Food heritage inevitably changes. It does not make sense to turn it into a museum piece that does not reflect the reality of the people from which it emerges. Unlike other intangible aspects of culture that can be maintained outside of everyday life, for special occasions only or as performances, cooking and eating are essential and day-to-day activities.
The identification and safeguard of food heritage has been embraced by organizations ranging from private foundations to governments, from the regional to the national levels. The goal is not only to maintain products, dishes, or practices because of their value as important components of culture. Food heritage is also appreciated as a possible engine for rural development and growth of tourism. The activities around it are closely connected to other aspect of public politics, from health and nutrition to education and the valorization of agricultural products for export. After all, the success of the culinary traditions of a specific area can potentially increase both domestic and foreign consumers interest in its specialties, but also in the places from where those specialties originate.
Although these principles are more or less shared among all actors involved with food heritage cultural politics and administrative policies, there is still no single approach to do research in the foodways of a city, region, or country in order to identify those features that may be worth the necessary processes (and efforts) to turn them into culinary heritage. I asked Xavier Medina, UNESCO Chair on Food, Culture and Development at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) in Barcelona about the project of the Corpus of Catalan Culinary Heritage, launched in the early 2000s to provide a detailed description of the heritage elements among food and dishes Catalans eat.
It was a study of the territory that tried to take a snapshot of the culinary landscape as it was at that specific moment and that from the beginning was supposed to be updated every ten years. Although led by experts, the project was about identifying what Catalans themselves consider as heritage, and not what researchers may think. Numerous teams traveled throughout all the counties (comarcas) of the region, organizing focus groups and doing interviews with people in restaurants, housewives, cooks, and experts in civil society. The respondents indicated the dishes they considered as part of their family traditions and practices. For these dishes to be included in the Corpus they had to show at least a fifty year-long history (more or less three generations) and they could not be the invention of a single family or village: to respond to the latter requirement, the dishes had to be found in at least three different locations.
Olive, green peppers, anchovies
Through this process, around 900 dishes were identified, each with their local variations in terms of ingredients and techniques. Of course, such a massive initiative requires funds and logistical support. The Catalan Institute of Cuisine and Gastronomic Culture, a private foundation, organized it together with local universities and the Alicia Foundation, whose director Toni Massanės outlined the methodology.
The choice of focusing the Corpus on dishes, which incorporate techniques and ingredients, automatically excludes other aspects of food heritage, such as production know-how, markets, and material culture elements such as cooking tools or eating environments. As this was already a huge endeavor, the organizers thought it would work best to emphasize elements of Catalan culture that constitute an important part of everyday life. The experiment established a methodology that was meant to be applied at different intervals of time, while providing a model for other regions or countries. In 2011 a first revision took place and more dishes were added, also through the analysis of traditional recipe books, for a total of about 1,100 dishes. The iterative nature of the Corpus points to the need for it to reflect a living culinary heritage. Historical dishes that are found in historical books but are not cooked any longer do not belong. Now it is time for a third revision.
Many questions linger. What constitute living heritage? What should be excluded? The first edition of the Corpus included dishes that are not Catalan in origin but had nevertheless a long history in Catalonia. When research for the next edition will take place, for instance, gazpacho will have been part of the Catalan culinary landscape for 50 years, but will Catalans feel it deserves to be included? Will it be perceived as Catalan enough? Gazpacho is very popular, but everybody knows that it has its origins in Andalusia, in the South, and it constitutes a reminder of the immigration from Andalusia that stated in the the 1940s and intensified in the 1960s and 1970s. In 50 years, sushi will have a long enough history in Catalonia. Right now, everybody still knows that it is Japanese. Will it be the case in the future? Will they consider it as part of their food heritage?
Food heritage inevitably changes. It does not make sense to turn it into a museum piece that does not reflect the reality of the people from which it emerges. Unlike other intangible aspects of culture that can be maintained outside of everyday life, for special occasions only or as performances, cooking and eating are essential and day-to-day activities. As we have seen in the Catalan experience, elements of food traditions – objects and customs — can be framed as heritage through processes in which specific institutions that are attributed authority to recognize specific cultural elements, attach a particular value to them, and include them in museums, registers, or lists. In most cases, food is turned into heritage within specific national and international regimes, through the enactment of processes established by governments and actors ranging from UNESCO, the United Nation United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to the ministries of culture of the country involved.
However, following Barbara Kirshemblatt-Gimblett’s reflection, we should not consider heritage as something that is found, something that is there and just needs to be unearthed or discovered. Heritage is rather produced and constructed. Kirshemblatt-Gimblett argues that it is a mode of cultural production in the present that has recourse to the past, following motivations that have to do with current conditions. Heritage thus creates value added industries and, in particular, producing the local for export and tourism.
The national and international policies that are currently in place have drawn some criticism. The “heritage prospecting” that some countries are conducting could end up in a mere nationalization of memory, which can in turn lead to commercialization of culture, especially in terms of multiculturalism and ethnic differences. This would be particularly detrimental for indigenous groups, which could see their past redefined through categories that do not belong to them. Moreover, bureaucracies could develop whose sole goal is to measure, evaluate, and control the use of food heritage. These dynamics could hamper the development of food customs, which are never static and are always open to external elements.