GASTRONOMY

Text and selection of content: Rosi Song

Gastronomic reference

Manuel Vázquez Montalbán has been a fundamental authority in the Spanish gastronomic landscape since the first years of the TransitioManuel Vázquez Montalbán has been fundamental to understand the Spanish gastronomic landscape from the early years of the country’s political transition to democracy with the publication of his L’art del menjar a Catalunya (1977) [The Art of Eating in Catalonia] and the creation of his world-famous literary detective character, Pepe Carvalho. A detective who combines crime solving with his love for food, he is an extraordinarily knowledgeable and talented cook. It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that since his appearance in the literary crime scene, all detectives seem to have developed their own culinary obsessions or feel the need to make food related observations. Perhaps the most accomplished food writing that reveals Vázquez Montalbán’s experience and gastronomic intelligence is his Contra los gourmets (1990) [Against Gourmets], where in chapters like “Hambre, experimentación y memoria” [Hunger, Experimentation and Memory] or “El hombre es lo que come”[A Man is What He Eats], he revisits the topics that he frequently writes about and which emphasize, again and again, cooking as an important cultural element but also a cultural event.

In his case, memory, identity, and politics are closely linked to food and eating, from the dishes of his early childhood, the nostalgia of their taste and the places where they used to be served. Food, in his writing, is deeply connected to everything that surrounds us and has much to teach us about our history, our injustices and our taste. He wrote, for example, about the Spanish cured ham: “The jamón is more than a mummified leg of a dead animal that is edible, it is more than a gloriously mummified leg of a glorious Iberian pig. The jamón is part of our Spanish imagery about abundance as it is forgotten that the jamón was used as proof of Christianity, as moors and jews would not touch pork. A good Christian was able to sink his or her teeth in its flesh and turn the experience into one more proof about the existence of God in times when it was most needed.”

Selection of texts

«Eating the Landscape»

Vázquez Montalbán had already anticipated what Food Studies scholars research and teach today, that “food turns into culture the moment it is linked to space: the place where it is cooked, which is, originally, where it was consumed” (Against Gourmets). We could call him a visionary of the concept of foodscape, an intellectual writer who paid attention to his natural landscape, but also his cultural and political one, who offered an intelligent reading of the cooking of the Iberian Peninsula, vindicating its value, especially that of Catalonia, in his foundational text, L’art del menjar a Catalunya [The Art of Eating in Catalonia] (translated into Spanish as La cocina catalana [Catalan Cuisine] in 1979). This text, with an introduction by another famous gastronome, Néstor Luján, detected an incipient culinary revolution that would soon transform this region into a leader in the culinary world, a status and international prestige that it still maintains today. At the same time, considering his diverse culinary interests and his influence on and friendship with the founders of the Slow Food movement, it is not surprising that his name continues to be associate with movements and initiatives of social action like Kilómetro 0 [Eat Local]. His gastronomic interest goes beyond the region of Catalonia, covering all corners of the Iberian Peninsula, and which are collected in his five-volume collection of the Carvalho Gastronómico series [Gastronomic Carvalho Series]. He demonstrates his culinary knowledge through the recipes collected for the collection as well as his knowledge about Spanish wine.

His Saber o no saber. Manual imprescindible de la cultura gastronómica [To Know or Not to Know. The Essential Manual of Gastronomic Culture] begins this culinary journey offering and defining the terms necessary to understand Spain’s culinary culture, as in “La cocina del Franquismo” [The Francoist Kitchen] or “Tapas”. In Beber o no beber. Del vino y las costumbres bebedoras de los españoles [To Drink or Not to Drink. Wine and the Drinking Habits of Spaniards], Vázquez Montalbán initiates his culinary journey through the casseroles of Spain, paying attention to dishes like the potaje [stew], which are presented as foundational dishes to understand any type of cuisine. He labels Spain’s cuisine as one of mestizaje [miscegenation], which is the case of Murcia, Andalucia, Extremadura and the Canary Islands), of the Mediterranean (Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands), and that of the Cape Finisterre, alluding to the westernmost point of the Iberian Peninsula or the “end of earth” (Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country). The introductions, notes and recipes that are collected in these volumes evince an almost infinite knowledge of Spanish cuisine, from its most general traits to its littlest details, and which should supplement any effort to study the gastronomy of the Iberian Peninsula today.

