Many thanks to all who could join us yesterday at Sheffield Hallam University for the Sparkling Symposium, hosted by the CHEFS research cluster and sponsored by Sheffield Business School, Department of Service Sector Management.
The event brought together academics and industry professionals, including wine makers, winery owners, wine retailers and wine writers, to discuss present and future directions of champagne and sparkling wine, with a focus on the British context.
The afternoon began with comments from co-organisers Professor Jennifer Smith Maguire and Dr John Dunning, welcoming 48 participants from across the UK and beyond. The Symposium marked the external launch of the CHEFS (Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society) research cluster, and signalled the group’s commitment to fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration between academics and practitioners with regard to the socio-cultural dimensions of food and drink. What could be a better first topic of discussion than sparkling wine?
Photo credit: James Ellerby
Professor Marion Demossier delivered the first keynote: ‘Critical Reflexions on Terroir,’ in which she explored the questions of ‘What do people do with the notion of terroir?’ and ‘What does terroir do to wine?’ Drawing on 30 years of fieldwork in Burgundy and recent work in New Zealand and the UK, Marion outlined the powerful instruments and strategies that have linked place, taste and quality, and highlighted some of their potential disadvantages, including the homogenization of local cultures and environments, and the loss of authentic connections between people and place.
Rebecca Gibb MW delivered the second keynote: ‘Uncorking the sparkling wine world,’ exploring some of the socio-political struggles and technological advances that underpinned the historical development of champagne. She then provided a critical analysis of the relative successes and failures of other sparkling wines. Drawing comparisons between champagne, cava, prosecco and New Zealand sparkling, Rebecca concluded by outlining some of the key factors for champagne’s enduring market success.
Following a lively question and answer session, and a break for tea, coffee and cake, the Symposium resumed with Jennifer Smith Maguire outlining ‘A changing market context’ for champagne and sparkling wine in the British context. Jennifer discussed four factors that help to understand the increasingly diverse UK sparkling wine market, highlighting changing attitudes of consumers, producers and market gatekeepers such as wine journalists with regard to luxury brands, hierarchies of cultural legitimacy, desires for the hand-crafted and authentic, and a sense of taste for place and novelty.
Photo credit: Helenka Brown
Participants were then treated to an entertaining and educational tasting of four champagnes, led by Rebecca and John. A highly scientific poll of participants revealed a wide spread of favourites, with each wine receiving votes for best in show: à chacun son gout!
Photo credit: Emma Martin
The final major portion of the Symposium was devoted to a panel discussion of the present and future of sparkling wine. The panel included Marion Demossier, Rebecca Gibb, Mr John Mitchell and Dr Gregory Dunn. John, the owner and director of Sheffield’s Mitchells Wines, shared his insights as to the changing tastes of British consumers over his 50 years in the wine and spirits trade as a retailer and wholesaler. Greg reflected on the industry from the perspective of his research, role as the Head of Plumpton College’s Wine Division and experience as the Programme Manager for Plumpton’s MSc Viticulture & Oenology. Greg skilfully chaired the session to ensure ample contributions from the audience of both comments and questions. The panel ended with a final challenge to the panellists, asking for their recommendations as to how best to attract under-30 consumers to English sparkling wine.
After a stimulating afternoon of presentations and discussion—and many rounds of thanks to all involved—the Symposium concluded with a wine and canapé reception. Judging by the volume of conversations in the room, there was plenty of appetite for further discussion.
Thanks once again to all who took part. Until next time!
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;
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’ (28th 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
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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 8th 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 19th 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 7th 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.
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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 12th Conference of the Academy of Wine Business Research will be held in Dijon from the 7th to the 10th 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.
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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.
Diets inextricably link human health and environmental sustainability. Evidence suggests that diets that place the least burden on the planet’s natural resources are also those which have the greatest benefit for human health. Beef cattle and dairy farming globally has a demonstrable detrimental impact on the environment, and finding ways to mitigate environmental risks through modified food consumption has become a key area of study.
In this blog, we discuss the ‘Planetary Health Diet’ launched in early 2019 and introduce our on-going research in the area of consumer attitudes towards sustainable diets. We examine the controversial response from the agricultural and nutrition sectors as well as the media. We also explore UK consumer behaviour in relation to meat and dairy consumption, touching on drivers of meat consumption and barriers to dietary change but also recent market trends. Thinking about the plethora of mainstream media articles reporting on climate change and the need to act now, we ask ourselves: What support is available to those who want to adopt a ‘greener’ diet? What resources would help those struggling to make dietary changes and effectively close the intention-behaviour gap?
