This is a CTP of initiative: Slow Food Araba-Vitoria (Spain)
The first CTP mentioned by the interviewee points to the organisation of the“I Cultural days in defence of food and gastronomic heritages” promoted by the Slow Food Araba-Vitoria (SFAV) convivium and which were held between September and December, 2006. The event took place in the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz and their impact was local and at the provincial level. This event occurs only one year and a half after the establishment of SFAV its purpose is to help spread the work of the Slow Food movement among the citizens of Araba and doing it through the dissemination of the Basque gastronomic heritage and by recovering some traditional foods and food use which, according to the interviewee, were being lost; as stated next:
“It was enriching. There were some days during which this philosophy Slow Food has brought was shared, together with the food processing techniques provided by cooks… We wanted to share this entire heritage that has been transmitted from mothers to sons, or from cook to cook. And much of that knowledge came to light finally. Only a few people here in Araba knew since that moment that we had such a wonderful olive oil. These days has served as an engine for local gastronomy. Nowadays, the event is one of the main gastronomic activities in the territory. Last year we held the 10th edition. Next year, it will be the 11th. Step by step we have met our goals. I can definitely say the goals we had at the beginning have been far beyond surpassed.
Slow Food wanted, with the organization of these events, to bring the Slow philosophy closer to a key sector within the movement: the regional cooks and chefs. However, since that moment, there were no common activities in which cooks from Araba were jointly engaged. A culture of cooperation in the sector was lacking. Despite this, a goal of Slow Food in the medium term was to promote the creation of a “KM0-restaurant network”, one of the projects which the Slow Food movement had promoted in other regions of Spain.
According to the interviewee, the I Cultural Days meant a critical moment for the association itself, in the sense that it gained recognition among the citizens from Araba. Besides, the event was a turning point also for the cooks from Vitoria-Gasteiz. From then on, they started to engage in innovative and based on cooperation projects, going beyond their comfort zones and sharing experiences and learnings:
We encouraged them to leave their kitchens for a moment, to share and disseminate their knowledge, without fear, and to learn from each other”. "We also bring cooks from other places, more or less popular, who work in the same way, keeping the Slow philosophy in mind…but we have mainly nearby participants. This year we were over 20, 22 to be exact. What do we have achieved? ' First of all that these cooks meet; a breeding ground has been created for other activities that have been taking place in the region
The “I Cultural days in defence of food and gastronomic heritages” emerge as an attempt to bring the Slow Food Movement closer to a part of the Basque cuisine that had been preserving the traditions and using local products. Its first edition was supported by the members of Slow Food Araba-Vitoria in 2006. One of them is a young cook, Ángel Plágaro, who together with the president of SFAV, Alberto López de Izpina and a reduced number of members, progressively persuaded a small number of cooks from the region to get involved in the first edition of this groundbreaking event in the context of the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz.
“This idea arises from a conversation I had with a chef from here, Luis Ángel Plágaro. We shaped it little by little. He accepted to collaborate in a very positive way. Despite his age, he has been in charge of selecting the cooks, the organization…though we are here too to help. And the perception of it everybody has is very positive. First to spread the work done by them. They are not big chefs, every day in the newspapers as Adriá or Berasategui are. They have still a heart and wanted to show it to the whole society.”
The spatial context where this CTP is located is the capital of the province of Araba, Vitoria Gasteiz, a small city with 240,000 inhabitants and which despite it presents some cultural and historical singularities which are relevant for the CTP. Thus, it is worth mentioning the remarkable culinary tradition existing in the entire Basque Country, involving both internationally renowned chefs as well as a consolidated gastronomic culture among the population shown by high levels of involvement in the gastronomy societies, present over the region. This being the context, when Slow Food Araba-Vitoria organises any kind of a culinary event, people are prone to have a good reception.
“Indeed, this way is how it was traditional to cook in the gastronomic societies already, as we also did in the Slow Food members’ homes. But, moreover, we want to change how people eat. The Slow philosophy is to get out into society. And counting on the support by the cooks was one of the tools we had to disseminate our discourse; to make everybody here gets to know us. To start thinking differently about food, in a more responsible way. To become aware that is not only a matter of eating, of feeding ourselves but that it has also a dramatic impact on the environment, on the planet we are to leave for new generations.”
