Raúl Matta

• PhD
• Senior Researcher at Institut Lyfe Research and Innovation Center

https://www.politika.io/en/article/towards-convivial-foodscapes

This book provides an interdisciplinary examination of Peruvian cuisine’s shift from a culinary to a political object and the making of Peru as a food nation on the global stage. It focuses on the contexts, processes and protagonists that have endowed the country’s cuisine with new meaning, new coherence and prominence, and with the ability to comm...

This article follows the activities of two initiatives seeking to improve living conditions of migrants in Germany. In their attempts to foster collective livability, both rely on ingenious assemblages of food, people, material objects, and their individual and collective affordances. Central in these assemblages are technological solutions the ini...

en Heritage politics can transform a dish, a cuisine or a meal into the emblem of a nation, a region or a community. A cultural and economic driver, culinary heritage has revealed the opportunities that actors can draw out of cultural essentialism, and the commercial exploitation that this can lead to. However, we know less about the consequences c...

A medida que la noción de patrimonio cultural se ha ido ampliando, comenzó a abarcar aspectos tan cotidianos como el de la alimentación, la cocina y los saberes asociados. Estos elementos han aumentado su carga política y ocupan hoy un lugar central en las agendas de gobiernos nacionales, organizaciones internacionales, ONG y comunidades locales. A...

This chapter discusses culinary gentrification in Peru, which consists of moving native foods into high, cosmopolitan canons. It is through this process that chefs have accessed fame, influence, and financial reward. I depict and illustrate how Peru’s top chefs re-appropriate and re-signify long-marginalized Andean and Amazonian ingredients, accomm...

This chapter focuses on Peruvian chefs and brings a critical eye to the reputation and creative freedom they seemingly enjoy and claim. Renowned Peruvian chefs strongly adhere to a discourse describing cuisine as a fine art and ascribe to the view of chefs as artists. And, as in any genre of art, conventions establish the foundations for producing...

This chapter begins by exploring the formulation of Peruvian cuisine as a development engine loaded with attractive cultural diversity. It shows this was possible thanks to the capacity of culinary elites to (a) translate local food features into competitive culinary concepts in ways viewed as beneficial to them and supposedly also to the country a...

This chapter explores perspectives indigenous people hold about their own food cultures, views which thus far have received little recognition in heritage declarations or in programmes which develop markets for ‘ethnic’ foods under proclamations of preserving biological and cultural diversity. It describes how indigenous communities of the Peruvian...

Between the early 2000s and now, I have made many visits to Peru. I became familiar with expressions of national pride associated with the country’s food and with foodies’ arrogance and the almost religious passion with which they affirm that Peruvian cuisine is now the best in the world. During this period I also learnt that some of my teen-year f...

This chapter, presented as an epilogue, addresses the ways in which Peru’s narrative as a culinary nation has been played out and discusses its actual and potential effects in society.

This chapter addresses the formation of gastronomy in Peru. It first outlines a distinction between a culinary field and a gastronomic field, to better explore the complexity of Peruvian foodways through the connections and intertwinements between these systems. It then posits the ludic approach to cooking—the act of thinking about, cooking, and co...

This chapter engages critically with proposals for inscribing Peruvian foodways to the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. It investigates circles of power and among individuals vested with the responsibility of producing nomination files throughout three consecutive attempts (in 2010, 2012, and 2023). The analysis of the ex...

Les recherches et actions orientées sur le futur de l'alimentation se construisent autour du concept de durabilité alimentaire. Cette notion est le plus souvent prise dans son sens économique, en interrogeant le respect ou non des capacités de charge écologiques par la production alimentaire. Cependant, à une époque où la réalité et la rhétorique d...

In Transboundary Heritage and Intellectual Property Law (edited by Patricia Covarrubia / London: Routledge)

This article explores critical directions in the study of cultural heritage and, in particular, food heritage research. Its goal is to deliver insight into local perspectives produced outside mainstream heritage organizations. Strategies implemented jointly by peasant farmers of rural Peru and non-governmental organizations committed to promoting c...

This report is part of the HERANET funded project FOOD2GATHER. The project aims at understanding the question of integration/exclusion of migrants through foodscapes. An important step in this direction is to analyse the contextual framework within which food-related practices, norms and values are embedded in European societies. Food controversies...

Receiving a Michelin star was once the ultimate culinary reward for the hard work and dedication that chefs have demonstrated in making their restaurants a success. However, for some of them, the stars seem more of a burden than a blessing. In recent years, several chefs have given up their Michelin status, closed the doors on their restaurants, an...

