General Information about Item:

• Genre: Gesture
• Place Collected: Video Call
• Date Collected: November 8th, 2019
• Country of Origin: Italy
• Informant: Nicole Vanacore, age 23

Informant Data:

• Cole Vanacore is a twenty-three-year-old female who was born and raised in Darien, Connecticut, USA, a small suburban town that is one hour outside of New York City.  Her real name is Nicole, but she has always gone by Cole.  Cole’s extended family is also centered on the East Coast of the United States, though her family origins are European.  Her mother is mostly British and Irish and grew up in Falmouth, Massachusetts, while her father is mostly Italian and grew up in Morristown, New Jersey.  Cole attended elementary through high school in Connecticut then went to college at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  In college, she studied mathematical economics. After college, she moved to Denver, Colorado, where she attended a nine-month course in computer science.  Now, she lives and works in New York City.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: Cole had seen this gesture in various forms of media (i.e., cartoons, films, etc.), but she had not seen it used in real life until she was studying abroad in Florence, Italy during the fall of her junior year of college.  She lived with a host family and saw them do this gesture a lot, mostly to describe the food at dinner or anything else that they were passionate about.  It conveys that something is delicious or perfect.  The gesture was also used when something was won. The gesture is very popular and used very frequently – Cole said that she saw many Italians (not just those in her host family) use this gesture.  The gesture is sometimes very dramatized and accompanied by kissing noises when it is used to describe something that someone is very passionate about.  Cole was able to travel around Europe during her time abroad and said she saw this gesture in other countries such as France.
• Cultural Context: Italy is a country in Southern Europe that borders France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia. It has a long history of more than 2,000 years of invasions, so it has been home to many different people and cultures.  It did not become a nation-state until 1861, and became a Republic in 1946.  Italy has a very rich culture that has had widespread influence across many Western nations, particularly in terms of its art, food, history, religion, fashion, and more.  Though Italy is officially a secular state, the role of Roman Catholicism is evident, especially as the Vatican and the Pope are located in the capital, Rome.  Italians are typically very expressive individuals and are highly exaggerated in their tone of voice and body language.  They use many hand gestures and excited facial expressions when they speak, so conversations between two Italians are often very lively.  This gesture is very fitting given this cultural context, as Italians are very passionate about their culture (particularly their food) and like to use their hands a lot to express this passion.

Item:

• This gesture is used to communicate that something is perfect or exquisite.  It is done by holding all your fingers together and bringing your hand to your mouth to kiss your fingertips, then moving your fingertips away from each other to open up your hand as you move your hand away from your face.  A variation of this gesture involves just touching the thumb and index finger together and keeping the other fingers straight.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Collector’s Comments: As briefly mentioned above, I thought this gesture is very much related to Italian culture.  Italians have a rich culture that they are very proud of and are also very expressive and use many hand gestures when they speak, so it is fitting that they use this “chef’s kiss” gesture to convey the perfection of their food (or of anything else).  Additionally, this gesture is sometimes considered a stereotype or cliché by Americans; now, it is often used across the internet in memes or other applications.  In many of these instances, this gesture is used ironically or satirically, so it is really interesting to see how this gesture is actually used in the day to day lives of Italians.  I also find it interesting how this gesture is very similar to another stereotypical Italian hand gesture, where the fingertips of either or both hands are all brought together and the hands are waved up and down.  This hand gesture is used very often and generally expresses annoyance or confusion.

Collector’s Name: Avery Vanacore

Tags/Keywords:

• Italy
• Gesture
• Chef’s Kiss