However, as it is pointed next, this culinary tradition is linked to the existence of rivalries between chefs and cooks, who were reluctant to engage in the I Gastronomic Days at the first place and skeptical about the potential success of the event. Only once the first editions were held, Slow Food has broken these barriers and in our interviewee’s words, this has happened thanks to the media coverage the events had. The activists from SFAV are aware of the need for the media to be present in their activities and they use several spaces both in the local radio and local press to disseminate their messages:
“We must recognise that 10 years ago there were no so many cooks on TV, as there are today. I always like to tell that whenever Arguiñano cooked a horse mackerel on tv, you couldn’t find any at the fishmonger. That is the influence they have”. In the interviewee’s view, “The local visibility and recognition these days provide to cooks from Álava is the main reason that explains the initial reluctance towards them, has dissapeared. On the contrary, there are many cooks that without them being members of Slow Food or without them sharing 100% its philosophy, want to be involved in the Days”.
The Days are an attractive space through which the association aims at transmitting a series of values related to both the local gastronomy and the local culture, also trying to promote the “Km 0 restaurants” amongst young cooks and offering citizens from Álava a different way to understand cooking demonstrations, as an opportunity for collective learning, knowledge exchange and of interaction between participants, rather than focusing these events on technical aspects or concrete recipes.
"We wanted to do something different. We have observed that there were traditionally 2 ways to organise events like these. In the first one the cook would typically give a master class in cooking, but nobody would say a word, they wouldn’t interact with the attendees. And in the end, the products would be tested. There was a second type of events, which were already organised in the city regularly and where a famous cook would be involved in the cooking of a tasting of products, but the cook would be hidden in the kitchen, you wouldn’t see him or her at any time. Besides, you would neither be explained about the reasons for choosing certain products over others, the whys. And not to mention that there wouldn’t be any interaction with the attendees. The I Gastronomic Days organised by Slow Food themselves integrated a slow food model, based on the idea of labs of taste. People from outside love this and some even try to implement it in their places. The Days are something more professional [than the labs of taste] because are focused mainly on cooks, even though there are to a smaller degree producers also involved; but the goal is to put cooks at the centre stage. We propose a new way to do it. We tried to innovate and we were not aware that something like this would already exist in any other places”
The interviewee points in this section of the interview to a previous event related to the CTP: the establishment of the Slow Food Araba-Vitoria in January 2005. This event is also a consequence of the invitation Slow Food extended to them to go to the Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, which the international network hosted and which was held in October, 2004 in Turin. At that time, the founders of SFAV realised there is a global movement sharing their values, the same they have been advocating in Araba through other local associacion (e.g. gastronomic societies).
On the second hand, the interviewee refers to the II Cultural days in defence of food and gastronomic heritages (2007) which are a direct consequence of the good reception of the first edition, which allowed that the event had been celebrated annually until its 10th edition in 2015. The good reputation of the Days (and consequently of Slow Food) has been increasing, as the audience and engaged professionals did- from 6 cooks in the first edition to 22 in the last one.
Moreover, these I Days inspired in 2007 other of the main activities organised by Slow Food Álava: the Civic-Food Meeting. That event emerges with the objective of spreading the Slow Food discourse across the local farming sector to become a meeting point for learning about sustainable agriculture. Both of the activities allow Slow Food to gain social recognition, as well as a sort of prestige and reputation.
This is afterwards translated into support from public institutions. In 2007 Slow Food signs its first collaboration agreement with the Álava Provincial Council, getting in this way external funds for the activities the SFAV convivium aims to promote. The interviewee refers also to other events that go beyond his own association and which are related to this new way of doing and relating Slow Food promotes. Thus, the traditional competition between cooks has evolved into more collaboration and higher levels of involvement in joint activities. Slow Food has served as a meeting point that has achieved that both restaurants and professionals to join their efforts to promote the culinary tradition of Araba. Resulting from it, according to the interviewee is the appointment of Vitoria-Gasteiz as the gastronomic capital of Spain, in 2014:
"Not long ago, Vitoria-Gasteiz was appointed the gastronomic capital of Spain. Only 10 years ago, It would have been impossible to imagine the cooks agreeing to make joint demonstations, travelling together to Madrid, to Barcelona…These Gastronomic Days have favoured this relationship they have now, to promote this sort of stuff. Actually, after two years of being the gastronomic capital a plenty of projects have emerged. The other day, we held a contest of miniature cooking. The organization of this kind of activities is most of the times promoted by our cook group in Slow Food”.
