This article examines the future-oriented use of the culinary past in Poland’s food discourse through a qualitative analysis of popular food media (printed magazines and TV). We analyze how interpretations of food and culinary practices from the past are connected to contemporary debates. We contend that media representations of the culinary past co-create projects of Polish modernization in which diverse voices vie for hegemony by embracing different forms of engagement with the West and by imagining the future shape of the community. We distinguish between a pragmatic and a foodie type of culinary capital and focus on how they differently and at times paradoxically frame cultural memory and tradition. We observe the dynamics of collective memory and oblivion, and assess how interpretations of specific periods in Poland’s past are negotiated in the present through representations of material culture and practices revolving around food, generating not only contrasting evaluations of the past but also diverging economies of the future. Finally, we explore tradition as a set of present-day values, attitudes, and practices that are connected with the past, but respond to current concerns and visions of the future.

本文通过对流行食品媒体（印刷杂志和电视）的定性分析，研究了波兰食品话语中烹饪过去的未来用途。我们分析了对过去食物和烹饪实践的解释如何与当代辩论联系起来。我们认为，过去烹饪的媒体再现共同创造了波兰现代化的项目，其中各种声音通过接受与西方的不同形式的接触和想象社区的未来形态来争夺霸权。我们区分了务实型和美食家型的烹饪资本，并关注它们如何以不同方式有时自相矛盾地构成文化记忆和传统。我们观察集体记忆和遗忘的动态，并评估波兰过去特定时期的解释如何通过围绕食物的物质文化和实践的表现进行谈判，不仅产生对过去的对比评估，而且产生对未来经济的不同评价。最后，我们将传统视为一组与过去相关的当今价值观、态度和实践，但对当前的关注和对未来的愿景做出回应。