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Barossa Slow
The Representation and Rhetoric of
Slow Food’s Regional Cooking

Central to the rhetoric of the Slow Food movement those in charge are faced with translating into organizational
is the concept of regional cooking. It figures in the move- practice the rhetoric of regional cooking, what do they
ment’s manifesto, which exhorts members to become come up with? What does “regional” mean for them, and
devotees of regional cuisine: “Let us rediscover the flavours how do their ideas about “cuisine” resonate with this culinary
and savours of regional cooking and banish the degrading movement’s membership?
effects of Fast Food.”1 Regional cooking is featured promi- This essay presents a case study of one such event,
nently in the literature generated by the movement’s central Barossa Slow, which was mounted by Australian members
office in Bra, Italy, especially in the pronouncements of of the Slow Food movement in 2004; I bring to its analysis
the founder, Carlo Petrini, beginning in the 1980s and con- an anthropological perspective. Like other anthropologists,
tinuing into the present.2 It is used in the Slow Food events I place considerable emphasis on how people imagine and
mounted in some forty-seven countries, where a member- conceptualize, construct and constitute, their communities
ship of about eighty thousand is organized into convivia, or in innovative and creative ways, because these activities reveal
local chapters. Regional cooking and the Slow Food move- fundamental mind-sets. Rather than assuming communities
ment in general enjoy extensive media coverage, which, in to have an objective existence that can be assessed according
its international scope and affirmative character, must be to a checklist of essential attributes, anthropologists study how
the envy of other social movements. people at the local level imagine their communities exist in
But what is the place of regional cooking in a postmod- the world, and then we consider how they talk about the
ern world in which the definition of regions is becoming qualities they believe constitute their distinctiveness.5 In the
increasingly arbitrary? How is regional cuisine to be concep- case of regional Slow Food events such as the Australian
tualized in a global epoch in which all kinds of boundaries, one described here, the event may turn out to be as much
especially regional ones, are so easily crossed? If the post- about the manufacture of myth as it is about the consump-
modern era can be said to have one definitive quality, it is tion of cuisine.

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surely the facility with which people, capital, raw materials,
and processed goods are moved from place to place.3 Can
The Barossa as Rural Idyll
any other commodities rival foodstuffs and drinks in the ease
with which they are shipped from one place to another? Mounted in the Barossa region of South Australia from April
The more one takes a hard look at the very idea of a regional 2 to April 4, 2004, Barossa Slow drew together a substantial 51
cuisine, the more improbable it sounds. At the least it war- number of Slow Food members from different parts of the
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rants closer inspection. country and overseas. The high attendance was rather sur-
One option is to turn from the centralized pronounce- prising since the Barossa is internationally renowned not for
ments of the Slow Food movement and to focus instead on its food but as one of Australia’s premier wine-growing
what the term means to the local organizers of its many regions. A major center for industrial agribusiness, it is an
events.4 Generally, members of convivia from local commu- area of intensely concentrated corporate capitalism, fully
nities are the ones who plan, orchestrate, and talk about the articulated into the international political economy.
regional cuisines that they must literally put on the table. It In the advance publicity for Barossa Slow, however, the
is local organizers, too, who must satisfy the expectations of dominant representations of the region made no mention of
members who are often informed, critical, and demanding these global economic realities. Instead, much was made of
where all kinds of food and drink are concerned. So, when the fact that the Barossa is located in a valley surrounded by
gastronomica: the journal of food and culture, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 51–59, issn 1529-3262. © 2006 by the regents of the university of california. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for
permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the university of california press ’ s rights and permissions web site, at www.ucpress.edu / journals/ rights.htm.
low-lying hills. Everyone assumes that valleys are often cut the country’s oldest and richest food traditions. The combi-
off and isolated from the outside world and that what happens nation of this rich European heritage and the fresh vitality
in them frequently lags behind developments elsewhere. of Australia is embodied in its lifestyle and landscape.”6
Valley inhabitants are often said to possess traits and display Aboriginal settlement and indigenous food were thus instantly
qualities different from those over the hill, downriver, erased in favor of a historical perspective in which nothing
through the forest—in short, elsewhere. In other words, of cultural consequence preceded the arrival of Europeans
valleys are often places of cultural distinctiveness, and it and their imported foodstuffs. With this historical baseline in
was this stereotype that convivia organizers of Barossa Slow place, an avalanche of terms and phrases could be unleashed
emphasized in the press announcements leading up to and to drive home the idea of a historically encompassing
in the course of the event proper. regional culture in which food had played a prominent part.
