Category Archives: research

What’s Cooking is a bi-monthly update on all things related to CHEFS: the Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society research cluster at Sheffield Hallam University. What’s been cooking since our last edition?

Our research blog has launched! Be sure to check out our first blogs:

• Kate Platts and Cecile Morris on barriers to the adoption of sustainable diets and an invitation to take part in their survey research;
• Joanna Reynolds on community engagement in alcohol decision-making in England;
• Jennifer Smith Maguire on wine, terroir and doing things differently.

If you’re interested in writing a future blog, please let Jen know (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk).

Later this month, we’re looking forward to the CHEFS ‘Sparkling Symposium’ (28^th November), which focuses on the present and future of champagne and sparkling wine, particularly in the context of the UK market. The event is supported by Sheffield Business School Department of Service Sector Management, and organised by John Dunning and Jennifer Smith Maguire. More info here. The event is fully booked, but there is a waiting list (register here), if further spots open up through cancellations. Hope to see some of you there! Full event information on the CHEFS home page.

In the remainder of this November 2019 edition:

• An update on CHEFS member activities
• A list of recent call for papers and event/conference announcements.
• Call for content for the January 2020 edition of What’s Cooking.

Cheers, Jen

****************************

Member Updates 

Lucie Nield has been working with a group from SHU (H&W and SBS) and UoS, amongst others, to produce an NIHR grant submission that explores protein intakes in older adults in residential care homes. Lucie attended the briefing session in Manchester on 8^th October and the group are currently working towards a Stage 1 application for submission in January 2020. The research aims to deliver novel insights and formulate an intervention into best practice regarding protein provision in this unique and understudied group. The research will consist of 3 arms: 1) Literature Review, 2) Observation of feeding processes and behaviours, 3) Co-production of an intervention.

Lucie Nield has also been working with James Ellerby are part of the steering group for ShefFood—a city-wide food partnership that’s working towards building a sustainable local food system. Earlier this month, some members met to review the outcomes from this summer’s public consultation event, held as part of the Sheffield Food Festival. The steering group (pictured with the ShefFood logo!) currently includes a cross-section of organisations with representatives from Food Works, Regather, Heeley City Farm, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University and the Food Cities programme, run by the Soil Association. To find out how you can support or get involved with ShefFood, you can email the team at info@sheffood.org.uk or follow their news on twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

 

Rachael Colley’s research brings together jewellery, created predominantly using food waste, and ambiguous artefacts for eating. Rachael has had some of her pieces featured in ‘The Experimental Eater’ article in the current issue (issue 3) of Design Anthology UK. Cutlery Combs and for-K-andles could be described as challenging, playful and disgusting. Initial pieces from this series were originally designed and created to feature in Ambiguous Implements, an Arts Council England funded national touring exhibition that she coordinated in collaboration with Feast journal editor Laura Mansfield during 2017-18. The artefacts cross-reference bodily tools for grooming and dining, with the aim of forming abject associations that tread the line between playfulness and underlying feelings of disgust. The pieces re-purpose stainless steel forks and fork handles – predominantly obtained from the Sheffield cutlery industry, but also from Ebay and charity shops – which are then soldered to formed mild steel comb frames and powder-coated. These pieces have recently featured in Steinbeisser’s Experimental Gastronomy events in Amsterdam, which is the subject of ‘The Experimental Eater’ article published in the current issue of Design Anthology UK. You can find out more about her work here. (Photo credit Kathrin Koschitzki)

Caroline Westwood has been invited to speak at the Association of Show and Agricultural Organisations (ASAO) Annual Conference this month, which brings together approximately 200 of the show directors/show managers from around the UK.

Caroline Millman hosted food teachers on 19^th September, as part of the SHU Food Teachers Network, bringing together teachers from 15 secondary schools and members of the SBS Food and Hospitality subject groups. The teachers were introduced to Sheffield Hallam and what we can offer their students and schools. In turn, they told us how we could support schools/teachers. It was great to see the teachers forming peer connections and demonstrating how we can help support the local students/teachers find a route through food teaching, whether that be to the food industry or into hospitality. The SHU Food Teachers Network was created through Connecting Professional Practice seed-corn funding, in order to forge links supporting targeted research in secondary school food departments, and promote Sheffield Hallam as a destination for students. Despite the erosion of school food departments, secondary food teachers remain an important route into schools. It is this diminishing school food resource that was the focus of previous research on the food safety awareness of pupils, leading to the creation of foodbugclub.net. Since the introduction of a new GCSE curriculum, a review of this research is timely, along with an investigation into the career pathways of students into higher education food courses. The next teacher-led meeting will take place on 7^th November. (Photo credit Jenny Paxman)

Jennifer Smith Maguire published ‘Natural wine and the globalization of a taste for provenance’ as a chapter in The Globalization of Wine (Bloomsbury). The chapter draws from interviews with natural wine makers and cultural intermediaries, and an analysis of fine wine media, to explore how natural wine’s global expansion and increasing legitimacy over the past 10 years have hinged on the ways in which its material and symbolic properties offer points of attachment for the legitimacy frames associated with terroir, authenticity and good taste. The case of natural wine suggests the potentially powerful role of provenance as a market-making device. Jen is also a co-editor of The Handbook of Wine and Culture, a major interdisciplinary collection that has just been commissioned by Routledge. A call for chapter contributions will be forthcoming!

