Resumen de Tradition and innovation in Proença-a-Nova foodways
With this chapter, we analyze the data collected 20 years ago by a team of colleagues on the traditional cuisine and gastronomy in the Pinhal Region, focusing attention on changes in food production visible in the consumerism process through public restoration nowadays, in a specific municipality: Proença-a-Nova. We look mostly at the food products that are part of the identity of the concerned territory. The dynamics of cultural change as a concern to our research, which involves our students and us from the hotel management degree in ISEC Lisboa, which is interested in the sustainability of ecological systems and its elements of attraction for foreigners or tourists. We present the first text produced within the research that involves nine more councils of the territory that concerns the Pinhal Region and River Tagus Basin. Crossing the data collected by ethnographic fieldwork and ethnological analysis, with TripAdvisor published information about customers’ opinions on the food menus of its registered restaurants. We verified that traditional food, in what concerns its production and ways of serving, is an attraction to the visitors. Innovation in the creative process of food making can enhance the local heritage within a means of communication. All the senses are used to integrate parts of a learning process that can involve locals and foreigners.
