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Food Installation by Honey & Bunny
Food Installation by Honey & Bunny

What is alpine cuisine? And could that be the approach allowing Austrian food to position itself internationally, just like it happened for the New Nordic Cuisine? Those were some of the topics examined during “Culinary Art 2015: Gates to the future”, a two-day conference on food and eating that took place on March 16 and 17 in the beautiful city of Salzburg, in Austria, where local restaurateurs, hospitality professionals, tourism experts, as well as scholars and writers, discussed food and eating in theory and practice.

I had the opportunity to meditate on food, desire, and pleasure with Austrian philosopher Robert Pfaller and writer Christian Seiler, in conversation with an audience composed for the most part of professionals who had very interesting insights on a theme that turned out to be all but speculative. Panels and conversations developed around food design, sensory science, trends and innovation, animated by relevant European experts. Architects Sonja Stummerer and Martin Hablesreiter, professionally known as Honey & Bunny, created a spectacular and thought provoking evening performance that prodded participants to reflect on table manners, taboos, and commensality. More about them and their work in upcoming posts…

It is intriguing that a city like Salzburg, famous worldwide for its opera festival and other prestigious yearly events that attract social jetsetters as well as cultural movers and shakers in throngs, took the initiative to focus on food not only as the possible core for more popular happenings in the future, but also as a complex and crucial subject for the Austrian hospitality industry.

What emerged in the discussion is the struggle for Austrian cuisine to acquire a precise and readable distinctiveness. As a matter of fact, most tourists have little or no knowledge of the local dishes, culinary traditions, or even ingredients, and as a consequence they stick to a couple of classics, like Wiener Schnitzel and Gulash, that often turn into stereotypes. This sort of tunnel vision is extremely frustrating for the industry members and entrepreneurs who aim to explore different venues, both in terms of traditions and innovation, who invest on high quality product, and who are proud of their culinary identity as Austrians. Is it a communication issue, or are there more structural reasons for these dynamics?

The conference participants were looking for viable solutions to these dilemmas, and for this reason they where very interested in the keynote speech delivered by Claus Meyers, founder with René Redzepi of NOMA restaurant in Copenhagen and a well known spokesperson for the New Nordic Cuisine, of which he helped write the manifesto. In little more than a decade, the food from Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries has caught the attention of chefs, critics, and customers all over the world. Based on the research of indigenous ingredients, the collaboration with local producers, the reflection on shared cultural values such as “purity, freshness, simplicity,” and the openness to impulses from other countries, the New Nordic Cuisine has stimulated great advances in the hospitality industry of Northern Europe.

The Austrian food professionals participating in the Salzburg conference clearly consider what’s happening in Scandinavia as a great example. However, they know that a good model cannot just be copied and that they need to find their own voice. The result may be “Alpine Cuisine,” highlighting the uniqueness of the food and products of the Alp, including cheese, meat, fruits, berries and many leafy and root vegetables. Like the New Nordic Cuisine, Alpine Cuisines are found in countries other than Austria, such as Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Slovenia, with many shared characteristics in terms of ingredients, practices, and values. Alpine Cuisine would probably have great appeal both for locals, who would see their cultural identity valued, and tourists, for whom the mountains constitute a great attraction in the region.

However, it will be necessary for food professionals in neighboring countries to find a common language to communicate successfully the identity of those culinary traditions. Chefs, producers, and marketers will have to agree on core values and practices, take some risks in their strategies, and examine with attention the potential and the shortcomings of the local food systems. A very tall order, but one that is worth a well-organized attempt.


 

Fabio Parasecoli is associate professor and coordinator of food studies at the New School in New York City. His work explores the intersections among food, media, and politics. His current research focuses on food in movies, the history of Italian food, and on the socio-political aspects of geographical indications. He studied East Asian cultures and political science in Rome, Naples and Beijing, where he specialized in contemporary Chinese history. After covering Middle and Far Eastern political issues, he worked for many years as the U.S. correspondent for Gambero Rosso, Italy’s authoritative food and wine magazine. He is program advisor at Gustolab, a center for food and culture in Rome, and collaborates with other higher education institutions such as the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya in Barcelona (Spain), ALMA the Graduate School of the University of Bologna (Italy), and the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo (Italy). Among his recent publications: Food Culture in Italy (2004), The introduction to Culinary Cultures in Europe (The Council of Europe, 2005) and Bite Me! Food in Popular Culture (2008). He is general editor with Peter Scholliers of a six-volume Cultural History of Food (2012).

This article is crossposted with The Huffington Post.

By Fabio Parasecoli, Associate professor and coordinator of food studies, The New School.

Graphic art by Juliana Serrano Pérez
Graphic art by Juliana Serrano Pérez

For a few days, Bogotá turned into the South American capital of food design. The second annual meeting of the Red Latinoamericana de Food Design (the Latin American network of food design) took place at the Industrial Taylor, a state-of-the-art food business facility, from October 20th to the 24th, under the auspices of the Universidad Nacional and the Universidad de los Andes. The opportunity allowed scholars and professionals from countries as diverse as Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil to gather and discuss the present and future of their field.

One of the main goals of the meeting, which was structured in a two-day seminar about pedagogy and a live-streamed series of public talks and debates, was to identify the characteristics of food design in Latin America in terms of themes, approaches, and stakes. Many participants were experts in industrial, product, and packaging design, while others focused on the impact of design in the kitchen and on all kinds of creativity processes connected to food. I will discuss the conversations about how and why to teach food design in an upcoming post. For now, I will focus on what emerged as very urgent topics: To what extent is food design relevant in Latin America, with all its dazzling variety of cultures, populations, and complicated histories? What does it mean to be a food designer in that region? What unique peculiarities shape food design, its practice, and its theoretical exploration in Brazil, Mexico, or Colombia?

The discussion was spirited, emotional, and at times anarchical, allowing all the participants to contribute their point of view. One of the elements that surfaced was the influence of natural, human, and political diversity on the work of food designers. Colombia and Brazil, for example, boast the most impressive biodiversity on Earth, and both have large native populations that maintain traditional knowledge of plants, animals, and culinary techniques that are only partially known outside their communities. Reference was made to the culture of “fresco”, all that is fresh and ready to be gathered and enjoyed. This staggering abundance clashes with issues of malnutrition, discrimination, and oppression, while highlighting opportunities for building new kinds of relationships around food and its rituals.

The scars left by centuries of colonialism and the struggles for independence, followed by decades where projects of national construction were highjacked by violence and political turmoil, have left a heritage that participants variously indicated as “lack of self esteem”, “subordination,” and “doubts about one’s value.” At any moment, this painful baggage risks hindering cultural and social advancement. However, the citizens of South American countries seem to have recourse to an inordinate amount of vitality and creativity, which tends to express itself in forms of extreme individualism and suspicion of politics. At the same time, solidarity and a shared sense of community often counteract these tendencies toward fragmentation. Everybody admitted to the fact that Latin America is a place of blatant contradictions, which nevertheless can constitute powerful engines for transformation.

These promises and ambiguities cannot but deeply shape the work of any designer, and in particular food designers. They are called not only to have people reflect on their relationship to food and its consumption, but also to introduce change to make food production and distribution systems more equitable, efficient, and sustainable, balancing technological innovation with community needs and cultural priorities. It is a very tall order, but the enthusiasm was palpable, especially among young up-and-coming designers, both still in school and already working. Latin America has a good chance of becoming a powerhouse in food design, in radically different ways from what we see in North America and Europe.

Republished from the Huffington Post with permission.