Constructing Hybridized Authenticities in the Gourmet Food Truck Scene

• In Event: 457 - Regular Session. Space and Place II

Abstract

Expanding upon traditional discussions of authenticity, this paper draws on research from New Orleans, LA and argues that local gourmet food trucks play an important role in the creation of hybridized forms of authenticity. Using evidence from ethnographic observations and qualitative interviews with customers and food producers, this paper accounts the ways in which gourmet food trucks have reconstituted their identities in conjunction with the locations where they vend to produce hybrid authenticities. The gourmet food trucks in New Orleans fit into three main typologies. The first typology, the “down home appeal,” includes trucks that serve local foods, often with their own interpretations and new combinations. The second typology is the “foreign/foodie appeal;” this includes trucks that typically do not attempt to serve New Orleans style cuisine but rather choose to “gourmetize” foods from different regions of the world, most commonly Latin America. The final typology is the “hipster appeal” typology; the hipster identity has been notoriously difficult to characterize, and thus this truck typology is also highly variable with certain fluid characteristics, but can include artistically influenced, vegetarian trucks, or trucks that focus on alcohol infused foods or vegetarian menus. These gourmet food trucks partner with brick-and-mortar establishments and produced hybridized forms of authenticity through these partnerships. These vendors create a temporary and transformative sense of authenticity, and through their interactions with the customers and their geographic location they remap the physical space of the city as well as their own performance of identity and authenticity.

Author

• Cate Irvin, Tulane University