This culinary knowledge, product of his activities as a discerning gourmand, has also materialized in a local urban itinerary of his favorite restaurants, and which Quim Aranda traced and expanded to include eateries around the entire Peninsula. Since then, the most iconic restaurants of the city of Barcelona have been used to plan walks around the city, for locals and tourists alike, although many of these establishments, unfortunately, are permanently closed today. Finally, an intriguing text that has been somewhat forgotten today is his collection of interviews, Mis almuerzos con gente inquietante [My Lunches with Unsettling People] (1984). A series of lunches in carefully selected restaurants with interesting or controversial figures of his time, from the trans model Bibi Anderson to the Francoist minister Manuel de Fraga, the meals reveal a lot more about the guests than the actual conversations. Vázquez Montalbán’s observations of the meal and his guests offer a fascinating look into the years of the Spanish political transition, a moment of change that continue sparking heated discussions today. In the year of its publication, the book did signal a changing of the guard and of the time as it was clearly a parody of an earlier text, published by the conservative José María Pemán, his Mis almuerzos con gente importante [My Lunches with Important People] (1970). Blog about the book

Recipes

Vázquez Montalbán has also ventured into gastronomic debates, perhaps the most important one, and one that has anticipated decades before the controversy of recent years, was that of the paella and its authentic ingredients. These ingredients and the secrets of the dish are thoroughly discussed in his novel Los mares del Sur [Southern Seas] (1979), which reveal a deeper and more fundamental knowledge of the dish than the recent debate about using chorizo or not, and instead, focuses on the basis of the dish, the rice, and the importance of the initial step that begins its transformation in the dish: the sofregit [the slow frying of onions with other ingredients]. It is not surprising that the interest and culinary knowledge that appears in his detective novels would later be collected and published separately in a recipe book, the Carvalho Gourmet. Las recetas de Carvalho [The Recipes of Carvalho], a collection of recipes also contains the author’s own recipes. His culinary talent was evident not only in the gastronomic knowledge he displayed in his writing, but also in his cooking in the kitchen, as he demonstrates in the television series “Con las manos en la masa” [Caught in the Act]. In 1984 he appears in an episode alongside the host of the program, Elena Santoja, where he talks about traditional Catalan dishes and shows how to make two of them: rabbit with romesco sauce and salt cod with honey. Two dishes that clearly showcase the traits in Catalan cooking that many years later, historians like Jaume Fàbrega, have pointed out as fundamental characteristics of Catalan cooking identity: the importance of sauces and the contrast of taste in its dishes.

Vázquez Montalbán had already anticipated what Food Studies scholars research and teach today, that “food turns into culture the moment it is linked to space: the place where it is cooked, which is, originally, where it was consumed” (Against Gourmets). We could call him a visionary of the concept of foodscape, an intellectual writer who paid attention to his natural landscape, but also his cultural and political one, who offered an intelligent reading of the cooking of the Iberian Peninsula, vindicating its value, especially that of Catalonia, in his foundational text, L’art del menjar a Catalunya [The Art of Eating in Catalonia] (translated into Spanish as La cocina catalana [Catalan Cuisine] in 1979). This text, with an introduction by another famous gastronome, Néstor Luján, detected an incipient culinary revolution that would soon transform this region into a leader in the culinary world, a status and international prestige that it still maintains today. At the same time, considering his diverse culinary interests and his influence on and friendship with the founders of the Slow Food movement, it is not surprising that his name continues to be associate with movements and initiatives of social action like Kilómetro 0 [Eat Local]. His gastronomic interest goes beyond the region of Catalonia, covering all corners of the Iberian Peninsula, and which are collected in his five-volume collection of the Carvalho Gastronómico series [Gastronomic Carvalho Series]. He demonstrates his culinary knowledge through the recipes collected for the collection as well as his knowledge about Spanish wine.

