Peruvian Gastronomy As a Tool for Social Development
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Peruvian gastronomy as a tool for social development An analysis of processes of identification, cultural commoditization and the impact of gastronomic grassroots movements All photos are taken by the authors during the period of fieldwork in 2018 2 Student: Jesper Nass Student number: 5546362 Email: [email protected] Student: Daan Overgaag Student number: 5619238 Email: [email protected] Supervisor: Fabiola Jara Gomez Date: 27 June 2018 3 4 Inhoud Introduction .......................................................................................................................................7 Theoretical framework ..................................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 1 – Food and identification ............................................................................................ 17 Identification on different levels of community .................................................................... 17 National cuisine .................................................................................................................... 18 Globalized food cultures ....................................................................................................... 20 Food practices on a local level .............................................................................................. 21 Chapter 2 – Cultural commoditization ........................................................................................ 22 Chapter 3 – Gastronomic grassroots initiatives ........................................................................... 25 Methodology.................................................................................................................................... 27 Context............................................................................................................................................. 37 Empirical chapter 1 - Peruvian gastronomy: an unifying medium in a fragmented nation ........... 43 Revalorizing Peru in the period of a boom ............................................................................ 43 Peru’s fine-dining gastronomy .............................................................................................. 45 Peruvian is a mistura ............................................................................................................ 47 National food culture ............................................................................................................ 47 Global influences .................................................................................................................. 49 Local diversity ....................................................................................................................... 50 Empirical chapter 2 - Cultural commoditization: the double goal of cultural preservation and adaptation to global markets ...................................................................................................... 55 Gastronomy & value ............................................................................................................. 55 MIL Centro, an interplay of groups........................................................................................ 56 Community involvement in MIL’s cuisine .............................................................................. 63 Authenticity is created .......................................................................................................... 64 The coexistence of two cuisines ............................................................................................ 67 Empirical chapter 3 - gastronomic grassroots movements .......................................................... 73 Grassroots vs. government; cellular vs. vertebrate................................................................ 73 High-value chains ................................................................................................................. 75 MIL as a grassroots ............................................................................................................... 75 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 79 Discussion ............................................................................................................................ 85 Literature ......................................................................................................................................... 87 Appendix .......................................................................................................................................... 91 Abstract ................................................................................................................................ 91 5 6 Introduction Dish served at a market in Peru One of the courses of the Elevations menu of Central 7 8 Introduction What is for you Peruvian? Try to ask a couple Peruvian and you’ll see that they find it a complicated and confusing question to answer. And of course, it’s not easy to just define one’s national identity. Having to answer this short question will push many people to think about the most typifying characterizations of their nationhood. But then still, there can be many aspects that embody one’s national identity. So they will pick the ones that are most central in how they relate to their nationality. We have asked this question to many Peruvians during our fieldwork period, and most of them had to think about it before they hesitantly answered. Interestingly, there were two aspects that stood out and everyone seemed to agree upon. First, people agreed that Peru is a complex mixture of ethnic identities and livelihoods, as a result of Peru’s migration history, the country’s economic situation and the many different geographical environments existent in Peru. Peru houses a mix of indigenous peoples, Spanish descendants, and migrants from Japan, China and other parts of the world. And the realities of people in Lima are very different from people living in the Peruvian Amazon and Andes. This vast diversity of identities that co-exist in a common national framework is resulting in that many Peruvians can’t relate themselves very well with one another. Different local and social environments shape the way ethnic groups culturally construct themselves and the relational dynamics between these groups. Language, for example, is certainly a prominent factor in how the Peruvian population is divided, as there is still a significant number of people whose primary language is Amerindian, like people speaking Quechua or Aymara. Also, there seems to be a division between people living in urban areas and people in rural areas, where the former is distancing itself from the latter, regarded by many urban people as backwards. The second thing that was mentioned by roughly every Peruvian we spoke to also has to do with this diversity, but specifically about the rich diversity of food and cuisines. Peru is one of the most biodiverse countries on earth, rich in fish, crop varieties, and environments. There are cooking techniques that date back to the Inca-times and culinary influences from all over the world, resulting from the history of immigration in Peru. This diversity of ingredients and food practices are what makes the Peruvian cuisine so rich, and their co-existence in Peru resulted in a number of interesting fusion cuisines. Quite paradoxically, this diversity of cuisines is what seems to be increasingly more the common ground for Peruvians to imagine themselves as a national unity. In effect, this is shaping policies of the government and induced goals for the Peruvian gastronomy that reach much further than the restaurant. 9 The Peruvian gastronomy has underwent significant changes over the last years, a process which is often referred to as the ‘gastronomic boom’. This process was spearheaded by chefs who started cooking with Peruvian ingredients and food practices, and translated them in a fine-dining cuisine which has gained great global popularity over the past 20 years. Nowadays, chefs have obtained a star-like status, local food practices increasingly make their way into the kitchens of fine-dining restaurants and the number of gastronomy students has risen exponentially. The revalorisation of local food practices is also initiated by the government in an attempt to get the Peruvian national food culture recognized by UNESCO as cultural intangible heritage. The dual motivations behind the attempt to preserve Peru’s food culture while simultaneously present the country globally, make this process of heritage-making interwoven with debates regarding cultural homogenization and heterogenization, in- and exclusion, and cultural property. The global character of the national food culture, is highly influenced by the reputation of Peru’s fine- dining restaurants, as three of Peru’s top restaurants are placed in the top 50, and two of these make it into the top ten of the ‘Worlds50best’ list1. Making use of the richness in products, food knowledges and materials that are to be found Peru’s local communities, these restaurants are actively shaping the national food culture. In a country characterized by diversity, through its colonial and migratory history, multiple ethnicities and great biodiversity, Peruvians tend to relate more and more