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Laura Solanilla and F. Xavier Medina

Gastronomy and Social Networks: Heritage and Food Blogging in Catalonia

This article presents the results of research which analysed the relationship between cuisine and identity in Catalonia in the context of new digital practices. The aim of the research was to test whether social networks, mobile devices, and the popularisation of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) were becoming factors associated with the recognition of culinary practices as elements of identity in contemporary Catalonia. The results show that these new online practices are transforming the definition of Catalan cuisine and reformulating it in accordance with new contemporary values.

Historical and Cultural Background

Catalan cuisine is one of the best historically documented cuisines in the world. The first known cookbook in the Catalan language is the Book of (the three books known as) Sent Soví (14th century), which is also one of the most ancient European cookbooks in the vernacular language (Grewe 2003). Towards the end of the fifteenth century (c. 1485), Master Rupert de Nola in Naples wrote Llibre del Coch (cf. Leimgruber 1996), also in Catalan. Throughout the modern era, and especially during the reign of the Borgia family in Rome, dishes prepared in the “Catalan way” became popular in different European courts.

From the eighteenth century onwards, Catalan cuisine suffered a withdrawal period which lasted until well into the nineteenth century. In 1835, the anonymous La cuynera catalana (“The Catalan Cook”) appeared (cf....