Cooking as an affective practice during the pandemic

Abstract

The ways in which the population relates to food and culinary practices have been profoundly altered during the Covid-19 pandemic. This research aimed to analyze how the act of cooking was integrated into the affective circuit of pandemic life during the social isolation. Adopting the theoretical perspective of Social Psychology, emphasis was placed on the social, emotional, and political changes generated in the relationship with food, whether in terms of consumption or production. Methodologically, a qualitative approach was chosen, making use of publicly available documents on the internet. Within these documents, comments and interviews describing relationships with food and the kitchen by amateur cooks were selected. The results were organized into two axes: the kitchen as an affective territory and the forced reterritorialization that befell part of the population during the pandemic. It is concluded that culinary and dietary practices evoke diverse possibilities of affective connection, both with nature and with other humans