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Abstract
Catalonia has, from the nineteenth century to the present day, promoted a distinct culinary tourism. Travel and tourism practices have, as early as the eighteenth century, worked as powerful agents of Spanish nation-building and self-identification. In the case of Catalonia, and Barcelona in particular, gastronomic promotion via touristic forums became a key outlet for the expression of such nationalist sentiment. Tracing the process from the earliest mass-tourism guide-books to Barcelona, passing through the regressive understanding of culinary and broader cultural difference during the Franco dictatorship, this essay recognizes the firm linking of food and Catalan identity. By the 1960s we can identify the reassertion of a Catalan gastronomic identity in the proliferation of gastronomic guides to the region and culinary tourism enterprises such as the recent ‘Ruta 1714’ campaign. Along the way, this essay examines the role of the Generalitat, the Catalan language, the mining of local history and various touristic entities and gastronomic figures in cementing the identification between Catalonia and gastronomy that has ultimately helped strengthen the region’s broader political and cultural recognition abroad.
Notes
1 Montserrat Roser i Puig, ‘What’s Cooking in Catalonia’, in A Companion to Catalan Culture, ed. Dominic Keown (Woodbridge: Tamesis, 2011), 229–52 (p. 230).
2 Luis Garay & Gemma Cànoves, ‘Life Cycles, Stages and Tourism History: The Catalonia (Spain) Experience’, Annals of Tourism Research, 38:2 (2011), 651–71 (pp. 652 & 658).
3 Robert Davidson, ‘Terroir and Catalonia’, Journal of Catalan Studies, 10 (2007), 39–53 (p. 40). Davidson highlights a new relationship of the Catalan government and the rural that reveals new discourses about the ethics of consumption.
4 Toni Massanés & Sílvia Culell, Catalonia is Gastronomy: Gastronomic Tourism Club Catalogue (Barcelona: Agència Catalana de Turisme/Generalitat de Catalunya, 2010); brochure available at <http://act.gencat.cat/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/CataloniaGastronomy.pdf> (accessed 14 August 2016). This is a bilingual publication; selected quotations will be given in the article in either English or Catalan followed by a page reference.
5 In this essay we focus on the officially sanctioned publications of the Generalitat as well as works that can be read in tandem with the government’s initiatives for tourism in Barcelona.
6 Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food (New York: Free Press, 2002), 223.
7 Lucy M. Long, ‘Culinary Tourism’, in The Oxford Handbook of Food History, ed. Jeffrey M. Pilcher (Oxford: Oxford U. P., 2012), 389–406 (pp. 393 & 395–96).
8 Long, ‘Culinary Tourism’, 399–400.
9 Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, ‘Foreword’, in Culinary Tourism, ed. Lucy M. Long (Lexington: The Univ. Press of Kentucky, 2004), xi–xiv (p. xiii).
10 Eugenia Afinoguénova & Jaume Martí-Olivella, ‘Introduction. A Nation under Tourists’ Eyes: Tourism and Identity Discourses in Spain’, in Spain is (Still) Different: Tourism and Discourse in Spanish Identity, ed. Eugenia Afinoguénova & Jaume Martí-Olivella (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2008), xi–xxxviii (p. xi).
11 María del Mar Serrano, Las guías urbanas y los libros de viaje en la España del siglo XIX (Barcelona: Univ. de Barcelona, 1993), 20.
12 Serrano, Las guías urbanas y los libros de viaje, 70–72.
13 Serrano, Las guías urbanas y los lbros de viaje, 20–21.
14 Serrano, Las guías urbanas y los lbros de viaje, 40–41.
15 Alberto Blasco i Peris, El nacimiento del turismo en Cataluña, 1908: centenario de la Sociedad de Atracción de Forasteros de Barcelona, prólogo de Dolors Vidal (Barcelona: Formatic Barna, 2008), 17–18.
16 Afinoguénova & Martí-Olivella, ‘Introduction’, in Spain is (Still) Different, ed. Afinoguénova & Martí-Olivella, xii.
17 Sasha D. Pack, Tourism and Dictatorship: Europe’s Peaceful Invasion of Franco’s Spain (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 150–51.
18 Afinoguénova & Martí-Olivella, ‘Introduction’, in Spain is (Still) Different, ed. Afinoguénova & Martí-Olivella, xii.
19 John Murray was, of course, most famous for being the publishing house of Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron, among others.
20 Although it can be challenging to establish a canon of Barcelona guide-books from the nineteenth century in particular, since these texts were considered ephemera and largely ignored by libraries and private collectors of the era, we consider these guide-books to be representative based on the following criteria: 1) they are today held by major library collections within Spain; 2) most of them are held in significant collections outside Spain, namely the Hispanic Society of America, a collection acquired by noted American Hispanophile Archer Huntington at the turn of the twentieth century; 3) in the case of the earlier guide-books, they are regularly cited in later guide-books from the 1880s and beyond.
21 Rebecca Ingram, ‘Mapping and Mocking: Spanish Cuisine and Ramón Gómez de la Serna’s “El primer mapa gastronómico de España” ’, Cincinnati Romance Review, 33 (2012), 78–97 (p. 79).
