To Örebro University

In this chapter, the authors discuss what can be achieved when a taxonomy of three-dimensional visual analysis, derived from the fields of art and design, is applied to teaching within Culinary Arts and Meal Sciences. They propose further development of the Five Aspects Meal Model (FAMM) to include both temporal dimension and a more detailed understanding of the meal space. The design of the meal within a space rarely adheres to single organisational form; rather, it often involves a blend of static, dynamic, and organic elements within the same table setting. Various objects come into focus at different times, playing dominant roles accordingly. By integrating the temporal dimension into the spatial aspect of the FAMM, the model becomes more dynamic, and more useful in meal design. Thus, with an expanded aesthetic taxonomy, professionals can become more reflective practitioners when handling the meal space.

In this chapter the authors attempt to problematise the ideas of service and hospitality in the dining room craft with an emphasis on the use of the materiality of the restaurant. The authors also suggest that it is possible to use theoretical concepts in practical education to strengthen knowledge development among culinary students and among practitioners in the restaurant industry. By exemplifying different dining room situations and the materiality involved, the contributions of time-geography and practice theory to help understand and analyse how a waiter can promote or impede service and hospitality are discussed. The authors argue that theoretical perspectives can be especially useful in craft professions within the restaurant industry as their concepts are directly transferable in the everyday work of practitioners.

I restaurangbranschen har rationaliseringar tvingats fram och kunskap efterfrågas i mindre omfattning. Syftet med avhandlingen är därför att utveckla begrepp och pröva metoder för att återge och förmedla procedurer och göranden i hantverk för att därigenom visa vad som är servitörens yrkeskunskap. Avhandlingen undersöker metoder som fångar hantverkets sinnliga aspekter genom att synliggöra och vetenskapliggöra den dimensionen av ett hantverk. Den ledande frågan är hur servitörens hantverkskunnande för mise en place, dukning och servering kan visualiseras, kommuniceras och förstås?

Olika metoder har prövats och forskningen har skett i och genom hantverk med egen restaurangerfarenhet som utgångspunkt. Film som metod har prövats för att vetenskapliggöra betydelsen av hantverkarens sinnliga bedömningar. Metoder från tidsgeografi, som förklarar det materiellas bundenhet till tid och rum, samt från taxonomi för tredimensionell visuell analys, som ger förståelse för gestaltning, har använts.

Resultaten visar att hantverkaren oreflekterat tar stöd av sina egna sinnen för att bli effektivare och säkerställa sitt hantverksutförande. Resultaten visar även att de tidsgeografiska begreppen kapacitets-, kopplings- och auktoritetsrestriktioner möjliggör att identifiera och förklara de hinder som servitören tar hänsyn till vid planering och genomförande av en hantverksprocedur. När kunskap om förklaringar länkas samman med kunskap om förståelse, blir det möjligt att beskriva hur gästen i en måltidssituation kan styras och påverkas av estetiken. Genom ett flermetodologiskt tillvägagångssätt har hantverkskunnandet för procedurerna mise en place, dukning och servering artikulerats vetenskapligt i ord och bilder.

A meal consists of both tangible and intangible dimensions. Menus and photos may be the only documentation from a meal, but experiences are rarely saved beyond memory. The aim of this study is to design a method for documenting intangible aspects of the professional experience of a meal craftsman, based on the memories associated with the files in an archive. By sorting the archive according to a specific process of documentation we managed to revive and document also the intangible aspects of these meals. In order to access the intangible aspects, a version of the Socratic method of dialogue was developed and used. This is exemplified by a case. The dialogues reunited intangible aspects from the memories of the designer, such as motives and drivers, with the tangible archive documents.

A common way to describe craft knowledge is through the figure of speech it's in your hands. With this description, there is no attempt made to explain the complex knowledge which is present in craft. One reason why these explanations are rarely articulated is that they consist of sensory judgments. With this film, Ways of Tacit Knowing, we argue that, with the help of film media, it is possible to decode and articulate some of the knowledge content embodied in craft that is often described as tacit knowledge. We, the producers of this film, are experienced craftspeople, which makes us at once both subjects and objects of the research—a methodology akin to auto-ethnography. In the film, we present examples of situations from practice in our different craft fields: the practice in cultivation and management in gardening and the practice of culinary crafts situated in the kitchen and in the dining room. This film presents a dialogue of knowledge in action with craftspeople who discuss their sensory-based judgments in crafts.

The aim of this paper is to visualize, communicate and understand the vocational knowledge of a waiters craft, including how to perform table-setting and serving. The underlying theoretical perspectives are Culinary Arts and Meal Science, Craft Science, and Time-Geography. Basic time-geographical concepts used in the study are project, log, notation and constraint. The empirical data consist of two postulated serving methods wherein different procedures are identified. The data are based on the first author’s vocational experience and are described by logs of procedures. Questions in the logs concerning capacity, coupling, or authority constraints indicate limits to what is possible. Additionally, one of the serving methods is shown by a notation, displaying the waiter’s and the guests’ actions in relation to the procedures. The notation, complemented with a drawing of the room, provides knowledge about when, where, and for how long a serving procedure lasts. Through the use of time-geographical tools, the waiter’s craft procedures can be described and interpreted. Thus, it became possible to visualize, communicate, and acquire a deeper understanding of how the waiter in her vocational craft predicts and masters how time and materiality together with spatiality affect a meal event.