Publicity photographs of the Barossa idealized it by “Oldest food traditions,” “rich in food traditions,” “the heritage
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depicting row upon row of mature vines—soft focus up front, of food,” “rich European heritage,” and (of particular note)
extending as far as the eye could see into the distance—and “the preservation of culinary authenticity” were some of the
using many warm browns and cool greens to capture the phrases that entered into circulation.
sense of a rich and bountiful rural environment. One pho- A specially produced map of a “Food and Wine Trail”
52 tograph depicted a mature vineyard in the foreground, at a sent out with the event’s main brochure especially reinforced
distance a single-story stone cottage and alongside the cottage the idea of the Barossa as a distinct valley, a separate place
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an old stone church with a short spire. The entire scene was in its own right. The trail linked some twenty-nine vineyards
bathed in the warm glow of the afternoon sun. People were into a tour of a seemingly bounded, internally connected
courtesy of barossa wine and tourism association

generally absent from this type of romantic representation region. At each stage, Slow Food members could acquire an
of the rural, but in one image a sole winemaker mulled enhanced sense of the valley’s tradition and heritage status,
introspectively over a glass of (doubtless his own) red wine. so that at “historic Château Tanunda,” for example, it was
The text accompanying this pictorial idealization intro- possible to come “face-to-face…with 25 smaller, family-owned
duced two terms that laid the groundwork for the concept producers representing the time-honoured community, history
of a regional culture specific to the Barossa. Both “tradition” and flavours of Barossa wine.” At Veritas Winery a similar
and “heritage” became intrinsic to Barossa Slow’s discourse: but more hybrid experience was in the offing: “The Binders
“The Barossa is the heart of Australian wine and home to brought traditions of food and wine when they arrived in
the late 1940s. Adapting ingredients to Barossa produce…they ment, hence the concentration on individual rather than
have maintained centuries of Hungarian rituals.” several items. All this was grist to the mill that allowed the
event’s chair, Kath Newland, to declare: “We’ve got a real
food culture that is still thriving today.”9 This claim upheld
Guardians of Tradition
and reinforced the rhetoric that “Barossa Slow celebrates
Under more normal circumstances, many Barossa residents, the heritage, the flavours, the rituals and the region’s pro-
especially its older and long-standing population, primarily duce in a weekend of authentic experiences.”10
identify with particular localities inside the valley or on its
margins. They usually feel that they belong to small towns
Oral History and Authentic Experience
like Tanunda or Angaston or to tiny settlements like Moculta,
Lyndoch, or Keyneton, where property ownership, business Working to preserve the Barossa’s original food culture was
interests, and extended family residence are intertwined. clearly considered the essence of community-mindedness.
But this by no means precludes or qualifies identification In this way residents could express their sense of belonging
with the Barossa as a broader region. Their sense of attach- to the region as a whole over and above their attachment
ment and identification simply functions at a different level to specific locales inside the valley. Just as the region had
and in other situations. For the representational ambitions been settled by community-minded Europeans of rural
of Barossa Slow to be realized, however, this regional sense origin who placed a premium on quality food and drink,
of place had to be emphatically elaborated. In particular, a commitment to maintain this 150-year-old culture was a
the Barossa Valley was to be presented in distinctive ways, recognized marker of contemporary membership. Status
such as having convivia organizers identify themselves as distinctions, business rivalries, and political differences—
especially heritage-minded folk. the cultural stuff that anthropologists have detailed as ubiq-
The European settlement of the area by Lutherans and uitous in socially intricate rural locales—were all put to
Anglicans from Germany and the United Kingdom, respec- one side in favor of such homogenizing, unifying terms as
tively, took place in the early to mid-nineteenth century. When “the Valley” and “we Barossans.”
event organizers hosted meals, introduced tours, or simply “Being Barossan” clearly meant more than appreciating
welcomed visitors to Barossa Slow, they conscientiously wholesome foods. The ability to work with one’s hands, to
associated themselves with this heritage by announcing that improvise when the right technical equipment was unavail-
they were fourth-, fifth-, or even sixth-generation Barossans. able, to engage in cooperative manual activities to realize
Not only was thickness of Barossan blood held up as a key community goals—all were mentioned at one time or another.
