Gastronomy is an essential factor in any society, through it, it is possible to understand people’s food choices and preferences. Therefore, through the study of gastronomy, it is possible to identify people's eating behaviors [3]. Its basic conceptualization refers to the norms and rules associated with the eating act [4]. However, it has been identified that gastronomy concept is more complex and goes beyond preparing food or norms and rules of feeding. In addition, the way in which gastronomy is perceived among consumers differs according to the cultural context of each region [5, 6].
Its conceptualization is associated with the culture of a region or territory, where the sensory characteristics of the food or dishes allow the recognition of the gastronomic heritage. Another relevant characteristic is the pleasure associated with food consumption (hedonism). Finally, the methods, ingredients and ways of preparing food are fundamental in the identification of the traditional preparations of each gastronomy [7, 8].
Gastronomy is considered a new discipline of knowledge so it is important to establish a theoretical-conceptual and methodological corpus [9]. This becomes relevant on the basis that the generation of concepts or constructs can be done from the language of consumers. In this sense, qualitative techniques can be useful to define concepts or cultural domains and also contribute to understand the eating behaviors of populations [10]. For example, Rojas-Rivas et al. [5] identified the cross-cultural representations of the concept of gastronomy using projective methods (word association) together with the structural approach of social representations. Additionally, these authors introduced the application of the Cognitive Salience Index (CSI) of the free listing method to ascertain how consumers construct this concept in both countries. However, it is important to explore and use novel qualitative methods for the study of the gastronomic field. Therefore, this research aims to explore some of the potential uses of the free listing method in gastronomy.
The free listing method is a qualitative tool used to understand cultural domains from the consumers' language. It is a technique widely used in sociology and anthropology [11, 12]. It is based on a simple task in which people are asked to list all the words or things that they think referring to some domain or concept [11, 13]. Free listing enables obtaining information about people's eating behaviors in a context related to food [14, 16, 17], as well as its particular characteristics [18, 15].
On the other hand, the Smith index was introduced in the 1990s to study the most relevant elements of a free listing task [1]. This index contemplate the number or participants in the free listing, the length of the lists mentioned by each participant, as well as the rank assigning to each object within the list [13]. Subsequently, Sutrop [2] established the Cognitive Salience Index (CSI) to identify the elements of greater cognitive relevance in the free listing exercises. Unlike the Smith index, CSI considers the average position of each object within the lists, the number of participants and frequency of citation of each object. Both indexes oscillate between 0 and 1. If an object, word or thing mentioned within the lists of a sample has a value close to 1, it indicates that it is an element with a higher frequency of mention and representation, while values close to 0 indicate a lower rate of mention and low representation among a population group. Furthermore, in the gastronomic field and food science, the use of the free listing combined with the Smith and Sutrop indexes have been limited [13, 17]. In this context, this research contributes to increase the use of the free listing method combined with cognitive indexes in the gastronomic field, taking as a case study the cultural domain of Argentina’s gastronomy.
There is limited information in the context of eating behaviors and the representation of cultural domains associated with food and gastronomy among the Argentine population [19]. Some studies investigate different food categories in relation to the perception, attitudes and behaviors of consumers. For example, the perception of consumers towards genetically modified foods [20] and the factors influencing consumers to use these products have been studied [21]. The preferences among consumers according to distribution channels it has also been a subject of study [22]. Sosa et al. [23] determined the reasons for consumption and emotions related to emblematic foods among consumers of different incomes in Argentina. Hough and Ferraris [11] identified through the free listing technique which are the fruits that young consumers known and consume. Libertino et al. [13] defined the food menus associated with the Argentinean population of different income levels in two cities. Finally, Arce et al. [24] studied the frequency of consumption of fruits and vegetables among consumers, identifying that there is a low level of consumption of these products among the Argentinean population.
The aforementioned examples could refer to distant food categories to gastronomy (GMO, F&V, meat products). However, gastronomy is conceived as the cultural manifestations of a social group in terms of rules, beliefs and values associated with the act of eating, something that in current societies is becoming blurred. Fischler [24] call this phenomenon as gastro - anomia. Therefore, understanding the representations of food associated with gastronomy can help to understand the eating patterns of modern societies.
However, it is little known which are the dishes or foods of Argentina’s cuisine that are part of the collective representation of this South American population. Some studies established that there is an important influence of the European continent on the gastronomy and eating behaviors of the population, which is reflected through the consumption of products such as wine, cheeses, meat, pizzas, among other foods [19]. Verhaert [19] mentions that the "Asado" is a representative dish of Argentine gastronomy and reflects the food identity among the population. However, and with the exception of ¨asado¨, according to our knowledge little is known about the emblematic foods or dishes of the gastronomy that are part of the representations of Argentine consumers.
The aims of this work were i) to study how Argentina’s consumers define the cultural domain of their gastronomy through the free listing methods identifying typologies of consumers, and ii) to establish methodological implications of the use of the free listing in the study of the gastronomic field.