Interviewed by the journalist Alexandra Prado Coelho, the Brazilian sociologist Carlos Alberto Dória examines the phenomenon of the media’s elevation of food to the status of spectacle, a process which has turned chefs into the ‘stars’ of this world dominated by the codes of distinction that everyone aspires to. He also discusses the symbolic creation of ‘national dishes’ determined by historical, cultural and ideological factors.

We are what we eat. This premise, which establishes a relationship of equivalence between identity and food, is the essential starting point for Christopher Kissane’s historical, cultural and anthropological research. Kissane, author of Food, Religion & Communities in Early Modern Europe, was named as a ‘New Generation Thinker’ by the BBC in 2016. In this article, he examines the history of food in Europe and how it intertwines with its political history.

The American writer and journalist Lisa Abend, who regularly writes about food for Time magazine, looks at the role of chefs and discusses how, since the 1990s, they have developed into stars, celebrities and heroes with a cultural and political status that goes far beyond their role in the kitchen.

In this article, Alexandra Prado Coelho, a journalist who specialises in food and gastronomy, raises the issue of ethics in food and the axiological values we project onto what we eat, such as white and brown bread. She also reveals how these values change and are inverted over time and become interlinked with cultural and social codes.

An architect and author of influential essays on cities and food – and the supply of food to cities – Carolyn Steel has developed a significant theory around the concept of ‘Sitopia’, i.e. the world as a place shaped by food. At the heart of her analysis is the contemporary presumption of cheap food produced by an agrifood industry that is putting the future of life on Earth at risk.

The philosopher and cultural historian Thomas Macho – a professor at Humboldt University of Berlin and director of a research centre on cultural sciences at the University of Linz in Austria – examines an issue that runs through Pasolini’s cinematic oeuvre: the relationship between the criticism of power and the metabolic logic of consumer society, with its representations of food and hunger.

The ‘Metropolitan’ section of this issue focuses on the relationship between hospitals and the city. Daniela Arnaut, an architect, university professor and researcher of ‘healthcare buildings’ and ‘healing spaces’, reveals a history that is often invisible because it is right in front of our eyes. As the pandemic rages, this essay encourages us to reflect on issues such as environmental hygiene, and asks whether we are witnessing a re-ordering of the urban space.

On the centenary of Clarice Lispector’s birth, Ricardo Domeneck, a Brazilian poet, visual artist and critic based in Berlin, revisits this great Ukrainian-born Brazilian writer and analyses the period in which she lived and how this is reflected in her timeless work. Surprisingly, Domeneck refers to Lispector as ‘political’, in the atypical sense of the word: that which is prior to and predates ‘the city of men’. Her work opens onto other worlds, and its words have a new resonance that brings a seemingly novel beauty to her melancholic and elegant photographs.

Goddess of goddesses, sphinx of sphinxes, mystery of mysteries, Madame Grès shone brightly in the exclusive world of Parisian haute couture. Her legacy was her ceaseless quest for absolute beauty in her designs. Her long, draped dresses crafted with obsession and technical mastery are a profound reflection on fashion, time and memory. Anabela Becho, a fashion curator and researcher, describes the life and work of this great couturière.

Henning Lundkvist is a Swedish visual artist and writer who lives in the capital of Denmark. Taking Kharabat, ‘the last teahouse of its kind’, as his cue, the author draws an unexpected parallel between two very distant and very different cities: Copenhagen and Kabul. We are suddenly immersed in a world of sounds (including music), tastes, images and technologies in which a synaesthetic interweaving of times and spaces inspires us to travel, imagine and wander. This View of Delft thus becomes a moving painting in which the forms, figures and colours are haunted by the subterranean threat of the sea.