attribute, it was also linked with the claim that these people Barossan sociability as an inherent trait was frequently dis-
had been involved in many ways for a number of years in a cussed in the context of food appreciation, which was seen
sustained effort to recuperate Barossan traditions and cul- as a public expression of that sociability. Particular events
ture. These were the folk on the ground, in short, who had were highlighted because they brought conviviality and

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preserved the region’s cultural heritage from outright loss.7 cuisine together. Thus, the Saturday morning farmers’
The claim of heritage became one of the recurrent market was incorporated into the Barossa Slow program on
means of endowing specific foods and drinks with an aura the grounds that, according to the event’s brochure, “this
of authenticity. Few organizers boasted of having helped res- thriving market is known for its social buzz as well as its
cue more than one sphere of food or wine production. Each produce, so you will probably chat with new friends, dinner 53
was considered intricate enough to demand any one indi- hosts and familiar faces.”
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vidual’s full attention. Not least relevant was the notion that Not all social relations within the regional community
the valley’s culinary secrets had not been easily rendered up were accorded the same merit, however. Equally intriguing
to those who were now the custodians of this cultural her- as the foodstuffs that were held up as authentic was the
itage. Visitors were expected to treat seriously the idea that prominence of certain roles that, more than others, were
older residents—by now quite a few deceased—had allowed considered to embody commitment to community identity
their folk wisdom to be written down only by people they and continuity. All convivium members had in common
had come to trust over time. As the regional newspaper put an appreciation of oral history: this was the cultural capital
it: “After generations of keeping family recipes secret, the they were putting on display. Accumulating the most
Barossans have been persuaded to share them around.”8 prestige were the Barossa’s local historians, because their
Getting to that point had required time, effort, and commit- research had allowed them to populate the valley with
exceptional residents whose chief connectedness was reason. In making clear the physical and symbolic bound-
through the culture of food. aries of a Slow Food region and its community base, a tour
The historians’ representations of the Barossa included does not simply recognize such boundaries but establishes
two dimensions. First, in the run-up to Barossa Slow, articles them definitively through its route. In our predominantly
began to appear in magazines that clearly connected the ocularcentric Western culture,15 tours to the specific sites in
past and the present and accorded responsibility for these which specialized foods and drinks are produced can scarcely
links to especially innovative individuals. For example, Angela be equaled as a means of authenticating them before they
Heuzenroeder, the best known of the local historians, wrote are consumed.
in Snail Pace, Slow Food Australia’s magazine: “In our val- The ostensible purpose of tours through “our valley” was
ley people are still using methods and recipes that were part evident enough: to draw visitors’ attention to the cooking skills
of a whole food culture brought by the first German-speaking of individual residents and their families and to sample the
settlers arriving from 1837 onwards. Thirty years ago, these products of their labor. Some of the tours available were
foods were a common sight on Barossa tables and they are titled the Pig, the Vine, the Orchard, the Wood Oven, and
still known today.”11 Subsequently, a couple of weeks before Offal, Offal, and More Offal. But in the many verbal exchanges
the event, the same historian was the main source for an between local notables and tour takers, it became clear that
article that appeared in the state’s only daily newspaper. more was going on than these simple titles implied. Being
After lamenting the extent to which “we have been forgetting celebrated in these encounters was the technology of the
traditional foods and how good they taste” and “reflecting past and the social relations required to make it work.
on flavour, on fruit from the tree, on real tomatoes,” Ms. Time and again, the solid, reliable, and durable qualities
Heuzenroeder cites pork as another example of lost flavor, of productive equipment made decades earlier—in a few
one that is being “salvaged by Barossa tradition.” instances as far back as the nineteenth century—were verbally
extolled and manually displayed, and always by comparison
White pigs with little fat have been developed in recent years. It’s the with the failings of their present-day equivalents. At one
kind of pork you buy in the super-market. Flavourless. level, the detailed appreciation of old technology was an
But there is renewed interest in bacon with flavour, in looking at exercise in nostalgia, but that could be said about the Slow
the old breeds of black pigs such as Berkshires which go back to the Food event as a whole. More revealing, as butchers, bakers,
18th century. chefs, winemakers, and others detailed the merits of “the
They produced marbled flesh with a lot more flavour. Joy and tried-and-tested ways of doing things,” as one guide put
Colin Leinert have been a success story with this…these farmers have it, they simultaneously established their identities as rural
kept the old breed alive, they have kept tradition going.12 artisans who would not readily succumb to the ease or
profitability of modern food-production techniques.
