The Impact of the Gastronomic Norms of Contemporary Mass Culture on Public Catering for Children

Abstract Since the start of the new millennium, there has been a marked turn in nutrition-related ethnographic research in Hungary. Following the reconstruction of the historical and regional processes of change in Hungarian dietary traditions, professional attention has increasingly shifted towards the present day. In this study, I first summarize the most important aspects of contemporary gastronomy and the respective research opportunities, before exploring the question of the relationship between contemporary food culture and public catering for children. The conclusion reached is that public catering for children and the food on offer in school canteens cannot be discussed without an understanding of the changes taking place in contemporary food culture, which in turn cannot be understood without taking into account contemporary social and cultural developments. Until the slowly changing culture of public catering becomes more closely aligned with the rapid changes in eating at home and in restaurants, fewer and fewer children will make use of school canteens, and where they do, they will barely touch the food but prefer to go hungry.