To Örebro University

In this chapter, the author aims to design a specific research method based on the mutual exchange of knowledge within academia and practiced gastronomy during the study process itself. A hermeneutic approach based on Paul Ricoeur’s method of analysis was chosen for its connections between tradition, present and future. Four young gastronomes were followed for two years and met with the author for dialogues on four successive occasions. In the gastronomes’ stories, the meal’s way of influencing is expressed in terms of staging knowledge-based examples that will make participants understand impressions from the meal in new ways, even after the meal is finished. The author concludes that the results from this kind of research method are not definitive but are intended to develop progressively by opening up new opportunities to interpret the phenomenon discussed. Furthermore, as stated by the author, these types of results are not clarifications of definite questions nor developments of practical solutions to problems. Instead, the results are ideas, open to further knowledge processes.

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.

In our time, wine-related industries express a growing demand for understanding new ideas about wine. This article explores how professional wine tasters develop their knowledge. Based on the idea of bildung as hermeneutic interpretation, we argue that there are three dominant ideas about how knowledge of wine can be approached: first, as an acquired canon; second, as a systematic tool; and third, as a search process. The intertwinement of these perspectives is exemplified by four autobiographical stories about experiences of learning, working with, and developing wine knowledge. One story is the first author's own autobiography; the others are published works by influential wine tasters. Autobiographical stories add a novel humanistic approach to explorations of wine knowledge, focusing on interpretation of experiences.

In the discussion, the three different approaches to knowledge acquisition are related to how they support our understanding of different aspects of wine. We argue that canonic and systematic knowledge tends to be limited to conventional and technical aspects, while knowledge of the individuality of more unconventional wines and their aesthetic aspects is acquired through a search process. With increased influences of humanistic expressions in the world of wine, a greater focus on knowledge-seeking approaches to wine is required.

This article explores sustainable development from a gastronomic perspective. Humanistic perspectives on food offered by gastronomy are explored as an asset in cultivating self-awareness capacities needed for sustainable transformations of society. The purpose is to explore how gastronomes can cultivate understandings and explanations of sustainability to be conveyed to individuals via meals. In semi-annually recurring dialogic interviews, four university-educated gastronomes cultivated their understandings and explanations of sustainability, and modeled how these could be communicated to other individuals. The dialogues gradually brought the ideas of the researcher and the participants toward a common explanation of the potential ways gastronomic competency could advance sustainable development. The results highlight two ways of understanding gastronomic sustainability: functionally as practical communication, and formally as a cultural issue. Based on H.G. Gadamer’s idea of bildung as hermeneutic interpretation, we argue that self-awareness is a process which is rooted in how knowledge is interpreted, understood, and explained by the individual. Practical participation in culturally influenced meals makes gastronomy a bridge between individual and societal issues, whereby gastronomic competencies can cultivate sustainable commitment, judgment, and community. In this way, gastronomic sustainability represents an approach to sustainable development that, significantly, also involves the cultivation of sustainable meaning.