Margo Barker has recently been invited to be Associate Editor of the open access journal, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. There is a potential special issue call coming in 2020 on food choice, which will be circulated via the CHEFS newsletter and other platforms. In addition, Margo recently published a paper in International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice on B Vitamins and progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

****************************

Call For Papers/Conference and Event Announcements

CFP: European Institute for the History of Cultures of Food, 4-5 June 2020. Abstract deadline, 15 November 2019.
The European Institute for the History & Cultures of Food invites proposals for panels and individual papers at the ‘Sixth International Convention on Food and Drink Studies‘ to be held at Tours in France on 4-5 June 2020. Submissions are due by 15 November 2019. If you have any questions/ideas or need a session moderator, please contact DSN/IEHCA member Beat Kümin (b.kumin@warwick.ac.uk).

CFP: Wine Active Compounds (WAC2020) conference, Burgundy, 15-17 April 2020. Abstract deadline, 29 November 2019.
The Wine Active Compound (WAC) conference aims to address concepts of activity or inactivity of wine compounds, their impact including vineyard practices, winemaking processes and sensory perceptions of professionals and consumers. One of the main tracks of the conference is ‘Sensory Perceptions of Professionals and Consumers.’ Abstracts deadline: 29 November 2019. For further information, submission details and all conference information, go to: https://ubwac.com/.

CFP: Academy of Wine Business Research (AWBR) conference, Burgundy, 7-10 July 2020. Abstract deadline, 30 November 2019.
The 12^th Conference of the Academy of Wine Business Research will be held in Dijon from the 7^th to the 10^th July 2020, hosted by the School of Wine & Spirits Business of Burgundy School of Business. Tracks are intended for wine, as well as cider, spirits and beer and contributions are encouraged in these areas. Information on submissions to the three streams (competitive papers, extended abstracts, ‘big picture’ papers) can be found here, including the submission template. A special issue of the International Journal of Wine Business Research is intended, to feature the best papers from the conference. For all communications please email: awbr2020@bsb-education.com.

Drinking Studies Network Identities and Diversity Cluster Workshop: 12 December 2019, University of Leicester
The Drinking Studies Network (DSN) is an interdisciplinary network connecting researchers of drink and drinking cultures. One of the DSN clusters, “Identities and Diversity,” is hosting a workshop on “Excess, Moderation and Sobriety: Identities and Diversity in Drinking Studies,” to take place at College Court, University of Leicester, on 12 December 2019. All are welcome to attend. If you’d like to know more, or to join the Identities and Diversity Cluster within the Network, please email Deborah Toner (dt151@le.ac.uk).

CFP: Cultures of Intoxication: Contextualising Alcohol & Drug Use, Past & Present, Humanities Institute, University College Dublin, Ireland, 7-8 February 2020. Abstract deadline, 6 December 2019.
This conference will focus on the cultural meanings and contexts of alcohol and drug use, both past and present. It aims to assess how cultural norms and stereotypes around alcohol and drug use shape policies, practices, treatment and users’ experiences and behaviour. In particular, it seeks to consider how and why those of certain ethnicity, race, religion, gender, sexuality and socio-economic background are deemed prone to excess while others are supposedly abstemious. Abstracts of no more than 250 words, along with a short speaker bio, should be submitted to the conference organiser, Dr Alice Mauger <alice.mauger@ucd.ie> by Friday, 6 December 2019. Panel submissions are also welcome.

CFP: Annual Council for Hospitality Management Education (CHME), 13-15 May 2020. Abstract deadline, 15 January 2020. Sheffield Hallam University will be hosting the 29th Annual Council for Hospitality Management Education (CHME) conference, which includes a Food, Drink and Society Track. Submitted full papers are due 15 January 2020, should be approximately 1500 words, and will be subject to double blind peer review. The call for submissions is here and further information is on the conference website. To contact the conference organizers, email: chmeconf2020@shu.ac.uk.

Advance notice: DSN@10 Conference – save the date – 14-15 November 2020, College Court, University of Leicester
The Drinking Studies Network will host their conference, 14-15 November 2020.

****************************

Call for content for the next edition of What’s Cooking

The next edition of What’s Cooking will be January 2020. Please send content (updates up to 200 words; and relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to j.smith1@shu.ac.uk by Monday 6 January (slightly late publishing date due to the holiday season!).

Want to stay updated? Follow us on Twitter (@SHU_CHEFS), subscribe to the blog and/or join our Jisc email list: see information on the very bottom of each CHEFS webpage.

“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 9^th 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.