Cultural Links
University of Granada
In Defense of the Anchovy: Tourism through Place-based Cuisine View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Marcela Garces
In a post-pandemic world where travel is more complex, what about traveling through cuisine as an alternative? Opening La Centralita Culinary Studio in December 2021 with my creative partner (from Bilbao, Spain) has given us the opportunity to do just that: immerse our guests in the cuisines of Spain through pedagogical tasting experiences in Albany, New York as a complement to our respective careers as a professor and consultant. We observe how people make assumptions about foods they like or dislike based on cultural baggage. This is particularly true with the anchovy. In the United States, it is an unpopular canned food languishing on grocery store shelves alongside tuna. In Spain, it has a completely different connotation: a pricey delicacy, a burst of umami in numerous pintxos (hearty Basque bar snacks); a tiny fish revered and consumed both fresh and preserved in a miniscule tin packed with care by women in factories. Combining theoretical stances of Spanish cultural and culinary studies and drawing upon my experience teaching in our studio, I contrast the food discourses about anchovies in Spain versus in the United States, taking the anchovy off the shelf and into the spotlight as a small but powerful fish whose culinary story has a lot to teach us by traveling to its origins: it has helped to employ numerous women, is a healthy source of omega-3s in the Mediterranean diet, and is a sustainable fish to consume in an era where climate change is of primary concern.
Best Practices for Gastronomy in Emerging Countries: Developing Standards of Sustainability and Social Responsibility View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maria E Sanchez Zambrano, Mario Marcello Pasco-Dalla-Porta, Maria Elena Esparza
There is an increasing amount of literature that examines the challenges of restaurants regarding the construction of positive relationships with their stakeholders and ecosystems. Although most studies have focused on the negative environmental impacts of the industry, many of them have also analyzed problems that affect workers as well as other actors along the supply chain. Some research has also addressed practices related to animal mistreatment. These problems are often aggravated in emerging countries with weak regulation and poor law enforcement. In spite of this, research specifically aimed at establishing standards for measuring these practices is still lacking. Drawing on theoretical and empirical literature on sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and ethical eating in restaurants, this paper aims at developing a set of standards for measuring sustainable and socially responsible practices in the industry, with a particular emphasis on the situation in emerging countries. The primary method is the Delphi Technique, based on the consultation and validation of indicators with key experts in the industry, including restaurateurs, chefs, representatives of restaurant associations, professors of gastronomy schools, and officials of the related government agencies. The standards comprise four key dimensions: green practices, animal welfare, fair work environment, and fair relationships along the supply chain. By establishing these standards, this study makes possible the development of future systematic diagnosis about these practices in the sector and, on this basis, opens the door for a broader discussion about the level of incidence of these problems and the need for policy changes to revert them.
