ADG_ALBANIA_interiores.indd 1 10/6/20 9:06 AM Alba ADG_ALBANIA_interiores.indd 2 10/6/20 9:06 AM the ark of taste inventory in Alba food, knowledge, and stories of gastronomic heritage Slow Food® ADG_ALBANIA_interiores.indd 3 10/11/20 11:38 PM Edited by Dhurata Daneri, Dauro Mattia Zocchi, Michele Rumiz, 4 Charles Barstow, and Entoni Rasku A Following the nominations received from: Pier Paolo Ambrosi, Artan Bala, Sulejman Dalipi, Petrit Dobi, Zef Gjeta, Preke ANI Gjeloshaj, Gjystina Grishaj, Urim Jace, Rigers Kacori, Flora Sali, Dorjan Meraj, Andrea Pieroni B Dhimiter Piligriu, Giorgio Ponti, Altin e Anton Prenga, Eftali Qerimi, Vehip Salkurti, AL Manjola Shehaj, Flora Sali, Irma Tako, Drita Tanazi, VIS Albania, CESVI Albania, | the Slow Food network in Albania and the Slow Food Chefs’ Alliance in Albania E T S Language editing A T Charles Barstow F O Layout K Aarón Gómez Figueroa and Paola Sánchez García AR www.cabezadetoro.com.mx Illustrations Edgar Flores López Copyright © 2020 Slow Food® All rights reserved Slow Food Editore srl Piazza XX Settembre, 5 - 12042 Bra (Cn) Italia Tel. 0172 419611 [email protected] www.slowfood.com This book is part of a service provided by Slow Food and VIS to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations as part of a Letter of Agreement in support of the project named TCP/ALB/3606 “Building MARDWA administrative capacities for technical negotiations with European Union in agriculture and rural development”. The view expressed in this document are those of Slow Food and do not Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. FRAMEWORK 5 OF THE PUBLICATION he Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) technical assistance in Albania aims to preserve the biodiversity, enhancing sustainable productivity in the food and agriculture sector through multi-stakeholder partnerships from farm to fork. A key focus is to support the use of the rich Tdiversity of the Albanian traditional cuisine and the unique gastronomic experience to facilitate market development and integration. FAO accelerated its support to strengthen institutional capacities, enhancing national agriculture and rural development policy framework in order to facilitate XLIGSYRXVMIWIǺSVXWXS[EVHWMXWLEVQSRM^EXMSR[MXLXLIEGUYMWGSQQYREYXEMVISJ the European Union. Establishing a sound legislation to regulate and protect Geographical Indication is among key aspects for meeting the EU acquis and enacting an enabling framework that safeguards Albania’s agricultural and gastronomic heritage, and leverages its potential to support sustainability of rural livelihoods on the producer side while improving and diversifying diet choices for consumers delivered across the country and beyond. This publication is an important achievement jointly realized with Slow Food, a global, grassroots Organization acting to safeguard food biodiversity across the [SVPH JSV QSVI XLER ]IEVW ERH SRI SJ +&4ƶW WXVEXIKMG TEVXRIVW MR XLMW IǺSVX Sharing the vision for promoting Geographical Indications, FAO and the Slow Food raised awareness and introduced Albania’s extraordinary gastronomic heritage by SYXPMRMRKMXWLMWXSV]GYPMREV]XVEHMXMSRWERHYRMUYIǼEZSVWMJSǺIVW The publication has collected a list of products thanks to the valuable contribution of many chefs and volunteers of the Slow Food network in the country, who shared their culinary knowledge and secrets and who work passionately to safeguard the traditional cuisine heritage, which Albania has built over centuries. I believe that this unique collection will contribute to the Albanian Gastronomic Renaissance and the country’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Agenda. It will particularly to facilitate eradicating poverty (SDG1), ensuring food security and nutrition (SDG2) and promoting sustainable consumption (SDG12). This unique examples are prepared and released as part of FAO’s work within the framework of the Regional Initiative on improving agrifood trade and market integration in Europe and Central Asia. Raimund Jehle FAO Representative for Albania Regional Programme Leader for Europe and Central Asia ADG_ALBANIA_interiores.indd 5 10/6/20 9:06 AM iodiversity is the greatest promise for the future of humankind. Without it, the foundation for human life on the planet is lost, as is the 6 very soil on which civilizations and cultures have been shaped and Bformed as the result of human adaptation to the natural environment. Defending, protecting, and promoting biodiversity is therefore not simply one among a number of choices, advanced by the intellectuals of conservation or by nostalgic environmentalists: It is, rather, the only viable path forward. It is a ALBANIA moral duty that we, the generation that inhabits this historic moment, must take on for those who will