Various Modes of “Cooking” in the nineteenth Century: a comparative study of Mrs Beeton and Artusi’s cookbooks

This paper sets out to provide a comparative study of two apparently unrelated cookbooks as the British Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management (Beeton, 1861) and the Italian La Scienza in Cucina e l’Arte di Mangiar Bene (Artusi, 1891) by Pellegrino Artusi, a food writer virtually contemporary of Mrs Isabella Beeton. Both are founding texts of the food writing tradition that they helped shape in their respective home country and have been extremely influential beyond their time and space. In the case of Mrs Beeton, the book became a famous Victorian cookbook with numerous editions and a vast readership of English speaking readers all over the world; a direct consequence of a world-wide British empire. In the case of the Italian cookbook, its global success stemmed from its translation into multiple languages. The juxtaposition of these two publishing stories, I will argue, is particularly revealing of the societies these two books came to embody abroad over centuries. According to Floyd and Forster (2003:1-2) the recipe constitutes a textual form which is not exclusively concerned with the production of daily meals, but it also discloses information on the cultural world in which it appears. A cookbook can hence shed light on habits, expectations, fears and fantasies related to food and fashionable lifestyle in a given period and geographical area. Drawing on Floyd and Forster’s assumptions, the present paper aims to explore how Mrs Beeton and Artusi’s cookbooks are embedded in the cultural context in which they were produced and to what extent they represent parallel stories of nineteenth century Europe’s knowledge, fantasies and fears associated with foods

“‘I skipped unnecessary details and got straight to the point!’: Adolescents and Young Adults on their Child Language Brokering Experiences”

In countries such as Italy, where resources for institutionalized community interpreting are still scarce and not evenly distributed, Child Language Brokering (CLB), a form of ad-hoc language and cultural mediation provided by children and adolescents of immigrant parents for the benefit of their own families, is one of the spontaneous ways in which migrant communities and public institutions respond to their mutual communication needs (Antonini 2010b). Despite being a widespread practice in all those countries where immigration rates are sharply increasing, CLB still remains largely invisible and scarcely researched. In Italy CLB has been investigated since 2007, when the research project In MedIO PUER(I) was launched at the University of Bologna. Drawing on data collected for the In MedIO PUER(I) project through in-depth individual interviews and focus groups with adolescents and young adults from migrant families living in Italy, the present paper addresses the issue of the “agency” that children exercise during brokering interactions, and how and why they manipulate the wording and meaning of what they translate and interpret (Hall 2004; Bauer 2010; Bauer 2017). The paper also explores the emotional and relational impact of the language and culture brokering practices and reflects on how former language brokers retrospectively re-conceptualize their role and identity within their family in relation to the CLB practice

New Challenges in Audiovisual Translation

At the turn of the 21st century, the booming of new communication technologies and the transformations that occurred as regards the fruition of traditional media (television, telephone,cinema, etc.) have triggered what has been labeled as the “digital revolution”. Not only have new media and their augmented potentiality for interactive consumption significantly influenced the social, economic, and political frameworks of both Western and emerging countries, but they have also brought about changes in cross-cultural interactions, which are increasingly fast and farreaching. Boundaries between a ‘centre’ and a ‘periphery’ in the dissemination of audiovisual texts have become gradually more blurred: hegemonies are being challenged, with local, small-scale industries becoming more and more visible at a global level, while productions reaching the global circuit are often born as supranational projects. The result of this revolution in the field of audiovisual translation seems to be that its study and practice are reaching beyond themselves: across disciplinary boundaries when it comes to research; over production and fruition modes when it comes to distribution and reception; beyond national, cultural and social boundaries when it comes to origins, identities, and representations

