Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-v5vhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-15T17:08:19.157Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - The enjoyment of meal events

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Alan Warde
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
Lydia Martens
Affiliation:
University of Stirling
Get access

Summary

In the qualitative interviews several opportunities were offered for people to evaluate the experience of eating out, affording some illustration of the applicability of this schematic classification of pleasures to the language of our interviewees. The invitation to describe the last three occasions of eating a meal out was supplemented by direct questioning, sometimes insistent, about what they liked and disliked about eating out in general – what kinds of places and foods they preferred or would always avoid. Thus much opportunity was afforded for people to discuss their tastes, their reservations and the nature of the gratifications derived. The terms that were used most frequently to describe experiences were substantively without content: people would tend to say of the various elements of the meal event that it was ‘nice’, ‘really nice’, ‘very nice’, ‘good’, ‘enjoyable’, ’lovely’, ‘fabulous’ or ‘I loved it’, ‘I liked it’. The vocabulary deployed to describe pleasures was restricted. It was, however, clear that interviewees had a practical sense that there were different types of gratification, some of which appealed more than others to different individuals. We have already indicated (in chapter 3) some of the reasons people gave for eating out and from further analysis of their talk about those reasons, we can infer the nature and relative importance to them of the different types of gratification which combine to make eating out a generally positive experience.

Type
Chapter
Information
Eating Out
Social Differentiation, Consumption and Pleasure
, pp. 191 - 212
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×