The launching of the I Gastronomic Days meant a lot of effort by their promoters who had to get around a range of initial barriers, mainly coming from the hotel sector. In these years a degree of rivalry existed among the cooks (still existing) in a región (Basque Country) where gastronomy has enjoyed prestige.
"These Days tried to expand the scope of intervention of the association to the professional cooks sector. For many years and to some extent it is still the same, the cooks were wary of opening their kitchens and of sharing with the public the work they did. This is not something happening only here in Álava, but everywhere. It’s so hard for them to engage in an event in which 20 cooks from the region are involved, together. It is very hard for them to share the “secrets” their recipes contain. They were a little bit leery at the first place. But we had a big interest in including them, and in making them an integral part of this, because we consider they are key for this thing we are building”.
When the 1st Edition of the Cultural days in defence of food and gastronomic heritages took place, the reception was weak among the cooks from Álava, who were both the protagonists and the target audience of the Days. The reason for this: that Slow Food was not well known yet. In 2006, SF was only one year and did not enjoy the prestige it has currently. But the suspicious reaction occurred mainly because there was a lack of cooperation among, the cooks, who competed with one another. As the interviewee explains, there was a high degree of competition among them:
"Yes, some of the cooks who have later joined us because they see there is no going back, at the beginning, gently…many of them said to us that the Days were a quixotic act, that they did not want to have any trouble, that people would copy their recipes, etc. In fact, in that time there were several forums in which cooks would fight and accused other of copying their recipes, one another, this kind of stuff…Ridiculous, but it is more common than we could imagine. This matter of egos…”
The promoters of the Days managed over the opposition and they persuade the cooks, by convincing them that their involvement would be good both for them and their restaurants, in the sense that their recognition would increase, together with their presence in the media. The personal relations with some of the cooks, of friendship, made the difference and allowed that the six first participants enrolled, despite their doubts. Hence, they engaged without any economic retribution, volunteering, in a culinary event with an innovative format where they would be the protagonists but in which they should interact with the audience.
“Rather than convinced, they came because our friendship. They were friends with some of us and this perhaps made them more confident than others. Later on others have been coming. Because of their ego, because they want to be on the newspapers, to get more “photo opportunities”. Now, the most of the cooks from the Basque Country who receive support from the institutions, in order to be in Fitur and other similar events, they are now well-known thanks to their involvement in the Slow Food Days. Some of them have been always brighter than others, but the most of them are in their restaurants, in their kitchens and there is where they remain”
The promoters of the I Cultural days in defence of food and gastronomic heritages did not foresee the importance that the Project would have, not only for the association, as we have explained, but for the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz. As the interviewee stated, in the beginning “there were doubts about the continuity of the Project itself”, which would rely on the reception and interest among the citizens. The Araba-Vitoria convivium had been established in 2005, and they were still unknown in the región. Besides, the link with Slow Food International was still in its infancy. The leaders of SFAV barely knew at that momento the movement and projects that the Slow Food global network had over the world and they were only starting to draft their strategies to adapt those projects to their local context, as it was the case of the km0 restaurant network.
“These were years of intense work, of making ourselves seen, of meeting producers who were completely forgotten. It was very intense. Perhaps now, we organise more activities than then, and they are better organised, with less efforts required. At that time we were probing what to do, how to get things done. And as a referent we had Slow Food, working at an international level, but we had to adapt to our close context”.
Besides, SFAV relied on a group –cooks and chefs-, who were not yet involved in Slow Food, and they wanted them in. In order to do that they had to get round the skepticisms and doubts they kept receiving from the sector and which made them moderate their initial expectations. Since the 1st edition of the Days, the Slow Food Araba-Vitoria convivium started to gain social recognition. It increases their members (from 20 to near 60 in only a year) and from then on the institutions were open to support their activities with funds.