come after us and live on this planet Earth, a planet that, | today, we are trampling, hurting, and mistreating. From this point of view, the Ark of Taste, a global project that this book takes up in its Albanian context, is an initiative that seeks to create information, knowledge, and awareness about this TASTE unique heritage. Through the Ark, communities are invited to rediscover their OF agricultural and food heritage, in order not to lose the connection with the land that feeds us and will continue to feed us. ARK Talking about food biodiversity and its protection is of crucial importance in the Balkan area, especially when it comes to Albania. In facts, the history of this country shaped also the local customs and its gastronomy The over forty years SJXLIGSQQYRMWXHMGXEXSVWLMTLEZIWSQILS[ǼEXXIRIH&PFERMERWƶXEWXI.J[I look for example at cheese, its immense pastoral dairy tradition where reduced to 2 options: the industrial white brined cheese or kaçkaval. On top of this, in the nineties and still today, consumerism arrived and the western model, following MRXIVREXMSREPXVIRHWLEWMRǼYIRGIHJSSHMRYVFEREVIEWMXMWJERGMIVXSLEZI club sandwiches and Caesar salads rather than a good byrek. Fortunately, things are changing and real Albanian cuisine is lately being VIHMWGSZIVIH 8LMW MW E VIGIRX XVIRH [LMGL ǻRHW MXW SVMKMRW XS ER MRXIVIWXMRK phenomenon of “returning immigration”. Many Albanian chefs – who have emigrated in the past - decided to return to their country due to the crisis of 2008, opening activities where they enhance local biodiversity, let the transmission of old traditions be possible and the innovation of this latter a VIEPMX] .R XLIMV RI[ VIWXEYVERXW XLI] EVI WXEVXMRK XS SǺIV XVEHMXMSREP TVSHYGXW and typical Albanian dishes, some of them catalogued also in this book. This is the case of Dibra Jufka, a type of handmade egg pasta cooked in a wood oven with a free-range chicken (Jufka dibre me pulë), or of a typical fruit preserve called gliko are (walnut gliko) or ďĮĞīŇƐĀīƣƐĞƐåďêŹ [MPHǻKKPMOS8LMWMWSRP]SRI of the reasons why it is important to know, catalogue, and protect all those local ZEVMIXMIW ERH VIGMTIW XLEX ǻRH XLIMV REXYVEP LEFMXEX MR&PFERMER TIHSGPMQEXMG cultural and social conditions. In facts, on the one hand, they preserve cultural ADG_ALBANIA_interiores.indd 6 10/6/20 9:06 AM heritage, on the other, represent the only democratic instrument for restoring local economy and protect the authentic beauty of this land. 7 As citizens, we must be aware that the gastronomic heritage of a country rests primarily on the shoulders of these people, who, among other things, are those who care for the environment, who keep marginal communities alive, who save soils from erosion, and who protect biological, cultural, and food diversity. Defending biodiversity takes us toward a more sustainable future, and a sustainable future for Albania as a whole represents a hope for the future of the entire planet. This publication is intended as a tool to promote Albania’s biodiversity and make it known to the wider public. We are at the beginning of a long and fascinating journey of discovery. Great things lie ahead. Carlo Petrini ADG_ALBANIA_interiores.indd 7 10/6/20 9:06 AM WHAT IS SLOW FOOD? 8 Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization, founded in 1989 to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions and counteract the rise of fast food culture. Since its founding, Slow Food ALBANIA has grown into a global movement involving millions of people in over | S160 countries, working to ensure that everyone has access to good, clean and fair food. Slow Food is the umbrella organization responsible for guiding and steering the action of the entire movement, which is composed of over 1,500 TASTE local chapters and 2,400 food communities, and reaches millions of people every year. OF Slow Food promotes food that is good, clean and fair for all: good because it is healthy in addition to tasting good; clean because it is produced with low ARK environmental impact and with animal welfare in mind; and fair because it respects the work of those who produce, process, and distribute it. Slow Food works to defend biodiversity and to promote a sustainable and environmentally friendly food production and consumption system; to spread sensory education and responsible consumption; and to connect producers of quality foods with co-producers (conscious consumers) through events and initiatives. Slow Food is committed to protecting traditional, sustainable, quality foods, defending the biodiversity of cultivated and wild varieties as well as methods of cultivation and production. These are all threatened by the prevalence of processed food, industrial agribusiness, and the rules of the global market. The Slow Food Foundation