Waiting for Expo 2015

Food and identity: a reflection for the Trentino region.

[ Carlo Todeschi, le foto sono di sua gentilissima concessione]

Food is definitely one of the possible real opportunities to meet and discover a territory: it’s the mirror of it; in many cases a land speaks of itself through food and cooking, that is the way in which man transforms what he has at his disposal; in this way a land expresses its identity, that is its own economic, social and cultural capital.

First of all we must remember that food is culture: flavour is indeed a cultural knowledge which is transmitted from generation to generation: some foods we think of distant origin are but of recent discovery; others seem very modern, but they sink their roots in the history of mankind.

Food adjusts itself to and fits the culture it belongs to.            

The cuisine of Trentino is currently an interesting overlap of eating habits whose origin is distant in time and space: every dish tells the multifaceted story of this land, its political phases, and the different dominations that have occurred.

Marta Villa - PhD in Alpine, Food and Identity Anthropology,collaboratrice della cattedra di Antropologia Culturale Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale Università di Trento, Presidente Club UNESCO di Trento

15/12/2014