Abstract:
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.
