Taste. Old and new forms of consumption
Taste is one of the five senses of the human body, but also the set of preferences manifested by individuals with whom each expresses themself in society. Summing up all the individuals belonging to a given culture, taste therefore also expresses the set of trends and orientations that characterize it. It is therefore a multifaceted phenomenon that deserves to be analyzed through a broad, albeit synthetic, look, as offered by this brief but enlightening essay by Vanni Codeluppi. After clarifying the main questions related to how taste is characterized and works, the author wonders how taste acts today within the food industry, which is where it has always been most evident, between the two extremes of MacDonald's and Masterchef. He then observes how the powerful social process of globalization, with its profound effects on social culture, is rapidly changing the nature of taste, homologating it according to the standards of mass consumption. Codeluppi's short essay is a precious tool not only to fully understand how taste is presented today but also to imagine what lands this complex phenomenon is moving towards.