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"It's Not Israeli but You Eat it in Israel:" Power and Difference in the Production of Israeli National Cuisine
(2014) Bernard-Herman, Benjamin; Ghannam, Farha, 1963-
Drawing upon semi-structured interviews and participant observation, and informed by critical studies of food, nationalism, and intersectionality, in this thesis I argue that Israeli national cuisine is constituted by the interplay between national and international flows of foods and meanings attached to these foods. I examine these questions of the production of national cuisine and identity using Bourdieu' s notion of a habitus, which I place in an intersectional, rather than just classed, framework. By examining the cultural flows of cuisine and ideas about cuisine into, within, and out of Israel, I understand Israeli cuisine to be a central myth of the Israeli nationstate that functions to legitimate and naturalize a unified notion of the state. Despite the many diverse culinary traditions that have produced Israeli cuisine, the concept of Israeli cuisine obfuscates difference within the state of Israel.