Is Cooking Art? The Artifying Process and Its Limitations

Defining cooking as art has a long history. Such discourse appears to be intensifying in recent years as the world of gastronomy undergoes important changes. But has change been so profound as to warrant us endorsing that definition? The theory of artification as a civilizing process helps us approach the question sociologically. Journalists are at the forefront of the trend to treat cuisine as an artform, especially “high cuisine”. They are not alone; data indicate that this is a widespread point of view. Cuisine is deemed to be the artistic production of chefs, and eating an artistic experience for eaters. The assumption gains traction from recent inter-related developments such as: the development of the tertiary sector, technical and scientific rationalization of food production and distribution, aesthetic and institutional innovations, the refinement of taste, the financialization and transformation of gastronomy into an international luxury industry, the upward social mobility of cooks, and novel accolades from the art world. Should we conclude that cooking and chefs have indeed accomplished a process of artification? Artifying trends contribute to the shifting balance of power in favour of chefs and their heightened status as creative professionals. Nevertheless, the socio-economic context of producing and disseminating cuisine as well as the very nature of the food factor set extremely strong limitations to the artification of cooking.