The Style of Society has Changed the Catering Industry - Term Paper Example

Ashley et al. (2004) claim that eating outside can be a significant social indicator. Restaurants are not there simply to feed people. Bell and Valentine refer to restaurant dining as 'a total consumption package - not just food and drink but a whole "experience" ' (1997:125, in Ashley et al., 2004). The atmosphere is arguably as important in the promoting of restaurants as is the food itself. This is reflected in feedback cards in restaurants, where customers are asked to respond to a range of indicators very much wider than mere culinary ones.

At the same time, eating spaces have become increasingly striking in design and are staffed by carefully selected people who look and sound just right as proprietors compete to outdo each other in redefining ways in which the restaurant becomes a new way of spending an evening. The increased emphasis on design, style and the consumer experience can be understood in relation to shifts in consumption associated with the move from Fordism to post-Fordism. In particular, the rise of the themed restaurant aimed at niche markets; the compounding of food pleasures with other consumer activities; and the increased emphasis on 'experiential' rather than material commodities tie changes in restaurant culture to wider shifts in production and consumption.

According to Maurer et al. (1999, 13) food is closely connected with the general social aspects as held in society. More specifically they stated that people construct and shape their personal identities through social interaction. Weight identities are continually open to change. This is particularly evident when someone experiences dramatic weight loss. For example, people who lose large amounts of weight undergo a dramatic process of identity change, using informal personal and social rituals to ease the transition and to mark their new status.

This identity change process depends on status cues in the social environment, which are messages that indicate to a person how fat others perceive him or her to be. Weight-related constructions are malleable and shaped by cultural environments, social organizations, experts, and individuals.