Civilized and cosmopolitan : the royal cuisine and culinary culture in the court of king rama the fifth

Abstract

This dissertation emphasized on the royal cuisine and culinary culture in the court of King Rama the fifth. (1868 – 1910) and identify the characteristics and elements of the royal cuisine and culinary culture in relations to the history and social context in the reign of king Chulalongkorn in which the Western culture had influenced to the emergence of the modern royal cuisine and culinary culture of the elites. The research found the prominent points that when the king and court elites attempted to develop the eating level of Thai court society as to become civilized and reach the standard of the Western, the manner transformation to consume like the Western people was absolutely not easy and complete. This transformation was the tool to represent the West that Thais were not barbaric but civilized and educated. This change was the way to gain the acceptance from the Western people in term of how Thai eat and live similar to the civilized countries. The king and court elites could have made this change in eating manners prominently remained strong in Thai identity due to this change was not completely followed the Western style of cuisine and culinary. The prominent evidence represented the civilized and cosmopolitan is the king’s dining table where the Western food had been served all at once with Thai and Chinese dishes, the royal banquet room had been set in Western style but decorated with Thai traditional style of flowers arrangement, serving western food accompanied by Thai style musical serenade, the royal glassware and utensils which had been made like Western style utility but all items had been ordered to produce in Thai patterns identity. This can be illustrated how successful the king and court elite compromisingly integral Thai traditional culture with Western culture by maintaining the core content of Thai identity.