22 Eugenia Afinoguénova, ‘An Organic Nation: State-Run Tourism, Regionalism, and Food in Spain, 1905–1931’, The Journal of Modern History, 86:4 (2014), 743–79.
23 Montserrat Miller, Feeding Barcelona 1714–1975: Public Market Halls, Social Networks and Consumer Culture (Baton Rouge: Louisiana U. P., 2015), especially Chapters 4 & 5.
24 Antònia Casellas, ‘Barcelona’s Urban Landscape: The Historical Making of a Tourist Product’, Journal of Urban History, 35:6 (2009), 815–32 (p. 815).
25 The bilingual guide to which we refer is Luciano García del Real, Barcelona: Guía Diamante. Metódica descripción de la ciudad y sus alrededores/Guide Diamant: Description méthodique de la ville et ses fauborgs (Barcelona: Librería de Francisco Puig, 1896).
26 Manuel Angelón i Broquetas, Guía satírica de Barcelona: bromazo-topográfico-urbano-típico-burlesco, ilustrado por Moliné y Ferrán (Barcelona: Libr. Millá, 1946 [1ª ed. Barcelona: Imprenta de Ramírez, 1854]), reproducción íntegra del texto y dibujos de la edición original publicada en 1854, 9 & 11. Further references to this work will be given in the main text.
27 Contrary to what Angelón i Broquetas writes, Miller documents extensively the important role played by women both as sellers in market stalls as well as consumers across the city’s social hierarchy (Feeding Barcelona 1714–1975, 154–65).
28 Miller documents the nationalist sentiment through her study of Barcelona food markets in Feeding Barcelona, especially in Chapters 1 and 5.
29 Antoni Maczak, ‘Gentlemen's Europe: Nineteenth-Century Handbooks for Travellers’, Annali d’Italianistica, 21 (2003), 347–61 (p. 347).
30 Josep Roca i Roca, Barcelona en la mano. Guía de Barcelona (Barcelona: E. López, Editor, 1884), 28. Subsequent references are to this edition and will be given parenthetically in the main text.
31 Joanne Finkelstein, Dining Out: A Sociology of Modern Manners (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1989), 5.
32 Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, trans. Richard Nice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard U. P., 1984), 196.
33 Dolors Vidal, ‘Prólogo’, in Blasco i Peris, El nacimiento del turismo en Cataluña 1908, 14.
34 María Cristina Sabaté, Alta gastronomía. Guía de restaurantes Barcelona y Provincia, intro. de Cándido (Barcelona: Tecnisa, D. L., 1973).
35 Sabaté, Alta gastronomía, 5.
36 Miller, Feeding Barcelona, 1714–1975, 235.
37 Carmen Casas, Barcelona a la carta. Guía de restaurantes, historia y recetario (Barcelona: Editorial Laia, 1981). Subsequent references are to this edition and are given in the body of the article.
38 Miquel Rodès & Lluís Crespo, Guia gastronòmica de Catalunya (Barcelona: Autoedición, 1982), 3.
39 Josep Bullich, Hàbits gastronòmics dels catalans (Barcelona: DEAPP, 1985). Some of his examples are: ‘Dirigir amb plena autoritat, ho remarquem així: “Tallar el bacallà”, “Tenir la paella per mànec” o “Remenar les cireres”. […] Quan un clima polític sembla assolir el punt màxim, exclamem: “Ja fa la bullida”, talment como si el país fos una inmensa cuina’ (9).
40 Bullich, Hàbits gastronòmics dels catalans, 20.
41 Bullich, Hàbits gastronòmics dels catalans, 20–21.
42 Carles Gaig, ‘Pròleg’, in Josep Sucarrats & Sergi Martín, Històries de la Barcelona gourmanda: un viatge per la ciutat a través del temps, el menjar i el beure, pròleg de Carles Gaig (Barcelona: Angle Editorial, 2014), 9–10 (p. 10).
43 Sucarrats & Martín, Històries de la Barcelona, 11–12.
44 It is interesting to note that the year 1982 is usually considered the end of the political transition in Spain from dictatorship to democracy with the victory of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) in October.
45 Francesc Sanuy, ‘Pròleg’, in Direcció General de Turisme, Generalitat de Catalunya, Congrés català de la cuina, pròleg de Francesc Sanuy (Barcelona: Dept de Comerç i Turisme, 1982), 3–4 (p. 3).
46 Sanuy, ‘Pròleg’, in Congrés català de la cuina, 3.
47 The diverse writing and activism undertaken by these chefs is varied and rich, and sometimes more or less in line with Catalan politics. The discussion of their individual works would be too limited in the space allowed for this essay. Instead, we focus here on the initiatives undertaken by the Generalitat to promote Catalan identity through gastronomic narratives aimed at tourists, both domestic and foreign.
48 Food writers like Colman Andrews have helped tremendously to create awareness about Catalan cuisine outside of Spain. Andrews’ Catalan Cuisine: Europe’s Last Great Culinary Secret, 1st ed. (New York: Atheneum, 1988), continues to be in print. His biography of Ferran Adrià, Ferran: The Inside Story of El Bulli and the Man Who Reinvented Food (New York: Gotham Books, 2010), makes a very strong case for the uniqueness of Catalan cuisine and the food revolution initiated by the Catalan chef.
