New Recipes in Business History

Foods are often the first “taste” people get of a new culture. Food can convey unique aspects of a community's identity, sense of place, and traditions that mark it as “authentic.” The growth of national and global markets over the past century has spurred demand for authentic foods, while at the same time, paradoxically, reinventing them and remaking traditional foodways. This panel looks at the role businesses played in finding new markets for old foods and rebranding food traditions for new, national and global audiences. Papers offer examples of the ways in which a unique taste or food was, at times, a wedge cultural entrepreneurs used to break into new markets, while in other cases, cultivating authentic taste among new consumers required substantial marketing resources or creative “reinventions” of cultural practices.