BYU professors contrast fast food with one of Europe’s greatest prides: café dining.
Fast food offers people an efficient meal when they’re having a busy day—without ever having to turn on the kitchen lights. As a result, fast-food chains can be found worldwide, yet their popularity in each country differs based on the cultural purpose and meaning behind food. On March 5, 2024, Café Europa welcomed three BYU faculty members—Professor Bob Hudson (French Poetry and History), Professor Marie Orton (Italian Language and Culture), and Associate Professor Marlene Esplin (American Literature and Migration)—to contrast the difference in food culture in the US and Europe. Together, the panelists dove into the value mealtime can hold when food becomes an experience and not just sustenance.
The panel opened with a discussion on the development of street food and slow food throughout history. The portability of street food, and, consequentially fast food, led to the rise of a new political movement in 1986 Rome known as the Slow Food movement. Orton said, “The whole idea [of slow food] is that food is more than just what we eat. In the Slow Food Manifesto, it says ‘good food is a human right.’”
The Slow Food movement directly combatted fast-food culture and focused on making mealtime an experience that went beyond eating. Hudson added that a slow meal at a café is “not like Sunday dinner the way we do in the US where everything’s on the table at once; it comes out in courses—it’s a process. There’s something about the process of presenting the food that gives some dignity to both the food and to the event. It almost offers some sanctity to the meal.”
The value many Europeans place on slow food has led some to have a disdain for the fast-food culture so widely accepted in the US. In some places, people even consider fast food a sign of rebellion, or at least a threat to their ability to spend hours at a café savoring a good meal. As foreigners and immigrants introduce new fast-food restaurants, it challenges the traditions brought by slow-food culture.
A particular concern for those who fear the end of slow food lies in the introduction of new foods from foreigners. Some Europeans feel a distinct sense of pride in their national dishes and consequently push back against those bringing new cuisines. While there’s nothing wrong with having pride in one’s heritage, Esplin explained that “the idea of any national cuisine is a kind of fiction.” She continued, noting that food currently associated with one region or country is often much older than the state itself.
The panelists continued and said that, though different, both slow-food culture and fast-food culture have their place. They encouraged audience members to experience slow-food culture for themselves to discover the deeper meaning mealtime can hold. Esplin explained the importance of balancing both slow-food and fast-food traditions, saying that sometimes “we can just consume [food], but [it] can also be a gateway to deeper cultural engagement.” This European idea of mealtime, the panelists concluded, can do more than provide the body essential nutrients; it can open the gate for deeper and more meaningful connections.
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