Lost in translation: Food, identity and otherness

Food preferences and taboos, by revealing our taste, express our identity. Moreover, in present-day globalized societies, the crossing and overlapping among different foodspheres incessantly relates identity to otherness. It becomes therefore essential to consider and investigate the links existing between the signs, texts, discourses, and practices concerning the food universe, on the one hand, and the processes of construction and expression of sociocultural identity – or, better, identities – on the other hand. This paper deals with a specific case study: sushi and its Western variations. Ranging from the material level to a semiotic description, we aim at analyzing the processes of “translation” to which sushi is subjected when it becomes “ethnic” or “fusion” food.