This article discusses the most relevant scholarship produced on the rise of Peruvian cuisine and Peru's gastro-politics. It focuses on the contexts, processes and protagonists behind the attempt to heal and re-found the nation through food after a period of decline and terror, and on the formulation of ideas of social change aimed at shaping and p...

How does food restore the fragmented world of migrants and the displaced? What similar processes are involved in challenging, maintaining or reinforcing divisions between groups coexisting in the same living place? Food Identities at Home and on the Move examines how ‘home’ is negotiated around food in the current worldwide context of uncertainty,...

En ciertas sociedades poscoloniales, la metáfora de la receta bien lograda fue y sigue siendo objeto de uso político cuando se trata de definir la cultura nacional, la cual es con frecuencia representada en forma de caldero u olla, donde los ingredientes y saberes autóctonos se combinan, sin ningún esfuerzo ni mediación, con otros productos y técni...

Food and foodways are a site of dwelling and 'being' in the world. The ways food smells, feels, tastes and is cooked motivate emotion and memory in a more powerful way than other reminders of home and the places we inhabit. Studying the fabric of home through food in migration contexts entails considering the role food plays in the circulation of p...

How does food restore the fragmented world of migrants and the displaced? What similar processes are involved in challenging, maintaining or reinforcing divisions between groups coexisting in the same living place? Food Identities at Home and on the Move examines how ‘home’ is negotiated around food in the current worldwide context of uncertainty,...

Este artículo tiene como objetivo aproximarse a las cocinas patrimoniales desde la mirada de quienes lo sustentan y promueven a diario. Nuestro enfoque se desmarca de las visiones más institucionales del patrimonio alimentario, aquellas impulsadas por los gobiernos, promotores culturales, agentes económicos y organismos internacionales como la UNES...

Este libro presenta una reflexión critica y comparativa entre América Latina, Europa y Asia sobre los usos locales del patrimonio alimentario. Sus autores exploran las profundas contradicciones de las políticas estatales para salvaguardar y transmitir los recursos culturales en contextos de globalización y mercantilización de la cultura y, al mismo...

Cocineras tradicionales—traditional female cooks—are women of Mexican indigenous descent who embody the status of food tradition bearers and the “ethnic” components of Mexican foodways. In the climate of enthusiasm generated by the 2010 nomination of “traditional Mexican cuisine” as Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO, cocineras tradicionales ar...

Cet article ambitionne d'analyser la gastro-diplomatie, devenue une tendance dans les relations internationales, comme un ensemble de pratiques institutionnelles qui repousse les limites des usages politiques des cultures alimentaires. J'essaierai de montrer que l'essor actuel du concept tient à ce qu'il s'étend aux niveaux national et internationa...

Introductory paper to the special issue "Gastro-politics: Culture, Identity and Culinary Politics in Peru" by María Elena García and myself.

This article explores critical directions in the study of cultural heritage and, in particular, food heritage research. Its goal is to deliver insight into local perspectives produced outside mainstream heritage organizations. Strategies implemented jointly by peasant farmers of rural Peru and non-governmental organizations committed to promoting c...

The expansion of the cultural field of gastronomy has fostered the inclusion of new attitudes and values worthy of exposure and social legitimation which, with the help of the media, prompted chefs’ capacities to strategically cross between cooking, science, health, environment, politics, and entertainment. Drawing on recent literature and empirica...

Este libro, resultado del congreso homonimo realizado en 2015 en el instituto de investigaciones antropologicas de la Universidad nacional autonoma de Mexico, busca desarrollar una aproximacion critica a los procesos recientes de patrimonializacion alimentaria desde la perspectiva de las ciencias sociales. el objetivo es interrogar la construccion,...

This article provides critical engagement with cultural heritage-making processes conducted by stakeholders and interest groups within the UNESCO's intangible heritage paradigm. By tracking the road of Peru's cuisine to the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (the ICH List) and focusing on the turning points during food's shift from...

New scientific discoveries, technologies and techniques often find their way into the space and equipment of domestic and professional kitchens. Using approaches based on anthropology, archaeology and history, Cooking Technology reveals the impact these and the associated broader socio-cultural, political and economic changes have on everyday culin...

RÉSUMÉ – Ce chapitre aborde la question de la patrimonialisation alimentaire au Pérou en fonction d'expériences de recherche récentes menées par l'auteur. Il essaie de porter un regard diachro-nique sur l'émergence du concept de « patrimoine alimentaire » et d'interroger la place du chercheur en fonction de ses motivations et intérêts vis-à-vis de...

