In this chapter, I look at curatorial practices on platform and wider cultural economies as they move from the exclusive to the less exclusive and from atmospheres of highbrow coolness to experiences with locality and authenticity. This, of course, does not mean that food does not have a luxury side similar to fashion; luxury gastronomic experiences are conceptual, deconstructive, and photogenic, as we shall discuss in more detail in Section 5.5, inhabiting canons and norms of prestige. These include world-famous restaurants, like Noma in Copenhagen, prestigious prizes, like Michelin stars, celebrity chefs, like Salt Bae and preferred gastronomical patterns, like ethical food. Underneath and beyond these canons and norms, there are millions of curated gastronomic practices with a less elite address and varying degrees of curation unfurling in hyped urban neighborhoods or in everyday social media accounts. Despite the diferences, we can argue that these food practices share some common features in the age of platform cultural economies: (a) food is performed as a form of distinction instead of simply a biological need, (b) there is an emphasis on locality and authenticity, and (c) there is a tendency to artify food, for instance via stylized dish photos uploaded in platforms, expert language in menus, food and restaurant descriptions, and an emphasis on dish design.
I start this chapter by delving into the business literature on the experience economy as it is a key site for understanding Airbnb Experiences and the wider entrepreneurialization of food from the perspective of capital (e.g., Gilmore and Pine, 2007; Pine and Gilmore, 2011; 2013; Lewis and Bridger, 2011). The idea of staging experiences recalls Böhme’s concept of atmospheres that we discussed in the previous chapter. While these obviously depart from diferent disciplinary traditions, the critical exploration of the experience economy ofers a better understanding of Böhme’s concept, as it helps contextualize the purposeful enactment of atmospheres in entrepreneurial enterprises. In the next section, I focus more specifically on food and discuss the ideals of new upper- and middle-class gastronomical imaginary, which, according to the theorist Margot Finn, revolves around cosmopolitanism, purity, sophistication, and thinness (2019). I argue that the food-experience economy capitalizes on these ideals, which take global visibility through media platforms. These ideals are embodied in celebrity chefs, culinary contests, and diet plans, among others, where the practice of eating, drinking, or cooking is recontextualized so that it acquires meaning. In the last sections, I look at two case studies of authentic and post-authentic food economies—a virtual cooking class with an Italian grandmother, a nonna, and the reframing of tradition in the gourmet scene in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece. In both cases, platforms allow for performing the dish as a work of art via photos and elaborate descriptions which promise unique and memorable food experiences.
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Cultures of Platform Capitalism