Sociology of Foods (Other (Not Listed) Sample)

Sociology of Foods
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Sociology of Foods
The sociology of food studies food in relation to the society's history, evolution, and future development of society. Food symbolizes social difference from a sociological standpoint. It brings people together and imparts information about peoples' cultures, customs, taboos, and food heritage. In the contemporary world, sociological issues make running a successful food business a risky investment (Cohan, 2020). The primary themes of Spinning Plates, Joseph Levy's 2013 film that succeeded in being both logically and emotionally compelling, are the issues that restaurant owners encounter and how these challenges effect restaurant managers' lives. Spinning Plates looks at three very distinct restaurants, highlighting their unique problems and accomplishments. For this assignment, I have chosen the story about La Cocina de Gabby, a small roadside Mexican joint in Tucson, as the restaurant story that speaks to me most. The story of La Cocina de Gabby appeals to me the most since it is about an indigenous restaurant owned by proprietors who immigrated to the United States in pursuit of the American Dream. It also connects with passion for food production and preparation, culture, and labor, raised in the interviews with Chefs Doug Katz and Ina Garten, and in Jon Favreau’s Chef.
La Cocina de Gabby is the newest and smallest of the three restaurants featured in Spinning Plates, owned by Francisco and Gabby Martinez. Nevertheless, the sociological theme of passion for food production and preparation emerges despite the fact that this restaurant is struggling. Francisco expresses enthusiastically about the restaurant's recipes and the care and love that her wife Gabby puts into them in the documentary's opening scenes. Francisco considers the restaurant as both a challenge and a blessing, and also an opportunity to support his family and promote his wife's culinary skills. It's a dream come true for Gabby, who says, “Passion goes into my cooking.” (Levy, 2012). She is preparing her mother’s favorite dishes and recipes. She learnt this during her childhood and wanted to share it with her own young daughter, who is growing up in the restaurant.
Katz's passion for food production and preparation is clear in his interview. Katz communicates his passion for a variety of things, including cooking, which was his first love, as well as community engagement and working with others to enliven or fire his interest (Katz, 2014). Cooking is his love, but since working at The Katz Club Diner and cooking in his restaurant, he has made connections with local farmers and local residents, which has rejuvenated his passion and brought it to life in plenty of other ways. Garten makes it obvious in her interview that her passion for producing and preparing food has made her one of America's most prominent and successful women, as well as the inventor of the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks and television shows. She loves her job and does it for a living because she believes in it (Garten, 2017). Carl, the main character in the Chef, exhibits passion by doing what he enjoys the most (Favreau, 2014). Carl's supervisor makes him cook monotonous, repetitive menu dishes. Even before embarking on the quest to start his own business, he finds a way to cook according to his wishes by preparing food at home.
Another sociological theme is the connection between culture and business. La Cocina de Gabby is a Mexican restaurant in Arizona owned by a family striving to make ends meet, keep their house, and provide a better standard of living for their young daughter. When portraying La Cocina de Gabby, Levy gives his viewers a stronger understanding of why we desire to dine together - it's mostly about the desire to be taken care of on the most foundational sense. This restaurant is the realization of Francisco Martinez's lifelong desire, as he believes his wife, Gabby, "cooks like an angel" (Levy, 2012). Gabby was so determined to establish a restaurant using her mother's and grandmother's recipes that she traded her jewelry to directly fund it.
This connection also applies to Katz’s and Garten’s businesses. Katz established The Katz Club Diner with the interests of the Cleveland community in mind. To revitalize the Cleveland Heights community, he resolved to open a diner and a bar car. It's a location where he hadn't been as much as other locations, and he figured that adding his brand and reputation to the area would help to revitalize the street (Katz, 2014). Ina Garten, better known as the Barefoot Contessa, was inspired by the name of a specialty food store she purchased in 1978 to create the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks and television show (Garten, 2017). The name had earlier on been used in pop culture’s The Barefoot Contessa (1954). This film was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and focuses on the life and love stories of Maria Vargas’, a fictional Spanish sex symbol. It foretold a slow-paced plot centered on social positions and dynamic political events within the film's world. Similarly, Ina Garten rose above women and into pop culture and became a pop culture iconography, who produces cookbooks and TV shows.
Labor is critical the operations of La Cocina de Gabby’s because the tale revolves around work. The family puts forth effort in the preparation of meals in their restaurant, and no outside employees are hired. This restaurant is an establishment by the Martinez family to maintain themselves without aid while raising a daughter and avoiding closure of their business. The film centers on the couple's young daughter, whom her father thinks spends lots of time in their business rather than growing up normally. The owners are putting everything on the line simply for survival and provision for their young daughter. Th