Europe on a Plate: Food, Identity and Cultural Diversity in Contemporary Europe

This article discusses tensions emerging from conflicting ethnic and national identities in three European Union (EU) member states – Germany, Italy and Spain – through the prism of culinary practices. Food is a marker of cultural identity. In Europe, a wide variety of food practices and culinary cultures co-exist in close proximity, and Europeans thus face the dilemma that confronts all omnivores presented with a breadth of culinary options: while variety can bring the potential for enjoyment, the choice of something new can be perceived as a threat. Within this context, buffeted by the forces of globalisation, migration and supra-national EU regulation, culinary patterns associated with migration strive to come to terms with growing ‘gastronationalism’. This article dissects the differences and similarities in the way this tension manifests in Germany, Italy and Spain.