Nowadays the Days have become one of the main events in the city and its innovative format has been replicated and extended beyond Álava.
"We haven’t thought we would be that successful. 10 years ago we were just starting. We did not have yet support from the institutions. We had yet to make ourselves seen and known. We sort of played with those volunteer cooks, who were involved. They had to even bring the products and food for cooking. We played making ourselves seen, it was our first goal. We exist because we think we have a role: to protect and to make our heritage known. The Days meant the backing of the population from Araba. It is noteworthy that from then on both the people and the institutions from Araba saw that [the Slow Food philosophy] made sense and started to support us. At the beginning we said feebly that the Days would be followed up, but we were not sure even if we could repeat them next year. It’s that clear.”
The member of the Slow Food Araba-Vitoria convivium have built on lessons from the organisation of the I Days. First, the learning generated within the Days has allowed the tranfer of the Slow Food’s discourse to a professional sector with a high impact over citizens, as is the case of the hotel sector. Second, the members of Slow Food Araba-Vitoria perceive a shift in attitudes among the involved cooks. There have been changes in their cooking, by giving value to the local products, using organic crops and by the recovery of traditional dishes.
“This is one of our not-confessed goals. Even though persuaded them saying we would publicise them, etc., our real objective was making them to start working under the Slow philosophy, km0, meeting producers. This was our final goal. Obviously, we have achieved this with a series of KM0 restaurants we have. There are still lots of work to be done. Some would like to do the same but they don’t because they are lazy, they don’t have time, etc. But those 22 cooks involved in the last edition, those are people who have a direct contact with the producers, who are interested in the products they use, how these are grown.”
Second, the learning generated within the Days includes both the Slow network and the protagonists of the Days, “the cooks who thanks to these days met each other directly and establish personal relationships” that is later translated in a capacity of collective work which has been materialised in new projects, benefitting the city (as the appointment of Vitoria Gasteiz as Gastronomy Capital of Spain, in 2014). The learning is linked to a new way of relating to each other, overcoming initial barriers, distrust and competitiveness between cooks:
“I usually join a lunch with all of them. And every year talking the same story appears What they learn from working together. They do not longer see it as a competition. They have their own personality. I like to say that dishes do not have copyright. Each one cooks them in their own way and the dishes are different in the end. This is what they have internalised this that each of them in their stoves, they have their own personality. And getting new ideas is not bad, it what we have been doing our whole lifes”.
Despite this, changes take time. The members of Slow Food have learnt to be patient and have understood the change in attitudes and behaviours across the citizens is a slow process, for which they also need external allies. Also due this, they have promoted the Days, to make the Slow philosophy known in an appealing way, through the own Basque cooks.
The Gastronomic Days have been key for the promotion of a network of km 0 restaurants in the province of Araba, under the umbrella of Slow Food Araba-Vitoria. In order to achieve this, the convivium is required to verify the meeting of a series conditions (related to the origin of products offered at the restaurant, the promotion of the Ark of Taste1, etc.) which can be initially seen as boundaries for joining the network by restaurants. However, SFAV has achieved a small representation of the restoration sector in Araba to integrate Slow criteria in their businesses:
“One of the related projects is the KM 0 certification in Slow Food, for which a series of conditions have to be met. If you explain all these conditions the day to meet an owner, you would never get anything from him/her. They would tell you they prefer doing nothing, which they have enough with feeding all their clients every day in their restaurants…But now things have changed; there is an interest in all of this. We are no longer chasing them, they contact us directly. The last cook who joined (in the KM0 project), Inmaculada, she has her restaurant in a little village. It’s wonderful to see how she grows her own vegetables, she has her sheeps, she has her chickens. And she works as a cook. She says this is the future, local products, healthy ones and organically produced. And she has come to see us. She is the last one we have certified. At the national level there are about 100 km0 restaurants. At the local level, there are 12, not even the 25 restaurants usually coming to the Days, but little by little they get certified”
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