Paper short abstract:

In this paper we will discuss the rereading to which food practices and products are subjected in order to be able to be part of a patrimonial enhancement, having Chefchaouen (Morocco) as a case-study, and in the aftermath of the classification of the Mediterranean Diet by UNESCO (2010, 2013).

Paper long abstract:

After the inscription of the Mediterranean Diet as intangible cultural heritage of humanity, some of its representative communities sought to find correspondences between the idea of food heritage and the territory. Here, we will discuss the case of Chefchaouen (Morocco) where, over the past few years, we have witnessed an attempt to increase the significance of products and food practices, an exercise not exempt from re-readings and revaluations of both: products and practices.

In Chefchaouen, the heritage classification associated with the Mediterranean Diet had, in a first moment, an institutional and strategic character, with aspirations for greater visibility and diversification of tourist resources in a national context already saturated with touristic products. Thus, at first, it was necessary to invent food heritages that did not correspond to the exhausted ideas about Moroccan gastronomy, and to find local or regional conceptions of food practices and products that could be elements of heritage distinction.

This exercise, promptly gave way to another, that of recreating heritage, through the inclusion of products and food practices that were somewhat dissonant in terms of their reading in the context of local meanings: or because they were associated with food shortage and scarcity, or because they were associated with practices that contemplate some subversion in the context of the majority religion in the country.

It is precisely these questions, the rereading to which food practices and products are subjected in order to be able to be part of a patrimonial enhancement, we intend to discuss here.