Terroir: The Intersection of Food and Place

The notion of terroir, a concept that is profoundly French and is difficult to translate into English, provides interesting insight into how an individual is able to view food in relation to place and to become an informed and “situated eater.” In the readings assigned for the first class on terroir, Trubek and Leynse, both examine the ways in which French consumers place specific value on the origins and production methods of the food they consume, leading to the value of “place” when making food choices.

Trubek examines the attention that the French give to taste and introduces the reader to the notion of terroir and gout du terroir, which has been defined as a “flavor or odor of certain locales that are given to its products” (Trubek 260). However, Trubek argues that to define the notion of terroir and gout du

Although I am an American, my parents reject many of the stereotypically American food habits like processed foods, fast food culture, etc. My childhood education and socialization often incorporated aspects of food, such as valuing formal family dinners, dining etiquette, gardening, farm safety education, cooking as a family activity, and visiting friends who lived on a farm to see food production processes from farm to plate. Travel was also an essential aspect of my upbringing and my parents ensured that to each place we traveled, we sampled local specialties that we were unable to get in my home town even if we did not anticipate we would enjoy the flavor, for example like haggis and black pudding during a trip to Scotland. Often my family remembers a specific place or location based on the food we ate there, which shows the power of associations of place and taste on memory