49 El Celler de Can Roca was ranked number one in the world in 2013 and 2015 by Restaurant magazine. The restaurant received its third Michelin star in 2009.
50 Information about this yearly culinary adventure can be found at <https://www.bbva.com/en/2016-bbva-el-celler-de-can-roca-tour/> (accessed 30 August 2019).
51 The online course is listed at <https://www.mooc-list.com/course/introducci%C3%B3n-la-cocina-al-vac%C3%ADo-de-el-celler-de-can-roca-mir%C3%ADada-x> (accessed 24 September 2019).
52 Roser i Puig, ‘What’s Cooking in Catalonia?’, 230. The entanglement continues to this day. In the exhibit From Earth to the Moon, at Barcelona’s Palau Robert, 22 November 2016 to 23 April 2017, despite what the title may suggest, the story of the brothers Roca is intimately linked to their regional origins and their Catalan identity.
53 Anton Pujol, ‘Cosmopolitan Taste: The Morphing of the New Catalan Cuisine’, Food, Culture & Society, 12:4 (2009), 437–55 (p. 443).
54 Pujol, ‘Cosmopolitan Taste’, 443–46.
55 Marta Ribalta, Gastronomy in Catalonia (Barcelona: Servei d’Informació, Documentació i Publicacions, Dept de Comerç, Consum i Turisme, 1993 [1ª ed. 1989]), 24–26.
56 See the Press kit regarding the award available at <http://act.gencat.cat/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Press-Kit-Catalonia-European-Region-of-Gastronomy-25042016.pdf> (accessed 14 August 2016).
57 Many of the publications promoting gastronomy in Catalonia suggest driving tours that would take the tourist outside of the city to discover a ‘country’. Such is the case of Turisme de Catalunya, Catalonia: Routes for Savouring a Country (Barcelona: Turisme de Catalunya, 2008). Other titles include: Txema Salvans et al., De la terra al rebost: un passeig gastronomic per la província de Barcelona (Barcelona: Diputaciò de Barcelona, 2003); Turisme de Catalunya, Gastronomical Diary of Catalonia (Barcelona: Turisme de Catalunya, 2005); Alex Casanovas & Manel Guirado, La guia gastronòmica de Catalunya (Barcelona: CREATEL, Televisió de Catalunya, 2008) published with an accompanying DVD.
58 Pujol, ‘Cosmopolitan Taste’, 450.
59 In a recent work on the War of Succession, Joaquim Albareda Salvadó, in La guerra de sucesión de España (1700–1714) (Barcelona: Critica, 2014), argues for a complex political landscape that pitted the political and financial interests of the Catalans against the Spanish Crown. The historian is cautious when it comes to connecting this historical defeat to Catalonia’s present project of independence.
60 Suppressed during the Franco dictatorship, the holiday was reinstated in 1980.
61 The portrayal of Barcelona as a bustling city in the 1700s is precisely what Albert Garcia Espuche’s Barcelona 1700 (Barcelona: Editorial Empúries, 2010) offers, as the author compiles an inventory of the people and the objects that existed during those years until the war of 1714.
62 The website created for this commemoration is still functioning at <http://patrimoni.gencat.cat/ca/ruta1714-0> (last accessed 1 September 2019) where visitors can explore the different components of this campaign. There is also an app that visitors can download to their smartphones to explore the routes, and to see videos of dramatizations of life (and of war) during the 1700s.
63 A sample of the map in English can be downloaded from the Museu d’Història de Catalunya at <http://www.en.mhcat.cat/content/view/full/6522> (accessed 15 August 2016).
64 The menu we refer to here is no longer available online but information about El 300 del Born and its original menu can be found at <https://www.gastroeconomy.com/2013/09/moritz-abre-el-300-del-born/> (accessed 24 September 2019) and <https://gastroactivity.com/el-300-del-born-barcelona/> (accessed 24 September 2019) (both accessed 24 September 2019).
65 Jaume Fàbrega & Jaume Sobrequés i Callicó, La cuina del 1714: història i receptes (Barcelona: Viena Edicions, 2014); and Adrià Cases i Ibáñez et al., La cuina del 1714 (receptes actualitzades): una ruta gastronómica a través de la nostra història (Barcelona: Editorial Comanegra, 2014).
66 Garcia Espuche, Barcelona 1700, 45.
67 Fàbrega & Sobrequés i Callicó, La cuina del 1714, 13.
68 Fàbrega & Sobrequés i Callicó, La cuina del 1714, 14.
69 Fàbrega & Sobrequés i Callicó, La cuina del 1714, 15.
70 Cases et al., La cuina del 1714 (receptes actualizades), 17.
71 Cases et al., La cuina del 1714 (receptes actualizades), 7.
72 Kenneth McRoberts, Catalonia: Nation Building without a State (Oxford/New York: Oxford U. P., 2001), 181.
73 McRoberts, Catalonia, 181–82.
74 McRoberts, Catalonia, 182–83.
* Disclosure Statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.