Reimagining recipes for food studies:

Enriching—not spoiling—the broth

Abstract

This perspective is a continuation of a conversation started during “Reimagining Food, Food Systems, and Food Studies,” a plenary session in which we, the authors, participated at the eighteenth annual assembly of the Canadian Association for Food Studies (CAFS). Assessing current opportunities and limitations for food studies in Canada from our perspectives as emerging scholars, the CAFS panel presented our individual and collective proposals for evolving the field. This article builds on the resonances and dissonances from our discussion to craft a provisional “recipe” for reimagining food studies. Recognizing the shortcomings of the format in terms of its prescriptive connotations, we position recipes not as rigid guidelines for achieving predefined outcomes, but as creative models for generating improvisations. We begin with an overview of the ingredients that have come together to create food studies in Canada. Next, we offer some revisions in the margins of this recipe based on the work in which we are engaged as food scholars and practitioners. Finally, we consider next steps for the work of evolving the field, and we invite readers to share in this exchange. Overall, we observe and participate in an unfinished trajectory that extends from previous questions on why food studies should exist and what food studies is, to consider more deeply how food studies could be done.