His Saber o no saber. Manual imprescindible de la cultura gastronómica [To Know or Not to Know. The Essential Manual of Gastronomic Culture] begins this culinary journey offering and defining the terms necessary to understand Spain’s culinary culture, as in “La cocina del Franquismo” [The Francoist Kitchen] or “Tapas”. In Beber o no beber. Del vino y las costumbres bebedoras de los españoles [To Drink or Not to Drink. Wine and the Drinking Habits of Spaniards], Vázquez Montalbán initiates his culinary journey through the casseroles of Spain, paying attention to dishes like the potaje [stew], which are presented as foundational dishes to understand any type of cuisine. He labels Spain’s cuisine as one of mestizaje [miscegenation], which is the case of Murcia, Andalucia, Extremadura and the Canary Islands), of the Mediterranean (Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands), and that of the Cape Finisterre, alluding to the westernmost point of the Iberian Peninsula or the “end of earth” (Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country). The introductions, notes and recipes that are collected in these volumes evince an almost infinite knowledge of Spanish cuisine, from its most general traits to its littlest details, and which should supplement any effort to study the gastronomy of the Iberian Peninsula today.

This culinary knowledge, product of his activities as a discerning gourmand, has also materialized in a local urban itinerary of his favorite restaurants, and which Quim Aranda traced and expanded to include eateries around the entire Peninsula. Since then, the most iconic restaurants of the city of Barcelona have been used to plan walks around the city, for locals and tourists alike, although many of these establishments, unfortunately, are permanently closed today. Finally, an intriguing text that has been somewhat forgotten today is his collection of interviews, Mis almuerzos con gente inquietante [My Lunches with Unsettling People] (1984). A series of lunches in carefully selected restaurants with interesting or controversial figures of his time, from the trans model Bibi Anderson to the Francoist minister Manuel de Fraga, the meals reveal a lot more about the guests than the actual conversations. Vázquez Montalbán’s observations of the meal and his guests offer a fascinating look into the years of the Spanish political transition, a moment of change that continue sparking heated discussions today. In the year of its publication, the book did signal a changing of the guard and of the time as it was clearly a parody of an earlier text, published by the conservative José María Pemán, his Mis almuerzos con gente importante [My Lunches with Important People] (1970). Blog about the book

Vázquez Montalbán has also ventured into gastronomic debates, perhaps the most important one, and one that has anticipated decades before the controversy of recent years, was that of the paella and its authentic ingredients. These ingredients and the secrets of the dish are thoroughly discussed in his novel Los mares del Sur [Southern Seas] (1979), which reveal a deeper and more fundamental knowledge of the dish than the recent debate about using chorizo or not, and instead, focuses on the basis of the dish, the rice, and the importance of the initial step that begins its transformation in the dish: the sofregit [the slow frying of onions with other ingredients]. It is not surprising that the interest and culinary knowledge that appears in his detective novels would later be collected and published separately in a recipe book, the Carvalho Gourmet. Las recetas de Carvalho [The Recipes of Carvalho], a collection of recipes also contains the author’s own recipes. His culinary talent was evident not only in the gastronomic knowledge he displayed in his writing, but also in his cooking in the kitchen, as he demonstrates in the television series “Con las manos en la masa” [Caught in the Act]. In 1984 he appears in an episode alongside the host of the program, Elena Santoja, where he talks about traditional Catalan dishes and shows how to make two of them: rabbit with romesco sauce and salt cod with honey. Two dishes that clearly showcase the traits in Catalan cooking that many years later, historians like Jaume Fàbrega, have pointed out as fundamental characteristics of Catalan cooking identity: the importance of sauces and the contrast of taste in its dishes.

Contributions

Audiovisual

Con las manos en la masa – Manuel Vázquez Montalbán | RTVE Archive. 1984.