A history professor at Brussels Free University (VUB), he is a member of their Social & Cultural Food Studies programme (FOST) and is most recently the author of Food Culture in Belgium, part of American publisher Greenwood Press’ Food Culture around the World series.

The book ranges through the social sciences as it explores significant foods and preparations, both historically and today; typical meals, including a chapter on dishes for special occasions; the development of restaurant dining; and a lot more. Scholliers has been interested in food studies since the late 1980s, well before it was considered a “fashionable” area of study (back then, he said he was known as the “potato historian”, and not in a friendly way). But for the last decade, he has found himself at the forefront of a trendy – and fascinating – research field.

Flanders Today: The book is exhaustive in its subjects: food history, agriculture, eating habits and typical meals. It must have been challenging to write.

Peter Scholliers: I didn’t realise how much work it would be! I had to write as a historian, but also as an ethnologist. It was a particularly interesting period to write in because, at that time, Belgium had no government, and there were strong political movements to dissolve Belgium. I had to take a fresh look at my country, and the first question was: “Is there a Belgian cuisine?” The editor was American, so he didn’t want a book on Flemish cuisine or Walloon cuisine. I had to ask seemingly obvious questions, such as whether there is a difference between Wallonia, Flanders, and Brussels food, and if so, why?

And are there differences?

The ingredients. Butter is very popular in Wallonia, but the Flemish use more olive oil and margarine. This is partly tradition, but also many margarine producers were based in the Antwerp region. I live in Tervuren. If you go to Overijse or Waterloo, the language clearly changes, but in terms of food, you don’t find any clear signs of a difference. However, if you go to the Ardennes, there is a different environment with more forests, and you find game meat. There are woods in Flanders but you wouldn’t find wild pigs running around.

The introduction says that your research focuses on “food and identity formation”. How do food and identity influence one another?

Identity is not a given; it’s created. Some social psychologists believe that food is an identity marker more than religion or language because we physically incorporate food. We take it into our mouths and chew and swallow. It’s very intimate. You have to trust the person who feeds you. At the turn of the 20th century, there was a huge Italian immigration to New York. Much of the second and third generations lost their religion and language. What they kept was food, but in a way that does not develop. It’s a memory of the food their mothers made. Those Americans now say that the best pizza is in New York, not Italy. It’s a nice demonstration of how people keep food as an identity marker. Hence my question in the book: is food able to keep Belgians together?

Speaking of separate, the average consumer is now entirely separated from the origins of their food – the farm, the animals.

This is a huge question. I heard that there are new markets appearing – for example, in Antwerp – by local producers, people who grow within the town. This is a new phenomenon to cope with the fact that the food chain is getting longer and longer. Children grow up thinking that milk comes from the supermarket. For the first time in human history, there is no link between the animal and the milk. There are two phenomena occurring: one is globalisation. You can buy almost any food at any time of year. If you talk to a chef or restaurant owner, they always stress “having things in season”, but you have no seasons in supermarkets. Then there is this reaction – this “terroirisation” as it’s called in America – a move towards knowing the origins of your food.

What about the organic food movement?

I think Belgium is lagging behind. Probably less than 5% of total fresh food in supermarkets here is organic, which is very low. Why is this? In the US, the food chain is much longer than in Belgium. Perhaps it’s actually a good sign. Here, many of the farmers are local; it’s not organic, but it’s a shorter food chain.

How are people learning to cook today?

A lot comes from recipe books and television programmes. At a basic level, as a child, you see how things are done. For instance, my mother used to prepare a recipe called een torentje, a little tower. It was a very local dish in East Flanders, where she grew up, made of cauliflower with minced meat and cheese sauce [a recipe for it appears in the book]. My mother died a couple of years ago, and I tried to re-create it based on my memory of myself as an eater, not as a cook. The first experience was a disaster, but the second try was more successful. My wife noticed that I put in garlic where my mother hadn’t. It was interesting in terms of food memory. You learn with your eyes, but you also keep tastes in your memory.

What sort of predictions would you make about eating and food culture in Belgium?

Sociologists fear that there is too much automation, particularly with the development of food like individual microwave meals. I have seen it as a threat to family meals, but now I think it’s not. The family unit has existed for many years in Belgium, and I don’t think that will change. I hope people will continue watching TV, reading books and websites, taking cookery classes and experimenting at home. You can do this in Belgium at a relatively low cost. I think there are some reasons to be optimistic, despite globalisation and the food chain. Having said this, I’m aware that there are more hungry people than 10 years ago. There are some estimates that 5% of people living in Belgium are “hungry”, meaning they permanently have too few calories to be healthy. This is accepted; it’s a European average. With the economic crisis, you saw right away that there were losers in terms of eating. There are problems worldwide with access to water and food, and in these terms I’m not very optimistic.

“You learn with your eyes, but you keep tastes in your memory”