Paper short abstract:

Growing global fame of Istrian olive oil is helping transform the region into an elite, gastronomic and Mediterranean tourism destination. This symbolic and material taste- and place-making brings significant commercial and political opportunities, yet also risks, tensions and exclusions for some.

Paper long abstract:

The recent success of Istrian olive oils within international competitions is helping (re-)make the region of Croatian Istria as an elite, gastronomic and Mediterranean tourism destination. This paper takes an anthropological approach to examining these processes and their impact, paying ethnographic attention to the experiences of resident producers and consumers. It demonstrates how global recognition interacts with local processes to shape both taste and place, with mixed consequences.

To compete within global hierarchies of value (Herzfeld 2004) in which the Mediterranean, specifically Tuscany, ranks highly as both place and taste, requires a “re-qualification” of Istrian olive oil. The paper outlines these changes to the production, meaning, use, taste and evaluation of Istrian olive oil, including how producers, chefs and other consumers are taught to judge and appreciate olive oil in new ways.

The paper then examines how the re-qualification of Istrian olive oil feeds into political and commercial strategies to construct Istria in ways which suit dominant regionalist and tourism agenda—in sum, becoming “the new Tuscany”. This taste- and place-making involve a series of hierarchies—olive oil over lard, Mediterranean over Balkan, coast over interior—and stratifies Istrian olive oils, their producers and consumers.

With ethnographic attention to the perspectives of several oil producers and other local actors, I therefore argue that while the political and commercial opportunities are attractive and beneficial for many, becoming “the new Tuscany” also brings risks, tensions and exclusions which are obscured by the fanfare surrounding olive oil and associated gastronomic tourism.