Abstract

This article highlights the connection between urban regeneration, gourmetization, and the concept of “selling place” as it is conceived in both theoretical writings and in accounts of urban regeneration. This work focuses on the transformation and modernization of several public food markets and the opening of new gourmet food trucks in Madrid, Spain, as part of what Sharon Zukin defines as the city’s symbolic economy. Many of these traditional food markets, originally built in the late nineteenth century, have morphed into selling themselves as high-end gourmet emporiums to satisfy the needs of thousands of tourists that visit the capital throughout the year. Gentrification is just one of the consequences along with the commodification of cultures and gourmetization of many other products that occur, in most cases, intentionally in many transited and now touristic areas of Madrid.