Gastronomy and Food History

Ozge SAMANCI

 

In today's Turkey, food occupies a wide place in both visual and print media as a highly fashionable subject. Cookbooks await their readers by presenting a colorful world on the shelves of bookstores. Food is one of the most popular topics covered in television programs. Food-related news, restaurant promotions, recipes occupy a very important place in the media. This new, popular existence that food covers in daily life is not unique to Turkey; In Europe, and especially in the United States, food is an extremely popular topic in the visual and print media, as well as in broadcasting. According to studies conducted in the USA, the time spent on cooking at home has decreased by half compared to the 1960s. 

 

On the other hand, talking about food, watching television programs, following food-related publications, going to fashionable restaurants is increasing day by day. Fast lifestyles, which are one of the inevitable consequences of modern life, and changing consumption habits along with it, have reduced the time allocated today compared to the past to prepare, cook and even consume food. But in fact, food is indispensable for human beings as it is a necessity, a source of pleasure and a cultural act, and it is important for that reason alone. 

 

Maybe for this reason, while the time spent preparing the food has decreased, the time spent watching the food has increased (Pollan 2013). We exist in modern life without breaking our bond with food. 

 

This wide media of the food world we live in also presents new concepts with references to the historical past and geography of food: world cuisines, regional cuisines, ethnic cuisines, Ottoman cuisine , Anatolian cuisine, New Anatolian cuisine. Concepts such as gastronomy, food history and food communication are among the innovations that have entered our daily lives in the last twenty years. What does the history of food, which is perceived and used with a more popular discourse, really mean among these new concepts? Where does the history of food stand among the increasing number of academic and popular publications on food culture in Turkey?

 

Food history is a field of cultural history, which is written with an objective point of view with written and visual documents, and is fed by other disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, and folklore. Food consumption history studies, which started as a part of economic and quantitative history studies in Europe, have now gained an understanding that focuses on food from a much broader perspective and now has an autonomous structure (Scholliers 2012). Academic studies in the field of food history in the world are increasing day by day. 

 

In addition to academic and popular publications in this field, many symposiums and colloquiums are organized. Institutes that host studies in this field, such as the European Institute of Food Culture and History (IEHCA) (2003), have been opened. In addition, many doctoral thesis studies are carried out. In recent years, it is possible to evaluate the main subjects of studies in the field of food history in the world as foodstuffs and products, culinary cultures and the history of food. Food history is also a part of cultural food studies, defined as food studies in the United States. 

 

Global, which started its publication life in 2015, which includes only the field of food history, is among the academic journals such as Food & History, which started its publication life in 2003, and which have been published in the field of food history since 2004, and which include food culture studies with an interdisciplinary perspective since 2004. Added Food History magazine. Gastronomica magazine, which has been dealing with the field of food culture both academically and popularly since 2001, is an important periodical that includes studies on food history in the field. In Turkey, the magazine Food and Culture, which started its publication life in 2005, is about food culture.It has filled an important gap needed in Turkey by being a journal that deals with the nude academically and popularly from an interdisciplinary perspective. In the last ten years, many original studies and translated articles have been published in the journal on the field of food history.

 

The field of food history in Turkey is not yet a fully conceptualized field. Academic studies in this field are much less compared to the rest of the world. Because the history of food is not academically a subject in history master's and doctorate programs in Turkey yet. It is only covered as part of courses in cultural history and social history. In addition, it is an introductory course in undergraduate or graduate programs such as Gastronomy Concepts gastronomy and culinary arts. Academic studies in the field of food history are studies that require a certain infrastructure and effort. 

 

In Turkey, the history of food mostly includes popular studies that are reproduced by summarizing or restating the existing or uncovered information, findings. For this reason, it is often confused with food storytelling studies, which are written with a romantic discourse without being based on solid foundations (Samancı 2013). 

 

In fact, food history studies, written in a popular language, are very valuable because they reach large masses. There are many examples of these publications in the world, but since there are not enough scientific studies in areas such as Ottoman food culture and Anatolian culinary history and translations on general food history in Turkey, popular food history studies are often insufficient. 

