Traditional gastronomic knowledge: Who cares?
Prof. Dr.Andrea Pieroni
University of Gastronomic Sciences
In recent years, field studies concerning folkfoods and foodheritage increased all over the world. These works focused on traditional gastronomic (TGK) knowledge and practices, mainly retained by elderly peoples in ruralandperipheralareas. These “conglomerates“ have been clearly defined as part of the intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2003 and should be therefore dynamically preserved and valorized. In this presentation, I will show the complexity and main characteristics of TKG as part of a larger spectrum of traditional ecological knowledge, practices, and beliefs (TEK), the importance of rigorous ethnography-based methodologies in the field studies, and especially the relevance of TGK for fostering sustainable foodsystems, for empowering local communities, and possibly boosting localfoods/gastronomy-centredsmall-scale economies. Moreover, I will discuss how these studies may rearticulate the "citizenscience" concept that will be the crucial pillar of European research in the years to come.