The Discourse of British TV Cookery

The present study initially arose from a general interest of the writer for food, perceived as a deep rooted culture-bound aspect of society and hence a potential ‘culture bump’ in cross-cultural communication and translation practices. (Archer 1986, Leppihalme 1997, Chiaro 2008). Driven by stark economical and social changes that had occurred in Western society from the 1950s onwards, the role of food and food related practices gradually untied from their mere sustenance function, and took on new many-sided dimensions. Modern society is undergoing dramatic changes in the field of nutrition and culinary discourse, as mirrored in the extensive media coverage of food topics. Even more strikingly so in a country, like Britain that has now apparently turned into a nation of food experts, where the average citizen used to be scarcely interested in food and healthy eating (Chiaro 2008:195). Food consumption has acquired the dimension of a cultural movement and a fashion trend. Chefs have achieved the popularity and status of superstars, as only pop music singers and actors used to do in the past. This can be easily explained if we assume that in Britain food has become a lifestyle as both journalists and thinkers have not failed to notice: “Londoners used to define themselves by which designers they wore or which music they listened to; today, it’s which restaurant they frequent, whose recipes they’re trying.” Britain is nowadays the number one exporter of television celebrity chefs. The symptoms of this epochal change range from TV chefs’ campaigns for the consumption of healthier food and for the use of local ingredients and home grown vegetables, to the choice of the most extravagant restaurant and the intake of the ultimate fusion cuisine delicatessen, to a return to the comforts of home made food and family value

Food Television Discourse: A cross-cultural diachronic approach

This study initially arose from the general interest of the author in food, perceived as a deeply-rooted culture-bound aspect of society and hence a potential ‘culture bump’ in cross-cultural communication and translation practices. Modern society is undergoing dramatic changes in the field of nutrition and culinary discourse, as mirrored in the extensive coverage of food topics in the media. Driven by stark economic and social changes that have occurred in European society from the 1950s on-wards, the role of food and food-related practices have gradually freed themselves from their function of mere sustenance, and have taken on many new dimensions, so much so that food consumption has acquired the proportion of a cultural movement and a fashion trend. This is even more strikingly so in a country like Britain, where the average citizen used to have little interest in food and healthy eating, but is now apparently a nation of food experts (Chiaro 2008; 2012). Chefs have achieved the popularity of superstars, as perhaps only pop singers and actors had done in the past. This can be easily explained if we accept that in the new millennium food has become a lifestyle and today Britain is still one of the largest exporters of television celebrity chefs. Moreover, thanks to major technological advances, today’s television consumers have unprecedented choice in terms of television content they can access. Audiences can decide when where and with which translation mode they can watch their preferred TV content. TV viewers can use social media platforms to comment upon, share or even produce media content. This book investigates food television looking at the intersections between language, culture and television over time and from a cross-cultural perspective. By addressing the diachronic evolution of mainly British and Italian television cookery programmes, from the early days of television to the so-called ‘noughties’ (the 2000s) and up to present day, this book seeks to demonstrate that it is not by chance that Britain has long been one of the strongest exporters of food television discourse and that Italy has absorbed and integrated into its television system many of the programmes and formats of Anglophone cookery culture and tradition. This volume provides a guide to the features, language and cultural issues involved in televised food-related programmes and looks at their diachronic evolution in connection to the technological and industrial evolution of the medium. The suggestions provided in this book will hopefully appeal to a wide cross-section of scholars and postgraduates in the fields of linguistics, media and food studies as well as screen translation and allow them to look at what are considered unpretentious products, but which are in fact, complex, multi-layered, multifaceted “cultural gateways”

Easy Eatalian: Chefs of Italian origin hosting cookery series on British television and mediating their cultural heritage

