Organizers Announce First Results of Project to Safeguard Dominican Culinary Tradition

Santo Domingo, August 8, 2018 – The Dominican culinary tradition reached an important milestone with the formal presentation of the results obtained through a special research project carried out to recover and bring together some of the country’s top traditional recipes, including desserts and local beverages.

The  president of the Fundación Casabe and Commercial Coordinator of the Fundación Sabores, Juan Febles, presented the result and added that “…with this step we celebrate our love for [our] gastronomic traditions, the unity of our sector and the strengthening of our national identity so that everyone in this country, as well as the rest of the world, knows that we know what good food is all about here!”

The project is being carried out in coordination with the Fundación Sabores Dominicanos and the Fundación Casabe, with the support of local universities that are members of the Dominican chapter of the Pan American Confederation of Hotel, Gastronomy and Tourism Schools, as well as the mountain towns of Constanza and San José de Ocoa.

The first stage of the research was to identify and recover some of the country’s most important recipes and drinks.  The goal is to safeguard the gastronomic patrimony of the Dominican Republic.

The initial information – presented at the Pedro Mir Library at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) – featured the recipes and drinks from the following provinces: San José de Ocoa, San Cristóbal, La Altagracia, Samaná, Santiago Rodríguez, Puerto Plata and San Pedro de Macorís.

Information from the city of Santo Domingo came mainly from some of the city’s oldest and most prestigious neighborhoods, including the Colonial Zone.  Organizers highlighted that a special survey is also being carried out on the importance of the yucca in Dominican dishes, one of the most important food staples of the Taíno Indians, the original inhabitants of the island.

The goal of the project is to gather all the necessary information regarding the Dominican food tradition for the use of current and future generations.

The publication, featuring more than 100 recipes, will be the most extensive and complete book of recipes on Dominican gastronomy, with the recipes classified by specific regions.

The book will be available online in mid-August.