 

The sine qua non of original studies in the field of food history should be the use of primary sources. Archival documents, cookbooks, cookbooks , memoirs, travelogues, menus, cookbooks, kitchen accounting records and visual documents that have not yet come to light are examples of primary sources. In the last ten years, some studies in the field of international food history have been translated in Turkey (Freedman 2008; Dalby 2014). However, these gratifying copyright publications constitute a very small percentage of the food history studies done in the world.

 

Studies on the history of food in Turkey, as in Europe, first started as a part of the history of economics with a quantitative approach to food, with the influence of the Annales school, starting from the 1950s (Samancı 2012). Source studies, which are important for food history studies on Ottoman geography and Turkey, started in the 1980s. The studies of Günay Kut and Turgut Kut led to these studies in the field of Turcology (G. Kut 1986; G. Kut 1988; T. Kut 1988). 

 

Qualitative studies with a socio-cultural perspective on food culture studies about Ottoman geography and Turkey have gained momentum since the 2000s. As one of the pioneering studies in this field that deals with the food culture as a whole historically, the article written by Halil İnalcık for the Encyclopedia of Islam in 1991 should be mentioned (İnalcık 1991). 

 

Bringing a new perspective to the studies of cultural history, Suraiya Faroqhi edited together with Christoph Neumann, titled Our Table Nur Hanemiz Mamur, which included the articles presented at a symposium held at Boğaziçi University in 1996, was first published in English in 2003 and translated into Turkish in 2006. This book contains many original studies on the field of Ottoman food history (Faroqhi 2003).

 

Among the first studies carried out with a qualitative approach in the field of Ottoman food history, Tülay Artan's research on the consumption habits of the 18th century Ottoman palace elite in luxury foods, basic foodstuffs, the increase in olive oil consumption, and the separation of the palace cuisine from the public cuisine in the 18th century in terms of quality, not quantity. We can count the article that he discussed in the title of themes such as. 

 

The translation of this article was published in the Journal of Food and Culture in 2006 (Artan 2000). Arif Bilgin, known for his work Ottoman Palace Cuisine , published in 2004, which deals in detail with the subsistence system of the classical period of the Ottoman palace cuisine between the 15th and 18th centuries, the supply of necessary foodstuffs for the palace and the matbah-ı amire system, which is an important organization in the palace, He has contributed significantly to Ottoman food history studies with his other studies in the last ten years (Bilgin 2004; 2010). 

 

The Turkish Cuisine book, co-edited by Bilgin and the author of this article, was published by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2008. The book is a comprehensive study that draws a broad framework for Ottoman food history research (Bilgin and Samancı 2008). Two historians contributed significantly to the organization of the Turkish Culinary Culture Symposium at Bilecik University in 2010 and edited the symposium book published in 2012 (Samancı and Bilgin 2010).

 

Another symposium that makes an important contribution to the field of food history is the study titled “There is History in Food: Economy, Politics and Culture” organized by Bilkent University history department and history society in 2010. The proceedings of this symposium were published in 2013 (Avcı Erkoç 2013). Among the qualitative studies in the field of Ottoman food history, there is a study published in Princeton in 2011, edited by Amy Singer, who is known for her research on the soup kitchen system in the Ottoman Empire, and translated into Turkish in 2015 with the title " Philanthropy in the Ottoman Empire: Ottoman History from the Kitchen Window". takes (Singer 2015). 

 

The author of this article has published many publications in Turkish and English since 2003 on 19th century Istanbul and Ottoman palace cuisine . Finally, his book titled 19th century Istanbul cuisine (La cuisine d'Istanbul au 19e siecle) was published in French in 2015 (Samancı 2015).

 

When we look at the studies carried out with different approaches in the field of food history in Turkey in the last decade, it is seen that the studies on the history of food in the Ottoman geography are mostly related to the Ottoman palace cuisine culture and the capital Istanbul. The reason for this is that accessible archive documents and old cookbooks are mostly related to Istanbul and Ottoman palace culinary culture . In addition, the academic recognition of the history of food in Turkey is another reason. 