If you feel this is of relevance to you, read on!
What do we know so far?
The impact of food systems on the environment
The production of food for human consumption has a significant impact on the environment in which it is produced and on the planet as a whole. It is likely to be the single biggest cause of global environmental change today, with an estimated 20-30% of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions emanating from global food systems. However, not all agricultural food systems are created equal. The environmental impact of cattle rearing and farming are by far the biggest contributors to methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions – the most potent and damaging to the earth’s atmosphere. Efforts to increase food chain efficiency can help mitigate the problem but reducing consumption of GHG-intensive foods, while also meeting health goals, is now seen as key. In this, food consumers have a leading role to play in influencing food production and consumption practices, especially in developed countries where food is abundantly available.
Sustainable diets
The term ‘sustainable diet’ has been coined to describe diets with ‘low environmental impactswhich contribute to food and nutrition security and to healthy life for present and future generations’, thus signalling an inextricable link between environmental sustainability and human health. While food system-related climate change is undoubtedly a great threat to the planet, the fact remains that 821 million people around the world are undernourished, with 770 million experiencing severe food and nutrition insecurity. Worldwide, the picture is one of gross inequalities with meat and dairy consumption disproportionately concentrated in westernised, developed countries. In this respect, sustainable diets become particularly complex when geographical, social and cultural contexts are considered, and healthy diets do not always necessarily equal environmentally sustainable ones. Finding simple solutions to these deeply complex issues is challenging. Nevertheless, attempts have been made to define global diets that are both ‘healthy’ and ‘sustainable’. The ‘Planetary Health Diet’ proposed by the EAT-Lancet Commission in 2019, attempts to synthesise and distil the research of 37 leading scientists from various disciplines, including human health, agriculture, political sciences and environmental sustainability, into simple food-based dietary guidelines for the global population. It is the first report of its kind to attempt to set universal scientific targets. It recommended a major dietary shift towards fruits, vegetables and legumes and away from meat and dairy consumption, which its authors assert will ease pressure on natural systems and avert 10-11 million deaths per year from non-communicable diseases. However, recognising the burden of hunger and undernutrition in many low- and middle-income countries, the Planetary Health Diet focuses primarily on reducing excessive meat consumption in wealthier continents such as Europe, North America and Australia.
The response to the Planetary Health Diet
The Planetary Health Diet has not been universally endorsed. The Sustainable Food Trust said the report fell short due to ‘a fundamental lack of agricultural understanding’ with some of the main dietary recommendations being ‘incompatible with the food production outcomes of truly sustainable farming systems’. The Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board UK said that ‘farming, in particular dairy and red meat…makes best use of naturally occurring assets to feed a growing population’, and that red meat and dairy products are ‘an important nutritional part of a healthy, balanced diet.’ Nevertheless, many applauded its publication and a report by the UK Food, Farming & Countryside Commission recommended moving to a more plant-based diet, encouraging people to ‘buy healthy’ and empowering communities to shape and drive their local food systems in a sustainable way. Despite the mixed reviews that the EAT-Lancet Commission report and its proposed Planetary Health Diet have received in mainstream media, the coverage (BBC, 2019a; BBC 2019b; CNN, 2019; Guardian, 2019; New York Times, 2019) will have raised public awareness of the issue. While it seems unlikely that British consumers will adopt, en masse, a vastly meat- and dairy-reduced diet, the tide does appear to be turning towards different dietary patterns in a nation of increasingly conscientious consumers.
Consumer behaviour in the UK
The relationship between dietary choice and climate change may not be obvious, and scepticism about the link between climate change and dietary choice is widespread. Nevertheless, there appears to be a groundswell of support for reducing of meat and dairy intake amongst the British general public. According to a 2019 YouGov poll, while the vast majority of British consumers (73%) eat meat, 14% report that they are following a ‘flexitarian’ diet, which can be described as semi-vegetarian with only the occasional inclusion of meat or fish. Furthermore, 69% of flexitarians and 26% of meat-eaters who do not currently identify as flexitarians report that they’d like to cut down on the amount of meat they eat. Some research suggests that environmental concerns are generally ranked lowest behind animal welfare and health amongst people considering the benefits of a plant-based diet. However, around 83% of UK adults claim to have recently bought food or drinks with ethical certifications, with 38% citing environmental concerns as the primary reason for doing so.
