Cooking, eating and digesting: Notes on the emergent normativities of food and speeds

Abstract

This article analyses conflicting versions of speed and temporal work that are involved in engaging with food. The dominant discourses around fast and slow food are challenged and extended by juxtaposing three kinds of food-related activities: cooking, eating, and digesting. Drawing on a wide range of empirical and theoretical examples and dietary advice, I illustrate how modes of engaging with foods also produce and come with specific “goods” and “bads.” Problematizing these normativities, I use the Swedish word ‘lagom’ to denote a temporal and spatial normativity that is always located in a specific situation.