The slow food movement of Alentejo only has 25 people enrolled. A small drop of the ocean compared with the other members of the global community of slow food. But that doesn't matter to Vitor Lambert, one of the fiercer members this philosophy of life, defending with tooth and nail, the delicacies and culinary delights of our country. It makes your mouth water just talking about food!
What is the slow food movement?
Vitor Lambert: The Slow Food movement emerged in 1986, was institutionalized in 1989, and now there are more than 100,000 members worldwide. He was born in Italy, which is an example in terms of cuisine, and also has the largest number of dishes that fall under the Mediterranean diet that was considered world heritage site by UNESCO. It was this country that triggered this all, but Portugal did not join. It's now trying to catch up. This idea of the slow food movement (MSF) originated in a square in Spain where there was a McDonald's. A group of people began to feel incongruous that in a country where you can eat very well, where travelers should taste what exists locally, were eating hamburgers that are eaten everywhere, and that are always the same. So the habit of eating slowly was picked up again, taking your time, together with family and with friends. Incidentally, if you think about the great moments in life, they happen at the table, whether it a birthday, a wedding or even business. The act of eating is sacred. Our symbol is the snail, because we restored slowness, people in day-to-day go faster and faster and have less time. MSF realized this, and many people understood it as well. Interestingly, also in the U.S., where there was an exponential development of fast food, but also where the concept of slow food was founded. Increasingly it is noted that this movement has been embraced in communities, and flavors are being recovered through activities in schools, in local markets and even in the increase of vegetable species produced.
So how does it all work?
VL: The slow food has been restoring traditions, especially with regional structures, in this case in the Alentejo. We tried to convey this philosophy of life in a way that the alentejanos understood, while we noticed that there is a set of structures we have helped retrieve. For example, some of the traditional taverns have been closed by the silly ASAE (food inspectors), and I have no problem believing it. They have destroyed a lot in terms of tradition in our country that attracts tourists, because those who visit us will not look for things they can find in their own countries. We have also been recovering types of flavors. It is a work-based crop where we discover these traditional producers and culinary heritage. It is a starting point to showcase our precious territory. We have to help calmly, slowly, with quality and respecting the products of the season at the expense of others, because otherwise we eat food loaded with chemicals and preservatives. The future is eating locally, from our garden, and it has the advantage of making people settle on the fields and produce. It will be more expensive, yes, but nowadays people prefer to spend on mobiles and skimp on food. Here there is something wrong, we should spend more on what we eat.
The Alentejo has always had a strong gastronomic tradition but still it needs to be preserved in Portugal?
VL: Yes, it needs to be preserved. I have already spoken of the taverns that were disappearing.
But people continue to produce the traditional dishes?
VL: Yes, still, but you know that all that is cooked is Algarve food. When Algarve became fashionable, lots was forgotten, and Alentejo moving in the same direction. Many people who are involved in this area of gastronomy do not know many of these local gastronomic gems, for example, where will you eat a bread soup with lettuce? Where you eat the dishes that people themselves created? Nowadays people will eat the false Alentejo food many times. The convent sweets that were only for rich families now democratized it, but where are the dry cakes? There are a number of aspects that have been mischaracterized. The elderly no longer drink their hootch, they drink whiskey. We were dazzled by the outside, but we forget that we have an interesting heritage that should be protected before disappearing. It's what we tried to do with botifarro, or the potatoes of Azaruja. Almost nobody knows them and is a local product from the outskirts of Évora.
So showing these dishes outside their local context is one of the aims of the movement?
