Lecture by Bep Al·lès on the stately cuisine of Ciutadella

The journalist and gastronomic writer, Bep Al·lès, inaugurated yesterday the gastronomic conference "The forgotten banquet", with the conference "The stately cuisine of Menorca, a fusion cuisine of the 18th century" in which the editor of Foodies on Menorca and president of the Association of Gastronomic Journalists and Writers of the Balearic Islands assured that Menorca still has a part of its cuisine that remains on the shelves of many noble or stately homes as recipe books, known by some and unknown by others who have not made an inventory in their libraries, also disappeared or sold in batches of books...

On our island we have a stately cuisine of gentlemen, of lords of estates and hunters, of well-off ladies who met at home to have coffee with milk or chocolate and exchanged recipes that, some of They have come down to us and others are still to be made known to the Menorcans and especially to the cooks of the island so that they can reinterpret them, give them life again and form part of our new Menorcan cuisine, which must be, together with our cuisine of roots, the home cuisine, the showcase through which Menorca must position itself, even more, as a unique gastronomic destination.

The recipes of the stately kitchen, of the kitchen of the nobles and knights, were a symbol of distinction, carrying out exchanges between cooks and housewives in different families and estates outside the Island for their learning. The recipes used in the banquets reflected the opulence and sophistication of the ingredients and recipes. The result is striking today: these exchanges and trips produced a unique fusion - perhaps the beginnings of what is now called fusion cuisine - where typical dishes and preparations of Menorcan cuisine were combined - including techniques that clearly denoted the influence of English and French domination - with other more refined, exotic and haute cuisine ones.

Bep Al·lès spoke of the recipe books of Can Salort, Ca n'Squella and Can Saura, of which she has published the first two, and is preparing the edition of the third.

According to Al·lès, "there are still many recipe books to discover, to make known, because if there is one thing I have always been clear about, it is that this gastronomic heritage cannot remain in the hands of collectors, of people who keep these recipe books for their personal use, as something jealous and who share little of themselves."

Menorcan cuisine and gastronomy must be the heritage of all and must be made known. The authorities must also prevent cooking manuscripts such as that of the Menorcan Cook from leaving the island and being purchased at auctions of old books, so that this material heritage, these recipes and this book of gastronomic history must remain on the island, and avoid what also happened with Fra Roger's The Art of Cooking, which was found in the national library of Catalonia as a donation, as Al·lès stated at the close of his speech.