Drawing on an analysis of a sample of extracts from TV cookery programs hosted by Antonio Carluccio, Gennaro Contaldo and Giorgio Locatelli, three Italian chefs who under different circumstances chose the UK as their elective professional home-country, the present paper sets out to investigate three cases of recent (after the 1970s and after the 1980s) migration to the UK linked to the food industry. Well-known London restaurateurs, but also TV personae, these three chefs have become very popular both in the UK and in Italy via their British TV cookery series. This essay looks for narration patterns that relate to migration, redemption and success in the TV series analysed, and also addresses the topic of how culture-specific contents of the Italian food tradition have been retained, erased or adapted in order to appeal to UK recipients who do not share the cultural or the gastronomic background of the chefs’ country of origin. One further objective of the study is to investigate if the TV chefs’ representation of a sense of identity and belonging connect more to the Italian community at home or to the Italian-British community in the UK, and how these aspects have been conveyed through such culturally connoted programs as TV cookery series. In order to obtain a more thorough picture of the factors involved, the paper also considers cookbooks accompanying the TV series along with other cookbooks published by the chefs on Italian cuisine.Drawing on an analysis of a sample of extracts from TV cookery programs hosted by Antonio Carluccio, Gennaro Contaldo and Giorgio Locatelli, three Italian chefs who under different circumstances chose the UK as their elective professional home-country, the present paper sets out to investigate three cases of recent (after the 1970s and after the 1980s) migration to the UK linked to the food industry. Well-known London restaurateurs, but also TV personae, these three chefs have become very popular both in the UK and in Italy via their British TV cookery series. This essay looks for narration patterns that relate to migration, redemption and success in the TV series analysed, and also addresses the topic of how culture-specific contents of the Italian food tradition have been retained, erased or adapted in order to appeal to UK recipients who do not share the cultural or the gastronomic background of the chefs’ country of origin. One further objective of the study is to investigate if the TV chefs’ representation of a sense of identity and belonging connect more to the Italian community at home or to the Italian-British community in the UK, and how these aspects have been conveyed through such culturally connoted programs as TV cookery series. In order to obtain a more thorough picture of the factors involved, the paper also considers cookbooks accompanying the TV series along with other cookbooks published by the chefs on Italian cuisine

Gli insegnanti e la mediazione linguistica nelle scuole italiane: tra interazione ed integrazione

Questo contributo si inserisce nel quadro dei risultati del progetto di ricerca quadriennale InMedIO PUER(I) del Dipartimento in Interpretazione e Traduzione dell’Ateneo di Bologna. Il capitolo si concentra in particolare sulla mediazione linguistico-culturale ad opera di bambini nelle scuole primarie e secondarie di I grado della provincia di Forlì-Cesena, e analizza il fenomeno del Child Language Brokering (CLB) dal punto di vista dell’istituzione scolastica, ovvero degli insegnanti e dei direttori scolastici degli istituti presi in esame. Al fine di inquadrare le reali dimensioni della mediazione linguistica nelle scuole, l’articolo si apre con una panoramica sull’incidenza dei minori stranieri sul totale della popolazione scolastica italiana ed in particolare su quella degli istituti scolastici dell’Emilia Romagna, per poi entrare nel vivo della questione attraverso l’analisi di alcune testimonianze di insegnanti, di responsabili di sede e responsabili degli alunni stranieri, afferenti a diversi istituti comprensivi del territorio forlivese. I dati discussi nel capitolo sono di carattere qualitativo e sono stati raccolti dai ricercatori di InMedIO PUER(I) attraverso interviste semi-strutturate con singoli insegnanti e focus group con team di insegnanti. Le indagini sono state condotte presso alcune scuole primarie e secondarie di I grado della provincia di Forlì-Cesena tra il 2008 e il 2010. I materiali raccolti per il presente articolo sono stati successivamente utilizzati come base per la costruzione di due questionari ad hoc, somministrati tra gennaio e marzo 2011 rispettivamente agli insegnanti e agli alunni delle scuole di Forlì-Cesena e di altre province dell’Emilia Romagna con più alta incidenza di alunni stranieri

Good Food, Good Fun: An exploratory study on Italian audience consumption and perception of TV cookery programmes

Since the introduction of digital terrestrial and satellite TV and the advent of food and cooking specialty channels, the food business has definitely transformed the television industry landscape and has brought about an exponential increase in TV cookery channels and programmes worldwide. Following the fil rouge of the food mania on TV, this article assumes that the expansion of TV cookery consumption could be a useful tool to monitor more general social and cultural transformations in modern audiences across trans-national boundaries. This contribution presents the results of an exploratory, empirical study conducted in Italy among a demographically mixed sample of television viewers, both satellite and pay TV subscribers and not, in order to investigate if and how their consumption of televised cookery has changed since the introduction of terrestrial digital television in Italy in 2012 and the subsequent increase in the number of factual channels. The study also aims to find out if and how the Italian audience's perception of this kind of programmes has evolved in response to recent technological advances. Combining the results of focus groups, qualitative in-depth interviews and ad hoc questionnaires, the paper considers recent audience evolution in terms of preferences and consumption habits of both subtitled and voiced-over products of foreign cookery programmes vs. Italian cookery programmes