VL: The fact is that this type of event was not motivated by the Alentejo cuisine, but to show the movement's philosophy. Now and then we show people what is very dear about slow food, what are these seasonal dishes, which are noble and come from the people, called food from the pan. Now there is this craze of gourmet chefs, and that's fine, but in 10 years they will surely return the food of their mothers and grandmothers, who were tested for so long and endured over the years. That's what we want and should give it due credit. People here do not eat crackling, but we go to Italy where it also was not eaten anymore, but was recuperated. It was considered a dish for the masons and is now exported all over the world. In Portugal we throw it all away and do not appreciate it. Even though it is one of the dishes of the people. We go somewhere for local eating, or wine drinking and then we wonder where it all comes from? Then we walk around and get know a grove or a vineyard. At the end we see it all together on a plate.
You spoke recovering recipes, what do you do with them? Put them in a book or on the internet, how does it all work?
VL: We have now had an activity in a school in Évora, in the framework of World Food Day and we took a set of recipes with us, for kids to try at home with their parents. The recipes especially used leftovers, because we are in crisis. But, we continuously publish less known recipes in regional newspapers, do tastings, and visit small producers. We took all these products and producers, who are often illegal in our country, with us to Italy, to a Turin fair, but we appreciated the illegality with food. (Laughs). For hundreds of years people have been making food without refrigeration chambers, and if they do so much harm we would have already stopped eating that way. When we go to the cities, we always need to be careful, but we know why this happens. Because big distributors want to crush the little ones. Italy exports its products to other Italians. When we go every to the fairs every year, olive producers, cheese producers and people always say it would never be possible to replicate these examples in Portugal, because everything is confined to industrial parks where it's all equal, cold, ugly and plastic. How can you sell handmade products this way?
Tell me a little bit of movement in our country itself.
VL: The oldest on national level is that of Alentejo, in the Capuchin Convent, starts with a lady Cristina Christensen, a Portuguese woman married to a Dane, who sparked the movement in 1999 where it continued growing. It was only maintained the Alentejo, Algarve and the area of Extremadura because people like using the logo of the MSFA in their restaurant, and we do not want anything to do with that. One of the conditions of the movement is that it is voluntary work for the community and not to promote ourselves. We only promote lovely snacks. (Laughs).
And as for those who live outside the Alentejo and want to taste all these traditional specialties, where we can find all this information?
VL: This is more problematic, because normally we work with the activities we develop ourselves. We do tastings for our members and the locals that are part of the mailing list, via facebook in slow food Alentejo. Not through the web page, because we are so slow that we don't update it. As it is run by volunteers, it is obvious that whenever we organize activities and tours people come with us. However we have a certain fear in organizing an event and it has happened in the past, people who have the symbol of the movement and had our support miscaracterize themselves. Loose pride in defending the quality. We currently don't give seals to anyone, because now the kitchen may be good, tomorrow it may not be good. If you change the cook, or someone stops striving, it all changes. You might say that will not work for me, because I want to go to the Alentejo. Then go to facebook and send an email to let me know when the next activity is. Recently we have been at the slow food fair in Turin, and the Mozambican delegation was larger than the Portuguese one. Even the Guineans were more represented than the Portuguese; Portugal has not awakened to this event which has about 200,000 people to visit 920 booths of food from around the world. It is important to take your chefs there to grasp the scale of this movement, look at the food in another manner. It is a place where you don't see cups, plates or plastic chairs, where you can idolize the cuisine without mistreating it because it is such a good, beautiful thing, which reflects the culture of a country, of our ancestors. We cannot treat it with disdain by using plastic dishes. The U.S. has 14 stands to receive visitors, Brazil has 12. Portugal has the same amount as Poland and Romania. We have not woken up to this kind of opportunity, because we have not adhered to these things. It is a continuous struggle but a pleasureful one.
What is your favorite dish?
VL: I have trouble deciding.
What reminds you of your mother?
VL: My mother made a stew with cod and pasta that was spectacular. These dishes make us remember the wonderful moments of our childhood. It's a stunning thing; this is the food of the pot that tasted so well. You know, what I do with my children? Besides eating our food locally, and since we cannot travel the world, we eat the foods of the world. They may not say they do not like something before sampling it, and then yes, they can approve or disapprove. Thus they are also citizens of the world through food.
