The production of the ‘New Romanian Cuisine’: Elite local taste and globalisation

Under the attack of globalisation’s universalising force, food traditions become sites of cultural resistance (Poulain, 2017) in a recent worldwide phenomenon that saw the birth of a new type of restaurants gathered under the umbrella of a New Cuisine taxonomy. The interest in what such actors perceive as “roots” and “traditions”, their fear of alienation and their strong ethical and ecological awareness build an ethos that turns food production into a cultural phenomenon (Ferguson, 2004) and therefore into something good to think with (Levy-Strauss, 1963). The New Romanian restaurants position themselves as agents of change and nationalise the fine dining space according to their vision while setting up the local identity’s resistance to global forces and building a new meaning for Romanian restaurant food. I analysed the mechanisms that help instil or dilute ‘Romanian-ness’ and the motivations behind this process that claims to address a need expressed by the up-and-coming middle class.