Anatomy of our gastronomy - Village Magazine

VILLAGEAugust/September 

OME Village readers may regard even

the subject of gastronomy as a form

of gluttonous indulgence. While they

may protest that it simply isn’t politics they

should also be aware that they are reﬂecting

a long-standing Catholic view of such aﬀairs:

the Sin of Gluttony included both excessive

consumption and even restrained gustatory

celebration. Only after  did the pio-

neers of gastronomy, Grimod de la Reyniere

and Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, distin-

guish the two.

For reasons that include a dominant

Catholicism, as well as the trauma of the

Famine and the absence of a native aristoc-

racy, an indigenous gastronomic culture

only began to emerge in Ireland in the

s. Previously, vestiges of the fading

Protestant Ascendancy devoured anything

with a French imprimatur, favouring legen-

dary haute cuisine restaurants like Jammet’s

which was so expensive that when John

Lennon signed the guest book he cheekily

claimed the other Beatles were saving up

for a meal.

The advent of a ‘foodie’ culture in Ireland

in the s brought gastronomy in to the

mainstream. Often it is an extension of

a pernicious consumerism where choice

(especially in restaurants) and knowledge

of food is seen as a marker of social class:

‘oh my gosh, he doesn’t seem to know what

carpaccio is’.

But gastronomy is broad, including not

just the taste and appearance of food, but

also its impact on the environment and other

animals, and its eﬀect on human health.

‘Tickling The Palate’ is a timely analy-

sis of Irish food culture, and its deﬁnition

of gastronomy encompasses a great deal,

including analysis of food at both an elite

level and among the working class, as well

as its role in Irish literature, and our sacra-

mental relationship with

alcohol. A few authors

attempt to glamourise

Irish food despite what

seems a dysfunctional

relationship: the Irish are

set to become the fattest

nation in Europe. There

is also no examination of

Irish agriculture and its

appalling environmen-

tal impact. Also missing

is any exploration of the

relationship between

humans and non-human

animals, apart from as

food to be devoured.

The foreword by Darra

Goldstein sets a rather

too reverential tone:

“While lacking the variety and reﬁnements

of cuisines from countries where both cli-

mate and politics were more conducive to

developing a rich food culture, Ireland nev-

ertheless sings with brilliant ﬂavours based

on the food of poverty and the preparations

of necessity”.

The book contains a number of chapters

which draw on literature

as useful source mate-

rial. Flicka Small analyses

James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’,

in particular Leopold

Bloom’s eccentric appe-

tites. Bloom advises the

reader that to “know

me come eat with me”.

Between helpings of

kidneys and gorgon-

zola cheese he “wonders

whether a vegetarian’s

brain patterns are diﬀer-

ent to a meat eater’s” and

concludes that unless

you eat “weggiebobbles

and fruit”, “the eyes of

the cow will pursue you

through all eternity”.

In Eamon Maher’s examination of John

McGahern’s ‘Amongst Women’ we ﬁnd what

might still be an example of a meal for a

favoured guest in rural Ireland:

‘”The girls had the freshly cut bread, but-

ter and milk on the table. The lamb chops

sizzled as they were dropped into the big

Anatomy of our

gastronomy

Timely and wide-ranging if a little glamourising.

Review by Frank Armstrong

Tickling the Palate: Gastronomy in

Irish Literature and Culture

Reimagining Ireland Vol. 57

Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire and

Eamon Maher (eds)

Peter Lang

Bern, 2014

expensive

CULTURE

BOOK REVIEW