Ministry of Culture Sponsors Lecture on Dominican Cuisine

Ministry of Culture Sponsors Lecture on Dominican Cuisine
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic  10/28/2012

Writer and researcher Carlos Andújar described the history and the preparation and consumption rituals involved in traditional Dominican cuisine at a lecture held in APEC University’s José MaríaBonetti Burgos salon.

Dozens of students, teachers and other interested parties attended the event on AvenidaMáximo Gómez organized by the university and the Culture Ministry’s National Office of Folklore.

Dozens of students, teachers and other interested parties attended the event on AvenidaMáximo Gómez organized by the university and the Culture Ministry’s National Office of Folklore.

Edis Sánchez, director of the Folklore unit, introduced Andújar and described his overseas academic training and his background as a Dominican researcher.

Andújar argued in his presentation for the construction of a holistic profile of the country’s gastronomic traditions that includes technical and methodological elements corresponding to an anthropological perspective.

He said sociological, economic, historic and market references must also be incorporated as well as a framework that includes nutrition, agronomy, botany and environmental concerns.

He also referred to the values identified with particular foods and their composition, their methods of preparation, and the social and cultural contexts in which each dish is consumed.

Later, he commented on the most important dishes in the Dominican cuisine by regions, which trump the particular circumstances of individuals and their social class.

Andújar described how each locality has its particular ritual in preparing a dish, be it Samaná’s fish with coconut and rice, the chenchen of San Juan de La Maguana, spicy goat stew or sancocho.

He added that the ritual character of cooking includes not only the steps involved in the preparation of a dish but also the way it is eaten, and its sociocultural and climatic contexts, such as the link between chenchen and popular religiosity in the south alluding to Liborio Mateo and the act of saying goodbye to the dead.

For example, he described how eating soup is associated with restoring health and cloudy days, sancocho with weddings, political meetings, nine days or the arrival of relatives from overseas.

Carlos Andújar

Public attending lecture

Edis Sanchez; Luis Felipe Aquino, Dean of Tourism at APEC; Ana Guerrero, Director of the Cultural Extension and Carlos Andújar