Retail data too show that consumer purchasing habits in the UK are changing, and that meat and dairy substitutes are increasingly popular amongst both vegetarians and active meat-reducers, perceived as both healthy and easy to prepare by adopters. This is something that Quorn, the market-leader in the meat-substitute market, has capitalised on with a new ‘healthy protein, healthy planet’ campaign in 2019, targeting consumers who care about both the health and sustainability agendas. Provision of dairy-reduction information and campaign messages in the UK come predominantly from not-for-profit groups such as Veganuary and the Vegan Society. Campaigns such as ‘Plate up for the Planet – eat to save the world’ position themselves as campaigns for sustainable diets with a strong focus on environmental issues and animal welfare. However, we lack research on how peoples’ intentions and actual behaviours are influenced as a result.
Barriers to closing the intention-behaviour gap for dietary change
There appears to be growing acceptability and accessibility for meat- and dairy-reduced products. Yet, significant barriers exist, even for those motivated to move towards a more sustainable diet. Closing the intention-behaviour gap for dietary change—which is central to individual and planetary health—requires a better understanding of the socio-cultural contexts of individuals’ dietary behaviours. Meat attachment is deeply entrenched in western societies, driven by the historical, social and cultural importance of eating meat. Far from being a result of purely rational decision-making, human behaviour is the result of an intricate interplay between habits, automatic responses to the environment, conscious choice and calculation, and the influence of complex social and cultural values. Thus, an individual may fully intend to reduce meat and dairy consumption yet find themselves unable or unwilling in practice to make the necessary changes.
As such, closing the intention-behaviour gap doesn’t just require a better understanding of intentions and behaviours; it requires better forms of support to enable people to enact dietary changes that support sustainability. Unlike with other positive behaviour changes, there is currently no easily accessible support mechanism for people wishing to reduce meat and dairy intake. This is where our research comes in. We are currently working to identify factors that can influence the reduction of meat and dairy intake, and the mechanisms that would best support individuals and empower them to effect sustainable dietary changes.
How you can help
We are carrying out research on sustainable diets, and you can get involved. We have developed a baseline survey to try and model attitudes and behaviours towards sustainable diets based on elements of the Theory of Planned Behaviour as well as the Self-Determination Theory. Beyond this, we are also piloting small scale interventions aiming to support behaviour change in people who wish to reduce their meat and dairy intake. The data acquisition part of this project will be live until August 2020. You can get involved by filling in our survey or contacting the principal investigator: Dr Cecile Morris (cecile.morris@shu.ac.uk).
About the authors:
This blog is based on MSc research (‘Sustainable Diets: Closing the Intention—Behaviour Gap’) by Ms Kate Platts (Katharine.platts@shu.ac.uk), under the supervision of Dr Cecile Morris (Cecile.Morris@shu.ac.uk) in the Department of Service Sector Management, Sheffield Business School of Sheffield Hallam University.
Elmar* is an organic winemaker. His winery is about an hour’s drive from Cape Town in South Africa, at the end of a steep, rutted dirt track, which itself branches off from a small unpaved road. I feel as if I’ve left the rest of the world behind as I drive to meet him for our interview. His vineyards—2 hectares of which are planted with cabernet sauvignon vines—are incredibly verdant. He tells me that it’s a radically different scene from when he first bought the farm twenty-five years. Then, the land was denuded, and the soil was “dead;” now, every square inch is teeming with life and the ground feels springy under our feet.
Elmar is a small-scale producer, making only about 8,000 bottles a year of his award-winning wine. Working in alignment with organic methods means he can “feel good” about what he does. However, he tells me:
There’s a flipside to every coin. Your crops go down, you don’t get the same volumes, and I don’t believe the premium that you get on your product balances the reduction in the crops. So, economically, it makes more sense to farm conventionally.
