Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy and Poland will implement activities in the frame of the EU project “Slow Food Central Europe”
The EU project Slow Food Central Europe* will be officially presented to the press in a conference on September 22 in Turin (Italy) during Terra Madre Salone del Gusto. The project involves the cities of Krakow (Poland), Dubrovnik (Croatia), Kecskemét (Hungary), Venice (Italy) and Brno (Czech Republic).
At this stage, each city is going to test innovative and community-driven solutions for the promotion of gastronomic heritage in public spaces by launching five pilot actions – which means concrete actions within the Slow Food philosophy aiming at enhancing specific characteristics of the local gastronomy, its roots and cultural heritage.
Here the descriptions for each one:
POLAND – “Culinary Krakow. Heritage on the plate”
The project creates new touristic destinations through heritage food and gastronomy to diversify city’s tourist offer and encourage to explore new areas of the city. Besides tourists, the project will also target Krakow citizens who are looking for more “good, clean and fair” ways of living within the city. The project will use different areas of Krakow, especially historical districts, but also other parts identified as interesting from gastronomic heritage point of view (e.g. traditional food markets) as well as the outskirts and metropolitan area. The fact of Krakow being the European Capital of Gastronomic Culture for 2019 will give further impetus to the project. In addition, during Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, culinary presentation of Krakow’s gastronomic heritage will be prepared at Terra Madre Kitchen.
The aim of the project is to develop stories and narratives rooted in gastronomic heritage. This will be implemented through a variety of tools, including:
- a website, a Krakow’s gastronomic heritage guide
- a local guide to responsible consumption
- a Krakow version of the Slow Planet app
- the launch of a Slow District Alliance
CZECH REPUBLIC – Taste the diversity of South Moravia
The project wants to raise awareness of the importance of South Moravian region’s gastronomy heritage among Brno’s school children, teachers and the broad public: the aim is to increase their appreciation of the cultural and social aspect of local food, and to increase the involvement of local farmers and artisanal producers in local economy. This will be implemented through a variety of tools, including:
- Slow Food education kit “To the Origins of Taste”, which provides educational tools for teachers. The kit involves sensory courses and taste workshops.
- Practical hands-on workshops for children and public to show and teach traditional local cooking, food preparation and food preserving techniques. The goal is to bring the farmers, chefs and consumers together to celebrate the joy of cooking local fresh seasonal food together.
- Children’s Farmers’ Market, a real market designed to give pupils a chance to immerse themselves in an exciting enterprise project. Students will organize the market and run their own stalls, sell their own grown and baked produce, and invite local producers to sell their goods. Members of the local community will be welcome to browse and to shop for fresh local produce. The market will be held in early October 2019 in Brno.
- The cookbook “Taste the season” with various typical recipes for the Brno and South Moravian region to be given for professional use in the gastronomy and school kitchens. The cookbook will have pictures, ingredient list and preparation technique and it will also be available online for any chef to use.
- An online catalogue of farms and artisanal producers that produce healthy, clean and fair food in the South Morava territory. Selected products will be used by chefs from the public catering sector to prepare healthy and tasty meals and thus help preserve the Gastronomic heritage of the South Moravian region.
- Tasting exhibition of seasonal and local food will be held in cooperation with the Mendel University Brno and its Faculty of Horticulture. The exhibitions will be accompanied by tasting sessions, presentations by University students and cooking workshops and will be visited by school children during work days and by the public on weekends.
HUNGARY – Flavours and gastronomic experience at Kecskemét Green Market
Kecskemét Green Market is an important public place where farmers and local producers of the region are massively present. The project wants to draw people’s attention to the importance of the lasting and traditional values, the significance of consuming high-quality local products, and furthermore to avoid buying genetically modified as well as health and nature destructive imported goods. The aim is to increase the number of customers at the market while local producers and their products will experience greater support and appreciation. This will be implemented through a variety of tools, including:
- Family events at the market with cooking and tasting delivered by producers.
- Professional seminars to school children to strengthen awareness on the importance of eating healthy and seasonal food produced locally, with examples of fruits and vegetables found in the market.
- Cooking programs with the students of Széchenyi István Vocational Secondary School for Tourism and Catering Industry.
- Tasting for nursery school children, while presenting them local food and folklore board games (about plants and animals). Through children the attitude of parents may be influenced.
- Summer camps for children organized by the market where children could be presented with the goods sold there and produced locally.
CROATIA – CITY FEEDERS
The project comprises the organization and launch of a multimedia exhibition dedicated to gastro-cultural heritage of the Dubrovnik area (the territory of the former Republic of Dubrovnik). The aim of the exhibition is to draw attention of the wider public to a vast cultural treasure, which has been under-valorised, and it has almost perished. This will be implemented through a variety of tools, including:
- Video interviews with selected local farmers and producers who still follow traditional ways of production.
- Tasting of some of the products and dishes mentioned by the interviewees
- Analysis of written documents, scientific and popular works, talks with the local experts in gastro-cultural heritage for creating a historical illustration of the situation throughout the centuries
- Creation of the infrastructure that will support local traditional food production, food promotion and market placement (distribution) on local level
ITALY – Venice APPetite: Taste and heritage of the Lagoon.
The objective of the project is the valorisation and safeguard of the Lagoon Gastronomic Cultural Heritage through the creation of extensive discovery routes addressed to inhabitants, students, and tourists that will focus on the specificities of Venetian products and cuisine. This will be implemented through a variety of tools, including:
- Two discovery itineraries to be developed in the S. Erasmo and Pellestrina islands
- Three signposts to be installed in each island to introduce the discovery routes
- Ten information boards to be installed in the central areas, that will contain the description of local products and gastronomy
- A mobile app to be created for the virtual thematic itineraries
*The EU project “SLOW FOOD – CE: Culture, Heritage, Identity, and Food” is financed by EU program Interreg Central Europe, which supports cooperation between the regions of Central Europe, and has a duration of 3 years – from 1 June 2017 to 31 May 2020. The project intends to involve public and private actors in 5 cities of Central Europe (Venice, Dubrovnik, Brno, Krakow and Kecskemét) to build and share a common methodology for the identification of the resources of intangible cultural heritage related to food and to develop a model able to protect and enhance traditional foods and their production.
For more information, please contact:
Slow Food International
[email protected], +39 0172 419 645
Twitter: @SlowFoodPress
Slow Food is a global grassroots organization that envisions a world in which all people can access and enjoy food that is good for them, good for those who grow it, and good for the planet. Slow Food involves over a million activists, chefs, experts, youth, farmers, fishers, and academics in over 160 countries.