Evidently Heuzenroeder is doing much more than merely Across the board, these culinary craftsmen cultivated
describing developments inside the community. Having personae quite different from those of the mass manufactur-
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previously established her credentials through publication ers whose standardized and inferior products filled local
of a well-researched salvage study of Barossa foodstuffs,13 supermarket shelves. In one case, an apiarist with a small
she now provides an especially unified view of the regional farm at Moculta talked at length about the superiority of his
community (“in our valley”), an equally integrated approach honey and the quality of processed goods (glazed ham, for
54 to its foodstuffs (“a whole food culture”), and a particular example) from his family-staffed firm. He traced his German
take on the critical role of “keeping tradition going” by hon- origins back to the mid-nineteenth century before declaring:
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oring individuals for their contribution.14 The prepossessing “We’re a very traditional Barossa working farm, more
image proffered is that of a harmonious and integrated traditional than most, probably more traditional than in
regional place less than an hour’s drive from the state capi- Germany itself.” From the design of his ancient hives
tal yet fully committed to maintaining the genuineness of through his use of queen bees to his extraction techniques,
its original cooking practices. his reliance on tradition was integral to the quality of a
The second and more substantial contribution from product incomparable with mass-produced ones.
local historians became obvious as Barossa Slow got under Especially important for virtually all concerned was
way, for the locals doubled as guides on the event’s tours. the character of the social relations of production in these
These activities are among the most popular of Slow Food select enterprises. In addition to the producers’ continually
programs in different parts of the world, and with good emphasizing that “a craftsman is only as good as the tools of
his trade,” they established the complementary point that winemaker mentioned above. “Winemaking isn’t a job, it’s a
an artisan works best if surrounded by similarly committed way of life, you’re devoted to the business of making the best
colleagues. Whether butcher, baker, or winemaker, each you can,” was the reinforcement provided by another. Implicit
underscored the importance of working with others of in these comments and others along similar lines was the
equally deep conviction and of the close relations that bind understanding that out there—somewhere beyond the arti-
them together. One winemaker, for example, gave eighteen sanal enclave of the Barossa—work and nonwork were
Slow Food devotees dinner in a huge, high-ceilinged room clearly distinguished, hours spent at the former were clearly
just off the kitchen of the main house. In the course of the laid down, the relation between employer and employee
evening, he pointed out that, this being harvest time, it was clear-cut. The result was that the goods produced out
would normally be “my crew” of wine-making staff who there were of little intrinsic value. By contrast, the culinary
would be eating together at the long table: they would bring artisans of the Barossa were immensely proud of what they
wine from other vineyards and overseas, which they would produced, in substantial part because their very selves were
discuss over the meal. Apart from encouraging everyone to invested in the products of their sense-replete labors.
produce still better wines, this tradition was one the wine-
maker had inherited from his own mentor, arguably the best
Field Notes from the Wood Oven Journey
known of all Barossa winemakers: “This is a tradition I picked
up from Peter. It’s about keeping everyone on his toes…but The Apex Bakery is located in the center of Tanunda, the
it’s also about respect and loyalty, and eating together under valley’s main settlement. The shop front looks directly onto
the same roof is part of that.” the street, and the bakery proper is under the same roof to
the rear. Building and décor are as unassuming as possible,
with scarcely no advertising in evidence. The bakery’s repu-
Drawing On All the Senses
tation is such that publicity is unnecessary: it is famous for
Thus, a concern with product quality, traditional technology, its wood-fired oven, which was installed in 1924, and for
and close social relations of production were established as being a family-owned enterprise that Keith Fechner bought
imperative to the success of original regional produce. The from the local man who had trained him there.