 

In the field of food history, researching the histories of regionally different cuisines in the Ottoman geography, examining and comparing the culinary habits of different religious communities living under the roof of the empire, discussing the evolving and changing food consumption habits in Turkey from the early Republican period to the present with oral history methodology and written documents; Finally, researching the history of foodstuffs, cooking techniques, and beliefs about food specific to the geography of Turkey is among the subjects of food history studies to be conducted in the coming years. 

 

These studies, which will be carried out with a scientific approach, will enable us to question the cracked studies on the ground that are still published and published, and will enable us to reach the necessary infrastructure information in the field of gastronomy in order to keep the Turkish culinary culture alive.

 

REFERENCES

Artan, T. (2000). Aspects of the Ottoman Elite's Food Consumption: Looking for “Staples, “Luxuries” and “Delicacies” in a Changing Century”, In; D. Quataert (Editor), Consumption Studies and the History of the Ottoman Empire 1550-1922 (pp. 107-201). New York: State University of New York Press.

Avcı, A., Erkoç, S. and Otman, E. (joy) (2013). There is History in Food Culture and Historiography of Food (prep.). Istanbul: History Foundation Yurt Publishing.

Bilgin, A. (2004). Ottoman Palace Cuisine. Istanbul: Bookstore Publications.

Bilgin, A. and Samancı, Ö. (2008). Turkish cuisine. Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications.

Dalby, A. (2004). Taste of Byzantium. Istanbul: Alfa Publications.

Faroqhi, S. and Neumann, C. (2003). The Illuminated Table, the Prosperous House Food and Shelter in Ottoman Material Culture. Wurzburg: Ergon Verlag.

Freedman, P. (2008). Food: History of Taste (trans. N. Elhüseyni), Istanbul: Oğlak Publications.

İnalcik, H. (1991). “Matbakh”, l'Encylopédie de l'Islam, New Edition, VI: 807-815.

Kut, G. (1988). On the Dishes Added to the Translation of the Cookbook by Şirvani, I. International Food Congress, Ankara.

Kut, G. (1986). Et-Terkibat Fi Tabhi'lHulviyyat. Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism, National Folklore Research Department Publications.

Kut, T. (1985). Annotated Cookbooks Bibliography (Old Letter Writing and Printed Works. Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism MIFAD.

Pollan, M. (2013). Cooked A Natural History of Transformation. Penguin Books.

Samanci, O. (2012). “Food Studies in Ottoman-Turkish Historiography”. Inside; KW Claflin. P. Scholliers (Editor), Writing Food History: A Global Perspective (pp.107-120). New York: Berg.

Samanci, O. (2013). “Seljuk Cuisine, Food History and “Food Storytelling”, Food and Culture, 32: 152154.

Samanci, O. (2015). La Cuisine d'Istanbul au 19e Siecle. France PUR-PUFR.

Samanci, O. and Bilgin, A. (2010). “II. Istanbul and Palace Cuisine in the Era of Mahmut II”, II. Mahmut in the Process of Restructuring Istanbul. Inside; Coşkun Yılmaz (Editor), (pp. 324-347), Istanbul.

Scholliers, P. (2012). Ten Years of Food & History: “la sfida è partita, Food & History, 10 (2): 27-41.

Singer, A. (2011). Starting with Food: Culinary Approaches to Ottoman History. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers.

Ozge SAMANCI, Assoc. Dr., Özyeğin University, School of Applied Sciences, Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Department, Çekmeköy Campus, Nişantepe Mah. Forest Street. 34794 Cekmekoy, Istanbul.

 

* This article is compiled from the article titled “Ten Years in Ottoman-Turkish Food Historiography” published in Food & History magazine in 2013.

 

As the head chef Ahmet ÖZDEMİR, I see the source:

Ms. I sincerely thank Özge SAMANCI for her academic studies titled  "Gastronomy and Food History" and wish her success  in her professional life. It will definitely be considered as an example by those who need it in professional kitchens and the gastronomy and culinary community.

 

You can view the original text here. Google translate was used in the translation.