For many of us, wine is simply a matter of consumption, leisure and pleasure. However, wine is also a livelihood. The costs and benefits that follow from Elmar’s decisions about his production methods inform the daily realities of being able to feed and house his family and pay the bills. So, if conventional methods make “more sense,” why work organically? He says:
Because it’s sustainable. You can carry on doing this. Whereas the other way…the day of reckoning is going to come.
And would he consider scaling up his production to meet the potential demand for his award-winning wines? He answers without hesitation:
No. I am making a living, and there’s absolutely no need to go bigger at all. […] The bigger you go, the more people you need to employ, the more marketing you need to do, the more managers you need. And you know, all of those come with their costs. And in the end, what’s it that you take home?
On two fronts, therefore, Elmar is doing things differently. He uses organic rather than conventional farming practices, and his business orientation runs counter to the usual pursuit of profit, growth and market expansion. Nevertheless, his orientation to wine production is absolutely in line with the established culture of fine wine. As he says:
We’re not making wine that is the same as everybody else’s wine. We’re trying to…express place that’s unique. And the wines that you taste here will not taste like anybody else’s wine.
In the terminology of the wine world, Elmar is talking about expressing the terroir of his wines: the idea of a unique link between the place and culture of production (e.g. soil, climate, topography, heritage) and the resulting wine.
Over the past ten years, I have interviewed a range of winemakers in South Africa, France and Australia. Some of them (like Elmar) identify as ‘organic,’ others as ‘biodynamic’ or ‘natural.’ Regardless of their chosen label, they share a focus on making wines with minimal or no chemical and mechanical interventions. This tends to mean making wine from grapes grown without synthetic chemical pesticides or fertilizers and harvested by hand, using wild yeasts and little or no added sulphur. Thus, although the term ‘natural wine’ may be contentious in the wine trade, it nevertheless signals what these winemakers have in common: an attempt to work in concert with nature, in the vineyard and cellar. They also share a focus on making wines that express their place, or terroir. For Elmar, this goes hand-in-hand with working in sustainable ways; for most, sustainability is a happy consequence of their desire to give the purest representation of their unique place through their wines.
I discussed what we might learn from ‘natural’ winemakers in a SHU public lecture on Taste, Place and Why They Matter. In that lecture, I suggested how their shared commitment to expressing their terroir—what Amy Trubeck calls the ‘taste of place’—guided them in making wine, but also enabled them to do things differently. In a myriad of ways—including rejecting agro-chemicals, prioritizing lower yields, hand picking, and adapting earlier eras’ (nearly extinct) agricultural techniques—their practices differ sharply from the conventional methods of the global industrial agri-food regime. More so, their commitment to terroir was expressed not just in their wine but also through a long-term commitment to, and collaboration with the land and the vines: an alternative to the conventional quest for dominion over natural resources. The ‘normal’ methods of agri-food production, and dominant view of nature as a resource to be exploited have led to crises of food insecurity, land degradation, toxic agricultural working conditions, and threats to biodiversity. It is therefore critical that we understand how some producers come to adopt alternative methods, and how that might help to pave the way for today’s alternatives to become the environmentally-sustainable conventions of the future.
About the author:
Jennifer Smith Maguire is Professor of Cultural Production and Consumption in Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University. Her research focuses on the construction of markets, tastes and value, primarily in relation to food and wine.
“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.’
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.
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.
CHEFS research was well represented at the 2019 Sheffield Hallam Creating Knowledge conference on June 17th 2019, with:
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.” [Tabari CK conference June 2019]
Jennifer Smith Maguire “Making tastes, making markets: Thinking about the role of cultural intermediaries in building a fine wine consumption culture in China.” [Smith Maguire CK conference June 2019]
The CHEFS (Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society) research cluster marked its launch with two events on Wednesday 15 May.
A day-long workshop with colleagues from across SHU faculties identified five thematic areas to capture our shared research interests and expertise:
Food + processes of cultural production and representation
Food + cultural practices and identities
Food + inequality and social stratification
Food + institutional setting
Food + place, development and sustainability
In addition, we developed a programme of cluster activities for the coming year.
The workshop was followed by a networking event with a wider group of colleagues with food-related interests, at which we shared the outcomes of the workshop, and invited further engagement and contributions.
Thanks to the financial support from the CKIP research clusters fund, the participants, and especial thanks to Ruth Knight, Jason Tompkin and the fabulous specialist facilities team for enhancing our day!
