Architecture and Gastronomy in Cosmopolitan City Environment:

case study of Pune, India.

Dr. Vasudha A. Gokhale

The word cosmopolitanism represents globalized and hybridized living environment,

which have mobility of people, culture, commodities and cuisines. As per gastronomical
studies it refers to geography of culinary convergence the “world on a plate” that
resulted in development of global cosmopolitan culture in cities which in turn changed
the architectural character in growing urban agglomerations. Architecture and
gastronomy as disciplines influence each other; both cannot be controlled by absolute
prescriptions or rigid formulae as they rely on a combination of intuition, inventiveness.
This paper is an effort to navigate between the spatiality’s of built form with reference to
eating experience to explore reciprocity between them. It illustrates the role of
gastronomy in the expression and interpretation of architecture.

Introduction

Many cities like New York, Chicago, London or Sydney are referred as global cities
representing cosmopolitanism evidenced by the diversity of foods available in the city’s
restaurants. Shopping streets across the world epitomize cosmopolitanism precisely
through the presence of facilities providing a multitude of foreign foods and culinary
styles. Today a number of growing Indian cities striving to attain cosmopolitan status
seek to attract a greater variety of national and foreign food outlets to demonstrate their
urbane worldliness and appeal to a growing taste for diversity.

Figure 1. Lyon Street Melbourne Figure 2. Brussels, Belgium

The diverse approaches have to be studied that reassess the metaphorical relationship
between eating and architecture and address how the built environment participates in
the experience of a meal. The underlying significance of setting and service within
architectural discourse is to be analyzed which also influence and contribute to the
character of a city. The analysis will hinge mostly on the socio-cultural elements of
culinary culture in Pune, the changes in the society over the years to allow the
successful entrance of the foreign food outlets and consecutive development of a new
landscape in the city. It explores the public perception of these establishments in Pune
today to know whether foreign food culture taking over eliminating Pune’s traditional
gastronomy, most importantly, what does the future hold for the building industry in this
growing world class city.

City and Gastronomy

The city is that very large kitchen of which Miles writes as a site of abundance, of
diversity and constant change. The landmark theorization of the city as a growth
machine by Harvey Molotch’s is very much relevant in today’s context as it was four
decades ago. Today cross-cultural pollination has led to a number of traditional cuisines
becoming popular outside of its place of origin, even to the point of becoming
mainstream cuisine. This trend is common in India being an assemblage of highly
multicultural population living in a geographical area. Food and culinary culture are
powerful ways of defining boundaries. It is an expression of cultural identity and a
signifier of belonging. According to Appadurai the materiality of food, styles of cooking,
and ways of eating are symbolic entities which engage an individual in “gastro-politics”.
Food functions metaphorically to bridge gaps between cultural communities.

Figure 3 . Regional Food Outlets Figure 4 Regional Food Outlets

Gastronomy as A Phenomenon

Food is basically a culinary practice which has symbolic and ecological referents which
represent culture of a community. The word ‘gastronomy’, is derived from Greek,
seems to have been invented by Joseph Berchoux in 1801. Traditional food not
addresses appetite alone, but also possesses a bland uniformity of presentation,
content and aesthetic with a conscious attachment from place, community and
ceremony. Eating is a phenomenon which occurred in a context of environmental stimuli
known as ambience. It include a number of external factors such as social and physical
surroundings, in addition to the presence of other people and sound, temperature,
smell, color, time, and distraction affect eating experience as a whole. As per the
symbolic structuralism’s perspective food consumption is a psychological and
behavioral system that originates in the human brain and food transforms from a natural
object to a cultural one.

