A taste of Barcelona. Meet writers H. Rosi Song and Anna Riera
Widely associated with avant-garde gastronomy and lavish food
markets, Barcelona has become a top destination for gourmands and chefs around
the world, especially after the spectacular rise of chef Ferran Adrià of the
famed elBulli. Barcelona is a city that attracts millions of
visitors in search of art and culinary experiences while cookery apprentices
from around the world arrive looking to perfect their skills and expand their
gastronomic horizon. The city offers an unequaled combination of restaurants, chefs,
restauranteurs, media and local government initiatives to help those who arrive
seeking an extraordinary culinary experience. But how has the city established
itself as a global culinary referent while becoming synonymous with
cutting-edge cuisine? In this presentation we trace
Barcelona’s urban and culinary development from the Middle Ages to the present,
revealing the origins and the growth of its culinary prestige.
Rosi Song holds a Chair in Hispanic Studies at Durham University. A specialist in 20th and 21st century Spanish culture and literature, she is the author of Lost in Transition: Constructing Memory in Contemporary Spain (Liverpool UP, 2016) and the co-editor of Traces of Contamination: Unearthing Francoist Legacy in Contemporary Spanish Discourse (Bucknell UP, 2005) and Towards a Cultural Archive of la Movida: Back to the Future (Farleigh Dickinson UP, 2013). She is one of the Series Editors for Culinaria, a new book series from the University of Toronto Press on Food Studies and serves on the editorial board for Toronto Iberic Series as well.
Anna Riera teaches Food Studies at Universitat Abat Oliba CEU, where she started the graduate program in Gastronomic and Oenological Communication, the first of its kind in Spain. She lectures on Food & Communication at the Universitat de Barcelona. Informed by her travels in South America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, she has examined the close relationship between landscape and local food culture. She shared these experiences in her radio program Cuina'm in Onda Cero Catalunya (2006-08). A frequent speaker at gastronomy conferences in Spain, she is a writer for and member of the management staff of the magazine supplement Gourmets published by El Periódico de Catalunya.