Culinary heritage: proposal for a methodology of patrimonial distinction of local culinaries

Abstract

This article gives an account of the proposal of a methodological approach, which provides a set of criteria for a relevant definition of gastronomic heritage at a territorial level. In this sense, given the diversity of approaches to the subject, to the concept of heritage; and the heterogeneous historical, cultural, social and ecological reality of each territory that develops its particular gastronomy, imply a complex task at the moment of generating a definition and criteria of consensual qualification on what could be or not patrimonial. In this way, the main objective of the paper is to propose a methodology that provides criteria that represent the different ways of conceiving the gastronomic heritage by the diverse and relevant actors for the national and international gastronomic scene.
The methodology proposes six types of gastronomic manifestations of patrimonial character and seven patrimonial traits, that its different stories from which the gastronomic patrimony is formed. These patrimonial features do not work as typologies, often we situate ourselves from one and then from another, they complement each other and sometimes they annul. The final elaboration of the methodological proposal is the result of three workshops and reflection with expert guests in three regions of Chile (one from the north, another from the central area of the country, and a third from the south).