食話食說：台灣美食家的探索性研究（1995-2008）

Abstract

90年代後期，台灣開始進入成熟的消費社會，週休二日、第四台開放、網路崛起等社會環境，帶動國人休閒消費熱潮。美食論述的興起，反應且塑造著社會的集體行動，「吃」成為一種學習、訓育與展現品味的過程。 不同於90年代以前的教學食譜或飲食文學，90年代後期出現的美食論述，具有召喚民眾消費的文化特質。餐飲指南成為出版市場上的新類別、各大報加重美食專題與新聞的比重、電視台開始製作各式美食節目……。美食論述以一種指導甚或蠱惑的方式，吸引著消費者打開荷包，享受美食。 美食家作為美食符號生產者中的佼佼者，以一種「專家」的姿態，指導著美食的吃法與品味。其權威來自於場域內的象徵鬥爭，也就是將武斷與任意應允為合法化的過程。本文以各具不同專長的五位美食家為研究對象，藉著對胡天蘭、焦桐、葉怡蘭、吳恩文、王浩一的耙梳，理解美食家合法性的取得，以及其所帶來的社會影響。 從五位美食家習性、資本的養成過程可得知，美食家須經歷長時間文化資本的累積，始能具有突出於一般人的飲食鑑賞品味與飲食文化知識。但文化資本的累積僅是成為美食家的前哨站，若要踏入美食論述場域且占有一席之地，還需具備將文化資本轉換為象徵資本的努力與策略，此轉換策略乃根據個人的場域位置而異。 在場域的象徵鬥爭裡，美食家會藉由凸顯出自己的「專家」身份，找到自己在美食論述場域內的位置，相較於記者所生產，以經濟資本佔主導地位的「資訊型美食論述」，美食家的文本則是位在場域裡的另一頭，以文化資本佔主導的「飲食文化型美食論述」。 除了自己的努力外，美食論述場域內其他人的烘托、協助、認同亦有助於美食家合法性的取得，尤其媒體的報導與曝光。因此，本文除了對五位美食家進行深度訪談與文本內容分析外，也訪問了六位在美食論述場域內與美食家熟識的記者、廚師與部落客，從他們側面且長期的觀察，做為資料收集來源。

In the late 1990’s, Taiwan became a mature consumerist society. Social changes, such as having two days off per week, loosening of regulations for cable television and the development of the Internet, have stimulated leisure consumption in Taiwan. The increase in gourmet exposition reflects and shapes social movements. Eating has become a process of learning, training and of showing one’s taste. The gourmet expositions of the late 1990’s are different than the educational recipes or gourmet literature that existed before because the former had the ability to stimulate people to consume. Gourmet food guides became a new category in the publishing market, major newspapers started to increase the amount of articles on gourmet topics, and TV stations started to air various types of gourmet food shows. Gourmet expositions use an educational and captivating method to seduce consumers into opening their wallets to enjoy gourmet meals. Gourmands are the elite of the gourmet writing field. As professionals, they hold sway over how gourmet food should be eaten and tasted. Their authority comes from symbolic struggles in their field, also known as the legalization process of arbitrariness. This paper studies five gourmands, each with different specialties. Through studying Hu Tianlan, Jiao Tong, Ye Yilan, Wu Enwen and Wang Haoyi, the process in which gourmands receive their legality and the resulting social effects can be understood and analyzed. Through exploring the process in which these five gourmands develop their habits and capital, it can be seen that gourmands require long periods of time to accumulate their cultural capital in order to obtain knowledge of gourmet culture and a palate that exceeds and is more refined than those of normal people. However, accumulation of cultural capital is only the first part of becoming a gourmand. If one wants to enter the gourmet exposition field and become a renowned gourmand, one also needs to put in the work and understand the strategy of transforming cultural capital into symbolic capital. This strategy differs according to the field in which one is in. Gourmands use the symbolic struggles in their field to showcase their professionalism and solidify their position in the field of gourmet exposition. The articles on gourmet topics written by news reporters are of the “information gourmet exposition” type, which is dominated by economic capital. Conversely, the gourmet articles written by gourmands are on the other side of the spectrum, belonging to the “food culture gourmet exposition” type, dominated by cultural capital. Besides their own efforts, gourmands also utilize the assistance, recognition and recommendations of their colleagues as well as media coverage to obtain their legality. Thus, besides conducting in-depth interviews with five gourmands and analyzing the content of texts, this paper has also chosen six reporters, cooks and bloggers who are acquainted with gourmands within the gourmet exposition field and conducted long-term observations on these people, turning them into sources of information.