Why invent the concept of good taste? Whether a by-product of the
homology of the fields of consumption and production, or the natural
evolution of the refinement of the social self through manners, the concept of good taste functions primarily to distinguish those who have it from those who do not. There is nothing inherently better about one flavor over another until each of those flavors are generally accepted to represent the preferences of a particular social group or class. And then, as those preferences change, whether because of changes in the distribution of the various capital of the people who claim them or changes in the positions and position-takings within their respective fields, tastes change, too. Gastronomy became the field in which these tastes were negotiated, codified, written down, and quite literally served up to the public at large. – Mitchell Davis