last, possibly definitive but certainly unanticipated, require- The bakery’s wood-fired Scotch Oven is the centerpiece
ment was that the artisans had to have all their senses about of this tour. About forty “Slow Foodies” (as convivium mem-
them. Repeatedly addressed in tours was the notion that, bers by now refer to one another) cram around it as the local
whether the end result was a loaf of bread or a glazed ham, historian who organized this encounter introduces Keith’s
a clear honey or a rich Shiraz, each producer drew extensively son, Johnny Fechner, as Nipper, nicknames, of course, being
on a multisensual process of production. Creating regional a defining feature of rural community life. Nipper explains
produce was a wholly aesthetic activity in which looking, the simplicity of the wood fire burning at one side of the
listening, smelling, tasting, and touching were all indispen- cavernous oven that features an elementary arrangement of

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sable. Any contribution to the table of Barossa cooking flues and dampers around it. The baker explains how he
required a well-developed sense of the aesthetic qualities of buys his basic ingredients, especially the highest-quality flour,
fine food and drink. But drawing on all one’s sensibilities from the surrounding farms, which are also the free source
was not something that came easily: it, too, was the product of firewood he personally gathers to ensure its suitability for
of personal commitment and training by well-established the oven. Even the long-handled ladles16 for moving trays 55
figures accustomed to investing their very beings in high- around the oven are the same ones that were in use when
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quality regional produce. he became an apprentice at the age of twelve and was
Following naturally from the aesthetic dimension was instructed not to ask questions but to “just watch,” which
the necessary and willing expenditure of enormous amounts was how he learned his trade.
of labor and time in one’s work, an occupational ethos at The dozen workers in the Apex Bakery are not referred
odds with the attitudes presumed prevalent in the region’s to as employees because they are all relatives or very close
fully modernized businesses. The idea of labor as a resource associates. Jimmy, for example, is Nipper’s right-hand man
that could be restricted to an eight-hour workday, for example, and has “been with” him (note, not “employed by” him) for
played no part in the way this economic field functioned: more than twenty years. As Nipper talks, his father, who is
“Anybody who watches the clock when he’s at work around ninety and remarkably upright for his age, walks in and is
here won’t last very long,” was the firm judgment of the introduced to the group as Chiney. Nipper has already
explained that his father “still has secrets about baking quality of food and drink was only one component, albeit a
which he hasn’t let me in on yet.” He reveals in an ironic critical one. For some of its organizers, for example, Barossa
tone how in the 1970s, “when I was young and ambitious,” Slow was a transparent opportunity for expanding their
he tried to persuade his father to modernize the business. already established niches in the tourist trade or other forms
His father refused outright. “The lesson Dad taught me of regional commerce; for others (as one young housewife
back then was never to take on the transnationals because expressed it to me), it was “just a labour of love, something
you’ll always lose. He was right, of course. We’re still going that’s good and beneficial for Barossa folk generally”; for yet
strong. But lots of others have gone to the wall.” others, the effort expended proved worthwhile through some
The group applauds the old man’s perspicacity before combination of material interests and cultural concerns.
moving through the bakery to hear Nipper detail the con- Second, among those who attended but did not organize
siderable age of other machinery. He describes how he the events, an even broader range of interests and motives was
begins his day at four o’clock each morning by lighting the at work. Quite a number of these people had unambiguously
wood fire, “and then, well y’know, I’m here until the day’s economic reasons for being present. With tourist enterprises
work is done.” A good deal depends on the performance of already established elsewhere in South Australia or farther
the oven because, even after all these years, there is always a afield, these participants approached Barossa Slow as a source
degree of uncertainty as to when the baking will be done. of fresh ideas and new contacts that could be incorporated
The original Scotch Oven is valuable and unpredictable: it into their current marketing strategies. A number of people
needs to be constantly monitored. Nipper speaks about the attended in the company of local or interstate convivia
oven as if it has a mind of its own. Most assuredly, he will members, allowing them to speak of their participation as
not leave the wood oven unattended: “Once I start work, an extension of the interest in food and drink that united
this is where I stay until we’re finished for the day. You can’t them at home. For many—and especially the majority from
just throw the [electric] switch like they do at Tip Top, and the state metropolis—Barossa Slow was mainly an entertain-
leave it. You have to stay with the job.” ing and informative break from the routines and pressures
Nipper then regales his visitors with several anecdotes of everyday middle-class experience, although even within
about how Chiney and his predecessors refused to take this category differences were apparent, such as those between,
even an annual holiday; they could not face the prospect of for example, people connected with Adelaide’s burgeoning
entrusting the oven with its idiosyncrasies to anyone else. gastronomy industry and those who went “just for the food.”
On the very few occasions when they were forced (by exas- Thus, both rational and emotional forces ran inextrica-
perated spouses) to take a break from their labors, the worse bly together under the capacious umbrella of Barossa Slow
came to the worst. “You have to be on top of the oven all as a cultural event, and this confluence provided another
the time,” Nipper insists, stressing the need to watch and lis- reason for its appeal. In interactional terms, a good deal
ten to the oven and its fire and to smell, feel, and finally of satisfaction and pleasure was derived by finding out
taste the breads, cakes, and pastries that emerge from it. By why others were present and what their expectations were.