Traditions, Heritage and Gastronomy

The discipline of discursive psychology and food semiology analyze the ways in which
foods and food preparation rituals of a given society represent a linguistic system,
conveying social information that helps create and maintain its social identity (Barthes,
1973). From sociological point of view social patterns of food consumption are shaped
by the ‘structure’ of society. Food falls into the formal category of ‘Intangible Cultural
Heritage’ (ICH) as defined by UNESCO. People move in a space temporally and
spatially, consuming distant poles of their own regional and national cultures and the
cultures of others in a transversal strategy of social distinction. Gastronomy is a social
system which creates a growing divergence from traditional culinary systems, due to its
increasing complexity based on an exponential reproduction of distinctions. The
postulation of Traditional Food intends to preserve cultural practices that define the way
of living of local people. A traditional cuisine may be central to the cultural identity of the
communities that practice and transmit it from generation to generation. It could
enhance the visibility of intangible cultural heritage and promote respect for cultural
diversity and human creativity. One of such example is Mexican cuisine which is a
comprehensive cultural model comprising farming, ritual practices, age-old skills,
culinary techniques and ancestral community customs and manners. Considering its
heritage value it has been included in UNESCO’s representative List of the Intangible
Cultural Heritage of Humanity in year 2010. The Maharashtrian postulation focused on
the ceremonies and cultural practices around specific food items. Pune city have a
number of food outlets exclusively providing Maharshtrian food in traditional way and
Pune people are proud of them. Places like Badshahi, Durvankur, Rajwada,
Jadhavgadhi, are keeping Pune’s culinary culture alive. But in last 3-4 decades
popularity of multi cuisine restaurants has increased considerably.

Figure 5 A Maharashtrian restaurant Figure 6 A multi cuisine restaurant

Urban Soft Power

Global city culinary culture is shown to be influenced both by local urban histories and
by transnational cultural politics, as the cities compete in terms of its attractiveness for
investors, or their “urban soft power. The term derives from the “soft power” concept
developed by Joseph Nye which explains the reputational and ideological power of
nation states creating the complex set of cultural and human resources that make some
cities more attractive places to live and invest than others. In Pune it has been noticed
that despite the increasing diversities of urban food culture, “culinary Occidentalism” as
well as “culinary nationalism” still strongly influence the meanings of consuming foreign
foods in this emerging global city.

Figure 7 . Foreign food outlets Figufe 8. Forign food brands

At first the Pune people were not accepted the western tastes, but they were impressed
with western power, and culinary Occidentalism developed as a way of appropriating
western power through the consumption of western foods. Culinary Occidentalism was
especially important to Pune peoples’ claims of cultural stature for this historic city. In
this development the focus was on the “glittering décor,” “ornate,” “elegance and
cleanliness” of western restaurants rather than the exotic and perhaps unfamiliar tastes.
In late 19th century, eating at least occasionally in restaurants or cafes had become a
regular feature of life of the residents, even for the middle classes. For some period
Pune’s food culture was suppressed under goals of food austerity, and indigenization,
which later became a way of affirming a cosmopolitan modern identity. In last three
decades Pune attained a new image as a vibrant and creative metropolis, with a “buzz”
that appeals to visitors creating attractive food outlets increasingly perceived as an
important element. This reputational pull of the city, including its image and cityscape
features has increased it urban soft power rendering it as an attractive place to live and
do business.

Architecture and Eating Experience

Eating takes place in a context of environmental stimuli known as ambience. Various

external factors such as social and physical surroundings, including the presence of
others and sound, temperature, smell, color, time, and distraction affect eating
experience , intake and choice of food . The consumption of metropolitan character and
the cultural transformation of the Pune’s personal identity in the form, content and social
relations involved in eating spaces. They are supposed to be significant as a key to
understanding a collective identity which has become more and more apparent as Pune
people vehemently try to establish a city with its own culture. EM Forster’s reflections on
food, eating provide an interesting point of departure for analyzing the intricate
connections between spaces of eating, food cultures. He described English food as
“gastronomic joylessness”. Today the ambience in representing city’s gastronomical
character is somehow seems to be missing. Most of the establishments are lacking the
vernacular flavor as far as the character of spaces is concerned.

Maharashtra is a region of particular gastronomic quality and competence. Cities

having the high-end restaurant segment which is predominantly shaped by the cultural
hegemony of national, international cuisine, perpetuated by multiple processes. It has
been observed that the processes of globalization have weakened or even undermined
the local cultural dominance in fine dining restaurants and their culinary culture. Pune is
supposed to be a multicultural space par excellence where the various culinary
traditions are revaluated, based on the creativity from various places. Under the
influence of the existing culinary styles, Mahrashtrian cuisine is passing through a
rediscovery phase. The contemporary cultural changes resulting from the complex
reality, is challenging traditions, standards, and norms and affecting the culinary culture
and subsequent architectural development.

Changing Scenario

The advent of foreign brands has redefined the Indian culinary culture as a result many
international fast food chains have outlets in every nook and corner of Indian cities
which nave changed character of cityscapes considerably.
With increasing financial capacity
trend of spending on eating out is
growing at an annual rate of 20
percent as per study. This is
evident in the increased number of
eating facilities throughout the city.
There are many places dedicated
exclusively to gastronomical
Figure 9. International Food Outlets development.

