinations; there are just over nine thousand people in the world with this qualification.
John Dunning and Jay Idris have been running several workshops with staff at the Oisoi Restaurant Group. The workshops are focused on Customer (Guest) Service and Cultural Awareness. Following the initial success of these sessions, there are plans for further training on service and also wine knowledge. It is intended that, given the wider development of Chinese investment and business in Sheffield (in particular the Sheffield China Town and China UK Business Incubator, CUBI) to extend the sessions to the wider restaurant business community.
Continuing with the engagement with Chinese culture, food and society, John Dunning and Jennifer Smith Maguire are developing a research project focused on the role of wine within cultural gifting practices and norms, looking specifically at the Chinese business community in Sheffield.
Richard Telling hosted a workshop focusing on the Sociology of Family Business at SHU in May. The workshop, delivered in partnership with the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE), saw Richard deliver one of the keynotes, which focused on his research on adolescent work within the context of family catering businesses. This research project was also presented at the Council of Hospitality Management Education (CHME) conference at the University of Greenwich and has since been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal in the field of hospitality management. He and co-author, Emma Martin, are currently in the process of making revisions to the paper before resubmitting in September.
Anna Stalmirska attended the 9th Advances in Hospitality and Tourism Marketing and Management Conference (9-12 July 2019), hosted in Portsmouth and organised by the University of Portsmouth and Washington State University, and presented a paper: “Food in destination marketing: the issue of ‘local’”. The conference provided a unique forum for attendees from academia, industry, and other organisations to actively exchange, share, and challenge state-of-the-art research and industrial case studies on hospitality and tourism marketing and management. The conference programme showcased the complexity of tourism marketing and management issues, including health and safety issues in tourism and hospitality; health, medical, and wellness tourism; hospitality and tourism product development; food tourism and food tourism marketing; consumer behaviour in tourism and hospitality settings. Anna’s paper was well received by the audience and inspired questions and debate. She received great feedback and was approached to work on joint future research. She also took the opportunity to visit the beautiful city of Portsmouth and its beautiful harbour!
Joanna Reynolds is part of a new collaboration with members of the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research (CAPR) at La Trobe University, Melbourne. Established under the new SHU-La Trobe strategic partnership, the collaboration will explore opportunities for shared learning between Australia and the UK around engaging alcohol licensing processes to protect and promote public health. Joanna will visit La Trobe later this year to co-facilitate a workshop with licensing stakeholders and practitioners and to develop plans with CAPR for a joint programme of research.
Margo Barker and Anna Sorsby recently augmented their cross-cultural dataset on meat attachment with data collection in UK adults and Hong Kong students. These additions extend a study of meat attachment in student cohorts from the UK, Hungary and Nigeria. The data will be used as the basis of an article that explores relationships between meat attachment and willingness to embrace a meat-free diet.
Margo also published a paper, Exploring the relationship between environmental impact and nutrient content of sandwiches and beverages available in cafés in a UK university, in the area of food and sustainability. The study used a combined index of water use and greenhouse gas emissions to assess the sustainability of university canteen food in relation to its nutrient profile.
Norman Dinsdale attended the “Food and Society” International Conference on Culinary Arts and Sciences (ICCAS) at Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales in June, and presented a paper: “Meeting the Challenges of Care Home Catering for People Living with Dementia: The Sex ‘n’ Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll Generation.” ICCAS was founded in 1993 by the Worshipful Company of Cooks of London as a forum for culinary artists and scientists from academia and industry to present their work and share ideas. ICCAS is the only international conference that brings together the two sides of the international food industry: food sciences and food services. The Worshipful Company of Cooks of London is one of the oldest and smallest London Livery Companies and can trace its origins back to the 12th century. The Company was initially responsible for controlling all the catering within the City of London, the ‘Square Mile’. The Company’s purpose nowadays is to contribute as effectively as it can to the pursuit of a good society, through supporting the craft of cooking. A conference gala dinner was held at the Park House Restaurant in conjunction with The Clink Charity. The Clink Charity’s sole aim is to reduce the reoffending rates of ex-offenders by training prisoners and placing graduates into employment in the hospitality and horticulture industries upon release. The charity works in partnership with Her Majesty’s Prison Service to run various projects within prisons: four restaurants, two horticultural garden schemes and a catering scheme. The conference proceedings can be seen here.
Please send your updates (up to 200 words) of what you’re up to for the November “What’s Cooking?” edition (to j.smith1@shu.ac.uk) by the 28th of October.