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drawing on all the senses, he is able to produce foodstuffs of One of the striking properties of this event was the ease
the highest quality and thereby ensure that at the end of with which it was possible to slip in and out of multiple
each day all the bakery’s goods have sold. There is no wastage conversations over a drink, during a meal, on a tour, and
now, just as there was no wastage in the past. so on. Precisely because Barossa Slow was focused on the
56 supposedly apolitical subject matter of food and drink,17
the very nature of the event allowed a degree of comfortable
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Middle-Class Culture
interaction unthinkable under most other circumstances.
and the Myth of a Regional Cuisine
Accordingly, a good deal of conversation was geared to
Taken as a whole, Barossa Slow was a great success. Attendees finding out whether material or nonmaterial concerns
especially enjoyed the performative nature of many of the had brought one’s conversational partner to Barossa Slow,
encounters, their theatrical dimension, which raises the whether there was common ground worth pursuing with
question of how to assess the appeal of Barossa Slow as not relative strangers, and whether to carry the current
so much a culinary event as a cultural experience. exchange further or to seek out yet other Slow Foodies for
The first point to emphasize is that Barossa Slow meant the remainder of the event.
different things to different people. It was an event of multi- Third, as this ethnographic account demonstrates, arguably
ple meanings and multiple significances, among which the the most important property of Barossa Slow was its providing
a substantive context for the expression and pursuit of cul- were the mutually constitutive cultural connections
tural capital, which customarily informed the everyday lives between cuisine and class.
of the attendees. This Slow Food event was constituted in None of this would have been possible, of course,
such a way as to resonate with the cultural concerns that without a good deal of idealization on all sides, and it will,
were already critical to some sections of Australia’s increas- I hope, be evident by this point that a good deal of myth-
ingly affluent but also fragmented middle class. making underpinned much of the appeal of Barossa Slow.
As elsewhere in the late capitalist world, Australia’s middle Indeed, the manufacture of myth was as integral as any
class has lost whatever cultural cohesion it might have had other element in the cultural accounts offered by both con-
a quarter of a century ago; during the same period, it has vivium organizers and attendees. I use the term “myth”
acquired a remarkable level of consumer affluence. For some here to refer to the assemblage of social stereotypes, skewed

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members of this class, cultural matters such as the preserva- representations, and biased accounts that are characteristic
tion of heritage, the relevance of tradition, and the appeal of of all consumer experiences under late capitalist conditions.
the rural, as well as questions about authenticity, originality, As Roland Barthes expresses it: “However paradoxical it
and value, are all broadly aesthetic issues that bring meaning might seem, myth hides nothing: its function is to distort,
to and create motivation for their middle-class lifestyles on a not to make disappear.”18 57
regular basis. From the practical preservation of heritage In this respect it can legitimately be argued that the
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sites to the impractical questioning of modern values, these authorized account of Barossa community life and the
issues are what this segment of Australia’s middle class is region’s community-mindedness was distinctly incomplete.
usually all about. As we have seen, Barossa Slow promulgated the image
In symbolic terms, then, Barossa Slow provided a rich that here was a discrete physical region populated by an
context in which a specific regional cuisine could be savored identifiable community committed to a “whole food culture.”
2004

through a particular culture of class. Or, to put it the other In reality, however, those involved in mounting the occa-
©
photograph by adrian peace

way round, a culture of class could be expressed through sion comprised but a small and self-selected network of
the regional cooking so artfully presented by the Slow Food residents, while the majority of the region’s population
convivium. The order is not of concern: most important in remained uninvolved and, one suspects, for the most part
giving value and satisfaction to the Slow Food membership indifferent, precisely because this was a privileged—even
elite—event, in no sense a mass, popular one. In total, rural labor, and so on, is entirely at odds with a lifestyle
the residential population of the Barossa stands at about in which Fast Food as a problem looms large. In addition,
four thousand people, so only a small fraction was directly not only is this a middle-class fragment with a particular
involved. Although absolute figures are not of major ethos and ideology, it is also a middle-aged one, so that
significance here, it must be noted that large segments of if its members are to be found at all in such demonic
the population were excluded from any kind of participation— settings as McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, or
the substantial numbers of older retirees, unemployed and Hungry Jacks, then it will most likely be in the company
semiemployed youth, and casual, transient workers (on of children, even grandchildren, who are being momentar-
whom both tourist and wine industries extensively rely for ily indulged. Thus the participants in Barossa Slow did
labor), to mention but a few. These groups had no role to not have to be converted from a universal Fast Food to a
play in Barossa Slow. Nonetheless, they are all members regional Slow Food, because the former was not part of
of the Barossa community and contribute significantly to their cultural constitution in the first place. Attendance at
its economic and social functioning. Barossa Slow—and, I tentatively suggest, at similar events
In other words, when the event’s organizers and sponsors elsewhere—was not so much about culinary conversion
referred to the participation of “the community” in Barossa as about cultural consolidation.
