Staging a nation’s culinary geography at the Salon de l’Agriculture

Abstract

The Salon International de l’Agriculture, held every spring in Paris, is an event at which the public discover, judge and consume the fruit of France’s diverse agricultural and artisanal activities. In this article, I provide a firsthand account of how the event stages the imaginative geography of France’s regions, facilitates the edible appreciation of French cultural goods and stimulates dialogue among producers, politicians and the public. The Salon is an impressive and understudied event at which we can witness and participate in the making of culinary geographies.