HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Ecology and Anthropology
Gastronomic Paradigm Shifts Revisited: From Culinary Abstraction to a Post-Digital Integrative Cuisine
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Granada, Granada, Spain
- 2Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
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This article proposes the existence of a fifth gastronomic paradigm, which we term PostDigital Integrative Cuisine, marking an epistemological rupture in the evolution of Western haute cuisine. Drawing on Kuhnian theory, regenerative ethics, and interdisciplinary case studies, we argue that this paradigm is defined not by stylistic or technical novelty, but by its reconfiguration of gastronomy as a multispecies, systemic, and anticipatory practice. This model integrates microbial fermentation, biotechnological innovation, ancestral knowledge, and artificial intelligence into culinary design. It prioritizes ecological regeneration, distributed authorship, and epistemic pluralism over individual genius or sensory spectacle. Empirical examples illustrate how food becomes a medium for worldmaking, narrative design, and regenerative aesthetics. We analyze how this paradigm realigns culinary aesthetics with ethical and ecological values through principles such as circular gastronomy, fermentation as epistemology, dematerialized luxury, and AI-assisted creativity. At the same time, we critically assess persistent tensions: the risk of elitism, techno-solutionism, and symbolic commodification. Key contributions include (1) a Kuhnian mapping of gastronomic paradigms, (2) a conceptual definition of the fifth paradigm's post-disciplinary logic, and (3) an exploration of anticipatory imagination and food as a speculative design tool. By situating gastronomy within the frameworks of environmental humanities, futures studies, and hybrid knowledge systems, this article reframes haute cuisine as a cultural technology for ecological care, multispecies justice, and epistemic transformation. The Post-Digital Integrative Cuisine is not a utopian projection but a distributed present— demanding visionary courage, ethical coherence, and systemic participation.
Keywords: Gastronomic paradigms, post-digital gastronomy, regenerative cuisine, biotechnologicalfood design, multispecies ethics, artificial intelligence in food, ecological innovation, hybrid knowledge systems
Received: 19 Jun 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 del Moral. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Raimundo G. del Moral, rgdelmoral@gmail.com
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