Culinary Mind: Centre for Philosophy of Food began the second part of their events for the 2025–2026 academic year with a talk titled “Cocktails Custodians: Recipes, Identity and Authority” by Professor Neil Williams from the University of Buffalo. Hosted on January 30th, the online session followed the Half Baked format, featuring a 45-minute presentation followed by an engaging discussion with approximately thirty participants.
Founded in 2017 and based at the University of Milan, Culinary Mind brings together collaborators from universities worldwide as a research centre and academic network to promote philosophical thinking on food. The centre’s coordination team includes several RELISH consortium members and affiliates—Andrea Borghini, Nicola Piras, and Sara Madera Goméz.
Cocktails and culinary definitions
Williams’ talk explored how cocktail recipes become vessels of cultural identity and how authority is negotiated in mixology communities, raising questions about authenticity, variation, and the transmission of culinary knowledge. These themes deeply resonate with RELISH’s investigation of European gastronomic heritage, particularly around how recipes function as cultural artifacts that both preserve and evolve traditions.
One particularly compelling aspect of Williams’ presentation was how it foregrounded the contested nature of recipe definitions—what counts as a recipe, where its boundaries lie, and how far a preparation can vary before it becomes something else entirely.
While Williams examined these questions through the lens of cocktails, they speak directly to RELISH’s efforts to operationalise what makes a culinary practice “typical” within a given community and what happens when those boundaries are challenged, reinterpreted, or crossed.
What’s next?
Looking ahead, Culinary Mind will continue hosting events throughout 2026 that connect to RELISH’s research in various ways, examining the philosophical dimensions of food, recipes, cooking, and culinary culture. Please join us in future sessions!
You can find more information at www.culinarymind.org and by subscribing to our newsletter, Crumble.