Slow, they were speaking of themselves. They imposed on Other examples of mythmaking in relation to both
the event as a whole their conceptions of community mem- convivium organizers and ordinary members could be
bership, their ideas about community participation, and added to these. The stereotypes, skews, biases, and distor-
their notions of where the boundaries of the community tions that abounded throughout the duration of Barossa
were to be drawn. Comparatively speaking, this behavior is Slow were to be anticipated in a contemporary event where
neither exceptional nor untoward. Anthropological analyses expectations are high, aspirations overdeveloped, and prolif-
of many other settings show that individual members con- erating rhetoric and hyperbole become the order of the
ceptualize and talk about “our community” as if their views day. Despite these caveats, the multifaceted and polyvalent
were shared by everyone else. That this is a wholly erro- character of Barossa Slow was its most important contribu-
neous assumption often entails their learning some painful tion. While it was assuredly an interest in regional cooking
lessons when their actions result in internal community that brought the event’s participants together, the way in
conflict. The difference is that in the particular instance which it was organized and represented made it possible to
of Barossa Slow, the skewed views of a select few became encounter and reflect on, among other topics, the meaning
the distorted lens through which a substantial number of tradition, the nature of authenticity, the significance of
of “captive” outsiders were expected to interpret this rich artisanship, and the quality of past technologies.
and variegated regional life. For some, Barossa Slow brought home the material
In a similar vein, the ways in which the ordinary realities of wine production and tourism, while for others
attendees were described and the roles they were assigned the event could be enjoyed for its imaginative rhetoric and
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to play in the course of the event entailed considerable emotive symbols. Most important of all, the event could be
misrepresentation and distortion. One myth, for example, savored in a myriad of ways according to the participants’
revolved around the way in which the experience of class and culture. Side by side with the consumption of
Barossa Slow might help people turn away from “Fast regional cooking lay the prospect of variously reflecting on
58 Food.” Not surprisingly, Fast Food was repeatedly referred different ways of being in the postmodern world. Might
to in the most derogatory of terms; as indicated at the it be in this respect, then, that for all the difference and dis-
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outset, the Slow Food movement at large aims “to banish tinction that the Slow Food movement attaches to regional
the degrading effects of Fast Food.” This is doubtless an cooking, events such as Barossa Slow are emblematic of
admirable ambition, and it would be difficult to argue the interpretative and reflexive prospects now held out more
against it. But it is scarcely one that could find much pur- broadly by cooking and cuisine? g
chase in the class-skewed world of those who attended
Barossa Slow, for theirs is a world in which Fast Food is
unlikely to play a significant part anyway.
The broadly liberal and (in the loosest sense) environ-
mental mentalité of this class fragment, with its recurrent
concern for heritage, authenticity, past technologies,
notes 8. The Advertiser, 24 March 2004.

This paper was written for the Third International Conference of the Research 9. On abc Radio, Stateline South Australia, “The Joys of Slow Food in the
Centre for the History of Food and Drink at the University of Adelaide, July Barossa Valley,” 19 March 2004.
12–14, 2004. I am obliged to the research center’s director, Dr. A. Lynn Martin,
10. From the Slow Food Web site. See www.slowfood.southaustralia.com/.
for his comments on the initial paper. A later version received critical comment
from two anonymous referees and the editor of this journal to whom I am like- 11. Angela Heuzenroeder, “The Barossa in Bloom: Why the Barossa Is a Slow
wise indebted. Food Haven,” Snail Pace 4 (2004): no. 3, 1–2.
