Texture across cultures: Vietnam, China, and the UK

Is gristle delicious, or is it revolting?

What is a pleasing texture?

In Europe and North America, processors of food—whether multi-national corporations or Michelin-starred restaurants—favour the silky, the smooth, and the creamy. This predilection structures everything from our attitude towards vegetables to our choices of cuts of meat: tenderness is everything.

However, this is not universal. In this seminar, we will explore and taste the textural side of gastronomy. We are excited to be joined by Fuchsia Dunlop, the preeminent Western authority on Chinese cuisine, as well as Dr Dominique Valentin, whose research focuses on the cross-cultural elements of food and wine appreciation.

Fuchsia Dunlop is an award-winning food-writer specialising in Chinese cuisine. She trained as a chef at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine, has travelled widely in China, and is the author of four books about Chinese food, including ‘Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of China’ and her latest, ‘Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking’.

Dominique Valentin is a cognitive psychologist by training, and has worked in the field of sensory evaluation for the past 8 years. She holds a PhD in Cognitive Science from the University of Texas at Dallas. She is currently a senior lecturer at AgroSup Dijon, a food science engineering school, and a researcher at the European Center for Chemical Senses (CESG-CNRS), France. Dr Valentin has published many papers on odour and visual perception.