摘要

This article discusses the phenomenon of amateur cooking schools in post-reform China and their connection with the rise of a new ‘middle class.’ Using ethnographic accounts collected from two amateur cooking schools and interviews with cooks, food writers, and journalists, this article places their role within the current culinary landscape of Guang- zhou. This ethnographic material includes narratives from different students who enroll in amateur cooking schools and the discourses surrounding the schools themselves. Amateur cooking schools, both historically and at present, have filled a curious niche in local foodways through their responsiveness and promotion of trends to middle class and wealthy consumers. While vocational schools are built around discourses of work, skills, and employability, amateur cooking schools promote leisure and self-fulfillment in their curriculum. Through these narratives I argue that amateur cooking schools are not only sites of teaching and learning, but also spaces where individuals absorb and negotiate middle class identities though learning how to cook.