1. The Slow Food manifesto was first published in 1987 in Gambero Rosso, a 12. The Advertiser, 20 March 2004.
magazine supplement to the Communist daily Il Manifesto. It is available in
13. Angela Heuzenroeder, Barossa Food: Recipes, History, Stories (Adelaide:
English on the Slow Food Web site, www.slowfood.com.
Wakefield Press, 1999). There are several texts of this type on the Barossa, the
2. See in particular Carlo Petrini and Benjamin Watson, eds., Slow Food: most recent and most notable being Maggie Beer, Maggie’s Table (Ringwood:
Collected Thoughts on Taste, Tradition and the Honest Pleasures of Food (White Penguin, 2001). In the book’s introduction, the text is claimed to be “a celebration
River Junction, vt: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2001); and Carlo of home, a region and its seasons, farmers and their produce, traditional bakers
Petrini, Slow Food: The Case for Taste, William McCuaig, trans. (New York: and butchers who enjoy challenges, and it is about community.”
Columbia University Press, 2001).
14. As Jeremy MacClancy expresses it in “Food, Identity, Identification,”
3. In anthropology this issue has been explored by Ulf Hannerz, “Notes on the Researching Food Habits: Methods and Problems, Helen Macbeth and Jeremy
Global Ecumene,” Public Culture 1 (1989): no. 2, 66–75; Arjun Appadurai, MacClancy, ed. (Oxford: Berghahn, 2004), 65: “All cookbooks have fictional
“Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy,” Public Culture 2 dimensions. The question is: of what kind and to what degree? Some, for
(1990): no 2., 1–24; and Akhil Gupta and James Ferguson, “Beyond ‘Culture’: instance, act as deeply idealised folkloric records; the authors of these salvage
Space, Identity and the Politics of Difference,” Cultural Anthropology 7 (1992): ethnographies are concerned to ‘save’ seemingly traditional recipes before they
no. 1, 6–23. See also “Introduction: A World in Motion,” The Anthropology of are lost. Other books are lengthy expressions of cultural nostalgia….The script
Globalization: A Reader, Jonathan Xavier Inda and Renato Rosaldo, eds. (Oxford: here seems to be: ‘this is the world we have already lost, but which we can try
Blackwell, 2002), 1–34; and from sociology, John Urry, Sociology beyond Societies: to recreate through cooking.’”
Mobilities for the Twenty-first Century (London: Routledge, 2000).
15. See the work of Martin Jay, Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in
4. An alternative approach from within anthropology is the more prescriptive Twentieth Century Thought (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California
route taken by Sidney Mintz, “Cuisine: High, Low and Not at All,” Tasting Food, Press, 1993); and “Scopic Regimes of Modernity,” in Modernity and Identity, S.
Tasting Freedom: Excursions into Eating, Culture and the Past (Boston: Beacon Lash and J. Friedman, eds. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992).
Press, 1996), 96: “I think a cuisine requires a population that eats that cuisine
16. “Ladle” is the term used by Nipper, rather than “peel.”
with sufficient frequency to consider themselves experts in it. They believe, and
care that they believe, that they know what it consists of, how it is made and how 17. The emphasis here is on the word “supposedly,” for, as is made clear in the
it should taste. In short, a genuine cuisine has common social roots; it is the following section, Barossa Slow is anything but apolitical by virtue of its class-
food of community, albeit often a very large community.” skewed character. On the political dimension to food and foodways, see the
varied contributions to The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating: A Reader, James
5. See in particular Anthony P. Cohen, The Social Construction of Community
L. Watson and Melissa L. Caldwell, eds. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005).
(London: Tavistock, 1985); and for a full length ethnography, Adrian Peace,
A World of Fine Difference: The Social Architecture of a Modern Irish Village 18. Roland Barthes, Mythologies, Annette Lavers, ed. and trans. (London:
(Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2001). The concept “imagined com- Paladin, 1973), 121.
munity” originates, of course, with Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities:
Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983).

6. From the six-page Barossa Slow Program, Slow Food, South Australia, 2004.

7. Here as elsewhere a number of parallels can be drawn with the situation in


Italy as described by Fabio Parasecoli, “Postrevolutionary Chowhounds: Food,
Globalization and the Italian Left,” Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and
Culture 3 (2003): no. 3, 29–39, at 36: “Both Slow Food and Gambero Rossi
emphasize the role of local communities and traditions, the manual skills
and know-how of food producers, and their ties with a historically determined

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material culture.”

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