Having grown up in Rome, Italy, it is always nice to find myself in a place where the smells, the colors, and the flavors of the food remind me somehow of my own culinary background. In particular, tomatoes are a marker of home. Plump, tasty, aromatic, they were a central presence during my childhood. One of my most cherished memories is making tomato sauce for the winter. It would happen in late August, at the end of the summer months we would spend in the grandparents’ village of Tossicia on the Gran Sasso mountain in Abruzzo, when the tomato harvest was at its peak and the prices were at their lowest. Starting early in the morning, the whole family, together with friends and neighbors, would peel and squeeze tomatoes, bottle the juice, and boil hundreds of bottles that we would then bring to Rome, to hold us for the winter.
Single-serving burrata and broccoletti
Similar preparations were common all around the area, an expression of what is now known as the Mediterranean Diet. The term, first used by the American doctor Ancel Keys after his observations in Southern Italy in the early 1950s, came to sudden media popularity in the late 1980s. It also emerged as an object of research for medical doctors, nutritionists, and epidemiologists. The two versions – the popular and the scientific – not always coincided: while researchers were trying to understand how certain nutrients and eating patterns could reduce the risk of chronic diseases and other health issues, the media (and marketers) often ended up framing the Mediterranean Diet as a weight loss method or a fancy lifestyle choice, full of exotic (and expensive) ingredients and dishes. Over time, more avatars of the Mediterranean Diet appeared, among which the anthropological version built around a set of practices and traditions that were inscribed in the UNESCO list of immaterial cultural heritage in 2010. As a result, the expression “Mediterranean Diet” now refers not only to ingredient and dishes, but also to a nutritional model, a cultural formation, and a lifestyle.
However, chefs, experts, and consumers in countries around the Mediterranean are acutely aware that their traditional diet is at risk of disappearance. The nutrition transition that starting from the 1960s saw the increase of consumption in red meat, cheese, and dairy among large segments of the local populations has been followed by the raise in health problems, among which obesity. Can these changes be attributed only to the vanishing of the Mediterranean Diet, or are there other contributing factors, such as changing labor and family patterns, the penetration of processed food distributed by transnational corporation, as well as environmental problems? And what can be done to address these trends?
Tomorrow Tastes Mediterranean Conference
These were some of the questions that the participants in the conference “Tomorrow Tastes Mediterranean” addressed on October 16th in Barcelona. The conference was organized by the Torribera Mediterranean Center, a new joint venture of the the University of Barcelona and the Culinary Institute of America on the occasion of the official constitution of its three Advisory Councils: Scientific and Technical, Culinary and Food Studies, Business Innovation and Leadership (disclaimer: I am part of the Culinary and Food Studies Advisory Council). In my presentation, for instance, I proposed a few reflections about the Mediterranean Diet as a possible engine of rural development through forms of sustainable tourism. The Mediterranean environment is inherently fragile, and the boom of tourism from the 1970s, through the construction of hotels and infrastructures that damaged the scenery, has often caused excessive exploitation of resources, pollution, and soil erosion, among other issues. Can sustainable tourism initiatives provide ways to protect lands and waters? Can local food traditions and products become magnets for conscious travelers that want to get to know a place rather than ravage it? Can agrobiodiversity provide jobs for local communities, especially the youth and women, in order the slow down the progressive abandonment of the countryside? Can farmers become stewards of the landscape?
From the presentations at the conference and the conversations that followed, some central topics emerged. Among the scientists, there is a strong consensus about the positive outcomes of adopting the Mediterranean Diet, which is also indicated as more sustainable than other eating patterns based on industrial, mass-produced foods. The scientists’ focus is at times on nutrients, other times on produce and products, dishes, dietary patterns, and social dynamics. A large number of studies support their theories and conclusions. However, they all lamented the difficulty in disseminating this information among consumers, who are assaulted by a barrage of fragmentary and often contradictory information produced by media that are constantly looking for news and click baits. As it is structurally difficult for scientists themselves to become expert communicators (they are definitely not trained for that, although some do excel in talking to the general public), what can be done to change this state of things? Training the media in scientific methods? Rely on the support of authorities in order to include nutritional education in school programs, social programs, and other initiatives?
Ingredients for Catalan pa amb tomaquet
From the cultural point of view, the most urgent concerns emerged about the loss of know-how and skills, above all in terms of transmission of knowledge in the family. As society changes, new methods of diffusion need to be found. Also, many chefs and cooks appear to be less interested in proposing Mediterranean Diet specialties, while they rather prefer to lure consumers with novelties, often coming from other contexts and at times not particularly healthy. How can the image of the Mediterranean Diet be made more hip and attractive, especially for the younger generations?Entrepreneurs highlighted the various challenges in integrating the principles and practices of the Mediterranean diet in business plans and successful endeavors.
Food design workshop at Elisava, Barcelona
New solutions and approaches need to be explored, tested, and applied, which have to start from consumers, with their preferences, their values, and their habits. A small experiment in this direction happened the day after the conference in a food design workshop that took place at the Elisava School of Design and Engineering in Barcelona, in collaboration with the Elisava study abroad and the Espai Sucre culinary school. A groups or around 45 students from different backgrounds (design, culinary, research) worked together on the traditional Catalan pa amb tomaquet (bread and tomato), a mainstay of the local cuisine. They were tasked with trying to understand the dish beforehand through interviews and observations and then, based on their insights, to propose innovative versions that focused on a specific aspect. Many chose to work on ideas of traditions and social practices, preparing interpretations that were then tested by other students and faculty in the school. One of the main points of the workshop was to teach students the relevance of preliminary research and of consumers’ observation. As good and healthy the Mediterranean Diet is, it cannot be imposed by fiat in a top-down matter, but new solutions to introduce bottom-up shifts are necessary.