No abstract

The aims of this research were (i) to study with a sample of Argentine consumers the representations of traditional gastronomy through the free listing method; (ii) to identify consumers’ typologies according to their representation of traditional gastronomy; and (iii) to establish some methodological implications using the free listing in the study of the gastronomic field. A survey was conducted in which 249 Argentines from the Littoral area were recruited. Through a free listing task, participants were asked to mention the main foods or dishes of Argentina’s gastronomy. Twenty-eight foods, dishes or food categories were obtained that are part of the representations of Argentina’s gastronomy. The results showed a strong connection between gastronomy and the representations of the consumers with the “Asado” (CSI = 0.289, Smith = 0.613), the traditional and characteristic food of Argentine gastronomy. Three groups of consumers were identified, presenting differences in the representation of traditional gastronomy (p < 0.05). This work is pioneering for studying gastronomy representations from the consumers’ language through the free listing method using the case of traditional Argentine gastronomy. Future directions of free listing in the gastronomic field are identified and discussed.

The aims of this research are i) to use the free listing method to explore the cultural domain associated with Argentina’s gastronomy and ii) to establish methodological implications on its use in the study of gastronomic field. A survey was conducted in which 249 Argentines from the Littoral area were recruited. Through a free listing task, participants were asked to mention the main foods or dishes of Argentina’s gastronomy. The indexes of Smith and Borgatti [1] and Sutrop [2] were calculated to identify the cognitive and attitudinal importance of the participants towards their gastronomy. Twenty-eight foods, dishes or food categories were obtained that are part of the representations towards Argentina’s gastronomy. The results showed a strong connection between gastronomy and the representations of the consumers with "Asado" (CSI = 0.289, Smith = 0.613), the traditional and characteristic food of Argentina’s gastronomy. Through Cluster Analysis, three groups of consumers were identified, all of which presented differences in the frequency of representation (P < 0.05) of the products obtained through the free listing. Correspondence Analysis allows to corroborate the foods with the highest representation among the identified groups, which suggests that the free listing method combined with the statistical methods used can contribute to understanding food representations through the study of gastronomy. This work is pioneering for the study of the representations of gastronomy from the language of consumers through the free listing method. Future directions of the use of free listing in the gastronomic field are identified and discussed.