En vista del éxito pionero, coronado en 2010, de las candidaturas depositadas por Francia, México y los países representantes de la dieta mediterránea —Es-paña, Grecia, Italia y Marruecos—, 1 para que ciertos aspectos de su alimenta-ción integren la Lista Representativa del Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial de la Humanidad, de la unesco, el Perú prepa...

This chapter explores the issue of food heritagization in Peru on the basis of the author’s recent research experiences. It tries to develop a diachronic approach on the emergence of the concept of « food heritage », to question the researchers’ status according to their motivations and interests vis-à-vis to those of heritage stakeholders, and to...

La cocina peruana suscita hoy un entusiasmo sin precedentes entre los peruanos, quie nes ven en ella oportunidades de desarrollo eco­nómico y social, así como motivos de orgullo nacional. La gran expectativa por los posibles rumbos de la culinaria ha alcanzado la ac­ tual agenda política del país. Conjugando intereses públicos y privados, los media...

Peruvian cuisine is currently arousing much enthusiasm among Peruvians, who see in it possibilities of economic and social development as well as a sentiment of national pride. Expectations of the culinary potential have reached the current political agenda. Merging public and private interests, the media play an active role in building a sense of...

In Latin America, heritage process goes together with a vast movement of globalization of natural and cultural resources. As a public policy, heritagization is also seen as a vector for local development. Strongly covered in medias, food heritage, be it tangible or intangible, reveals cleavages of diverse nature: social and cultural, but also polit...

In different regional contexts, heritage politics are encouraging the revitalization and promotion of particular and “traditional” food products to increase cultural recognition and market potential. Accordingly, Peruvian cuisine recently burst into the political arena. This article focuses on the preliminary stage of the construction of Peruvian f...

In different regional contexts, heritage politics are encouraging the revitalization and promotion of particular and “traditional” food products to increase cultural recognition and market potential. Accordingly, Peruvian cuisine recently burst into the political arena. This article focuses on the preliminary stage of the construction of Peruvian f...

“Declensions” of the urban imaginary in the upper-middle class of Lima (Peru). An outline from cultural practices Class recomposition introduces profound changes in Lima’s urban life and in the way its inhabitants “think the city”. In this process, cultural practices of the upper-middle class demand special attention, because they reflect quite wel...

Since the 1940’s, rural Andean migrants arrived to Lima in the hope of finding work and improving their living conditions. The Peruvian capital has experienced an exponential demographic and geographic growth as a consequence of the appearance of that population associated to misery and archaism for a long time. However, today, people of Andean ori...

Recentemente, as culturas alimentares têm sido submetidos a processos de desenvolvimento sócio-cultural e valor económico estão ligadas tanto à lógica dos mercados globalizados como dinâmicas locais enraizado na forte demanda social. Considerados recursos, estas expressões são convertidas em um vetor de projetos que vão desde iniciativas no sector...

Le GECCI - Groupe d'Etudes Comparées Cultures et Inégalités- est né en 2007 à l'initiative de doctorants en science sociales à l'Institut des Hautes Etudes de l'Amérique Latine (IHEAL-CREDA). Composée aujourd'hui d'une petite dizaine de doctorants et de chercheurs venant de la sociologie, de l'économie ou de la géographie, cette équipe pluridiscipl...

La musique ne saurait etre analysee per se, car elle est enracinee dans les contextes sociaux dans lesquels elle se produit et se developpe. En analysant les caracteristiques de l’espace social de diffusion de la musique electronique dans la ville de Lima, nous serons en mesure de comprendre la facon dont ce genre musical « mineur » est aujourd’hui...

Maîtrisant les aspects techniques et discursifs en vogue dans la haute gastronomie contemporaine, les chefs cuisiniers sont actuellement des personnages centraux de la vie culturelle de la capitale péruvienne. La majorité de ces cuisiniers médiatiques provient de milieux sociaux privilégiés et a eu la possibilité d'effectuer des séjours de formatio...

Sur la base d’une enquete realisee au Perou dans les reseaux du mouvement « Tradition, Famille et Propriete », cet article explore les bases doctrinales, l’imaginaire politique et le fonctionnement interne d’une organisation de defense de la civilisation catholique nee au Bresil en 1960 et actuellement active dans de nombreux pays americains et eur...

Depuis les années 90, à environ 100 km. de Lima, une frange littorale est occupée par des quartiers fermés qui sont devenus le lieu de villégiature privilégié des classes sociales supérieure et moyenne-supérieure de la bonne société de Lima. Les dispositifs d’enfermement, la réglementation intérieure, la qualité des services et la stricte sélection...