Title:
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The performativity of food : an exploration and analysis of the work of Heston Blumenthal
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Heston Blumenthal's work as a chef has involved the use of scientific and historical
knowledges, technologies and discourses. This research establishes Blumenthal's status
as a performance artist and the performativity of his food, the former through the
performances around and through his food, the latter through the performativity of the food
'/ object and the deconstruction of the ideologies and practices of consumption. Through
examining his work in his restaurants and television series, I argue that Blumenthal
engages in performance practice through his work with food, utilising approaches from
performance to create gastronomic events.
I examine Blumenthal's cuisine through the frameworks of performativity and
phenomenology, by means of writing and practice-as-research. The research starts with
introductions to Blumenthal, performativity and phenomenology, before outlining a
historical context. This history contextualises Blumenthal in terms of twentieth and twentyfirst
century performance practice, as well as introducing some of the philosophical and
theoretical approaches to food appropriate to his gastronomy. The research is then split
into three conceptual temporalities, which operate as a tool for examining the experience
of Blumenthal's food in detail, from a phenomenological perspective. The research
addresses the immediate, primal perception of food, its textualisation and the retrospective
reflection employed to make sense of the food events. My own performance practice
works through and reflects on some of the issues raised by the writing. The practice is
documented in the appendices and reflected on within the appropriate chapter. As a
complementary mode of knowledge, the practice explores particular ideas raised by the
three temporalities: the individualisation of the body in immediate perception; the
preparation for a meal as a mode of textualisation, written onto and informing the
perception of the food; and the narrativisation of the food event, drawing out how the event
is understood and its components ordered into a logic or aesthetic.
The research is an exploration of Blumenthal's cuisine in particular, as well as raising
issues of the use of food and sensuality in performance.
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