ABSTRACT
In this chapter, co-written with Dr Graham Ellender, gastronomy signifies why we eat, how we eat, what we eat, when we eat, with whom we eat, where we eat, well-being and eating, wellness and sickness influences on eating, where and why we travel to eat, what represents our cultural background, and what influences occurred from conception onwards. Gastronomy is commonly represented in dictionaries as ‘the art and science of good eating’. However, what represents the scope and accepted standards of gastronomy is wanting; the lay usage and interpretations of ‘gastronomy’ and ‘gastronomic’ lead to confusion especially when used in marketing and advertising. Furthermore, gastronomy is confounded by pseudo-gastronomy relating to food and wine snobbery. In the public eye, gastronomy equates with culinary studies, hospitality and tourism, and with culinary gastronomy covering the traditional scope of food production and extending into industrial food; these confusions regrettably extend into academic food studies.
