Teaching Taste

How we taste and eat is just as central in a civilization perspective as what we know and think. Meal communities are important contributors to the creation of a community of opinions based on sense, emotion and taste. This is the reason for writing Teaching Taste. The book consists of a historical, a systematic and a didactic part. The historical part analyses Danish children’s cookbooks. This part presents an answer to the question of ‘when’: when did the view of taste change from a norm that was met by following a recipe as accurately as possible to a sense and ability that everyone, including children, possesses and uses as a basis for cooking and enjoying food, and develops in order to become taste competent, confident and autonomous? The second, systematic, part presents a taste systematic basis for a didactics of taste. It includes an answer to the question of ‘what’: what is being taught when teaching revolves around taste? This part identifies seven dimensions of taste: pleasant taste, healthy taste, sensed taste, moral taste, religious taste, loving taste and trendy taste. These seven dimensions include didactic reflections and concrete examples. The third, didactic part presents the answer to the question of ‘how’: how can we teach about, through and for taste? The book is written for teachers, trainee teachers and students on courses in Home Economics, Food Knowledge and/or Food Education. The book includes several concrete teaching examples. It ends with a ready-to-use teaching handout.