A dinner almost perfect: food culture and socialization in a time of crisis

Abstract

On March 11, 2020, after the number of cases of Covid-19, a disease caused by the new Coronavirus, increased significantly in territories outside China, WHO officially declared the disease as a Pandemic. From the need for social isolation to control viral dissemination, this narrative is built from the experience of two Brazilian women and three French people who lived, for a period, in the same house, located in the city of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro. In the first week of social isolation, the supply of foodstuffs and the need to build a food environment were the issues that affected both nationalities. In addition, there is the reproduction of “Dinner almost perfect”, an entertainment show on French television, as a response to the monotony of food that appears at a certain point in the confinement. Through the culinary preparations made by each of the five residents of the house, it was noticed how certain foods referred to territories, to certain social groups, to family moments, to specific cultural contexts related to the individual life experience, without these conceptions reflections on the inequality of access to adequate food that affects a large part of the Brazilian population were disassociated. Finally, with the physical barriers of social isolation imposed by the Pandemic of the new Coronavirus, food expressed in that space its deepest dimensions of sociability, among those who could share it in person. Bringing to light the reflection that individuals also feed through symbols, filled with the history and identity of each one.