Such examples to quote are J.M Road and Fergusson College road where there are
more than 175 such facilities are located on one kilometer stretch of road. In Pune
foreign fast food brands have latched on to the changing lifestyle aspiration of a young,
well off and not necessarily fastidious younger generation. In the city 23 establishments
purveying ethnic and regional cuisine out of more than 678 registered establishments as
per survey.
Methodology

A list of restaurants and food establishments in Pune was prepared. The selection of
establishments was made after consultation with food critics where the final list
contained approximately 40 establishments. The data obtained from the questionnaires
was compiled into a database suitable for statistical analysis. A preliminary
questionnaire was generated through consideration of existing literature and discussion
with culinary critics and restaurant owners covering items covered that have been
identified in other research, including commonly recognized factors such as location,
food type access and parking facility. Ambience, service, price and ethnical concern
conforms to the preferences of family, individuals and peer group. Sample consists of
250 adults ranging in age from 18 to 85 years. Questionnaire was designed to assess a
wide range of considerations that might be taken into account by individuals when
choosing the food facility.

60 Choice of facility has a

50 correlation with the age of the
40 consumer which is influenced by
30
four factors viz type of food
available, Location of the facility,
20
Ambience and price. A random
10
sample of respondents was
0 grouped in four age categories
16-21 21-35 35-55 55 onwards
both male and female. They were
Meal Type Ambience Location Price asked to give dominant reason
for visit to a food joint (Result
Figure 10 shown in Fig 10.

Respondents were asked to choose out of 4 options for each of the 24 items not at all
to consider, a little to consider , moderately important to consider and highly important
to consider. Scores on each scale were computed by averaging un-weighted ratings for
individual items, so could range from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 4.
Table 1.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 The inter-correlations between

Type of food 34 the scales of the questionnaire
Service 14 27 are shown in Table 2. A number
Brand Name 19 32 5 of significant associations were
Location 59 28 -5 22 observed. The most prominent
Price 20 14 32 4 4 was between choice of food
Ambience 38 21 7 2 31 14
Access and parking 9 34 29 13 8 13 - facility and location and
5 ambience (r=0·59).
Ethnic concern 32 29 12 13 39 33 9 10
There were also moderate correlations between price, service, type of food and ethnical
concern. The level of satisfaction reported by respondents in relation to the gastronomy
of Pune is significantly high.

Table 2. Quality of Food Facility Furthermore, over 90%

Strengths Weaknesses Those questioned
Percentage(%) Percentage(%) reported themselves as
Type of Food 79.3 20.8 being satisfied or very
Location 50.9 20.8 satisfied with the Eating
Ambience 45.3 11.3 facility. In sum, the Pune’s
cuisine forms a large part
Price 18.9 7.5 of the image of the city as
Service 18.9 7.5 a whole.
Ethnic concern 13.2 5.7

Using a 5-point Likert Scale (1 = very dissatisfied, 5 = very satisfied), all of those
questioned reported satisfaction levels of 4 or 5, with an average of 4.74. Presence of
people in Indian food joints particularly Maharashtrian ones was found to be significant.
Many traditional food outlets are preferred for the presence of ethnic ambience for
gastronomical delight they offer. This shows that Pune’s cuisine is highly thought of,
and the city should use this asset which is one of the most important elements of city’s
image.

Conclusion
Today ethnic cuisine only becomes a self conscious subjective reality crossing ethnic
boundaries like ethnicity itself. In the era of global cosmopolitan culture awareness of
ethnic concerns and ethnic identity is commonplace in modern Indian society. Pune is
witnessing economic globalization as a result investments and increased wealth create
the conditions for development of international restaurant scenes and consequent
development of a cosmopolitan and lively urban food culture in the city. The rise of
different style dining in Pune , and the development of multicultural eating played a
crucial role in the process of turning the city into a modern, mass society. It facilitated
the rise of a completely new consciousness among Pune people, connecting them to a
world beyond. The presence of international food outlets had changed the cityscape but
still the city possesses its own flavor and gastronomical tradition of which the pune
citizen proud of.
Acknowledgement: All Photographs courtesy Abhishek Kulkarni and Anshuma
Gokhale.

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