Wild Cuisine and Canadianness Creeping Rootstalks and Subterranean Struggle

The author notes that Canada is commonly depicted as a rugged wilderness, and defining the characteristics of its food as wild is a contributing factor in this narrative. The author draws on visual analysis as well as theory from sensory studies to complicate the concept of “wild” food at the root of discourse on Canadian cuisine. The focus of her analysis is a case study of wild berries used by Anglophone, Francophone, and Innu locals of Quebec's Lower North Shore. The author points out that the intimate experiences of residents with the foods that grow in their home do not connect smoothly with representations of wilderness in promotional materials for wild berry products and tourism in the region. In fact, the author explains, personal accounts of picking, preparing, and eating wild berries complicate master narratives of wild Canadian cuisine, thus enriching this country's national food culture through complexity. The author concludes that these stories show that wilderness is not a state of purity but a fiction that obscures the multifaceted natural-cultural negotiations among humans, plants, animals, climate, and more in the making of what is call “wild.”

Gastronomica

Vol. 18

no. 3

14-27

Fall 2018

en