As the food sector grows and takes on a greater significance in both daily life and tourism, it requires a parallel community of state investment and constraint. The regulatory frameworks set forth by the Colombian State in relation to cooking and food are so rich, complex and promissory at the same time as they are incipient, diffuse and, in some cases, discontinuous. Some of the most active work that emerges through public policy, CONPES documents (that is, produced by the National Policy and Social Economy Council), actions plans and similar, are:
• Strategic Plan for Promotion of National Gastronomical Tourism (2014-2018) (Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Bogotá, 2016).23
• District Cultural Policies (2004 – 2016) (District Culture and Tourism Institute, 2014, Bogotá).
• Policy for Knowledge, Safeguard and Promotion of Food and Traditional Cuisines in Colombia (Ministry of Culture, 2012, Bogotá).
23 At the tourism and culture secretariats of municipalities and governor’s offices, and in the government action plans
of each department, there are projects that approach the issue of food safety and sovereignty, and foodways in general. However, the information is not systemized and does not have traceable regularity yet.
• Cultural Ten-year Plan (Culture, Recreation and Sports Secretariat, Bogotá, 2011), and the equivalent documents at the municipal head of different departmental regions in the country.
• National Food Safety and Nutritional Policy CONPES 113 from 2008 (National Planning Department, 2007, Bogotá).
• Cultural Tourism Policy (Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, 2007, Bogotá). • Master Food Procurement and Food Safety Plan (Bogotá Mayor’s Office, 2006).
Overall, these normative frameworks focus on major concerns and questions at the base of food production, distribution and consumption. The main issues addressed in the documents are: food safety and food sovereignty, the strengthening of peasant economies and agroecological practices, acknowledging of the cultural value of food practices, development of gastronomy having as a starting point local culinary heritages, consolidation of cuisine as a touristic product, and promotion of research, creativity and developing projects about foodways. The state seems to be leading a heritage movement that is determining in great part the direction to which Colombian cuisine is pointing to, for both, the interest to preserve cultural heritage and to build social programs based on this preservation, and the idea that this conservation will draw tourists helping to impulse economic development.
Other initiatives from the private or independent sector with partial support from the Colombian State include:
• Colombia Gastronomical Industry Association – ACODRES. A non for profit organization created in 1957 by a group of restaurateurs and related entrepreneurs, with the purpose of becoming the guild that represents the interests of the gastronomical industry in the country, through strengthening of gastronomical tourism and its participation in public decisions about the sector.
• Colombian Gastronomy Academy Corporation – ACG. A non for profit organization founded in 1994, with the purpose of generating the processes and projects that can contribute to a better knowledge of regional Colombian food culture, universal gastronomy and culinary flavors, as well as that related to the art and science of eating well.
• Slow Food Colombia. A convivium group that coordinates activities and organizes events in different areas of the country around food and eating, affiliated to the global Slow Food Organization, founded in 1989 with the purpose of avoiding local culinary traditions. It is governed by a concept of food being essentially linked to culture, politics, agriculture and the environment, and defined by three criteria: good, clean and fair.
• Workshop Schools of Colombia. Peace Tools. Training Centers for vulnerable young adults who receive theoretical and practical training in traditional crafts, among which is cooking, aimed at preserving and valuating cultural heritage. It is a project implemented in the country by the Spanish International Cooperation Agency for Development – AECID – and other international cooperation organizations, and the Government of Colombia, in 1992. Currently it has seven offices in cities that are part of the Heritage Town Network: Buenaventura, Cartagena de Indias, Barichara, Santa Cruz de Mompox, Popayán, Boyacá and Bogotá.
• School of Sociocultural Food Studies and Colombian Cuisine (CESACC). Non- governmental not for profit organization (incorporated on January 18, 2010) with applied research, training and academic evaluation, disclosure of knowledge and consulting and advising in food and culinary matters in the country as main lines of action, based on the awareness of the need to exalt the creators, products, preparations, instruments and accessories that conform the country’s culinary universe.
• Fogón Colombia, union of cooks and their kitchens. Non for profit association (incorporated in August 19, 2015), that brings together more than 50 professional Colombian cooks that join to work for valuation and disclosure of Colombian cuisines from the axes of research, articulation with the State, education, safety and food sovereignty, the environment, working with peasants and culinary artisans, cooking academies and tourism. All this framed within the Colombian peace process.
• La Ruta de los Sabores de María24. A route created by the competition organized by the
Corporación Destino Paraíso25 in Valle del Cauca, with the purpose of recovering and improving traditional dishes of the vallecaucana region. It has seven preparations in total. • Foodie Trips: the itinerary menu of García Marquez, Cartagena Street Food and National Museum (Among others). Foodies is a “boutique office that designs social gastronomical experiences” (Foodies 2016: a). The tasting routes are carried out in 3 to 5- hour trips.
• Bogotá Gastronomical Route (2016). Built by the Bogotá Mayor’s Office through the District Tourism Institute – IDT, in a partnership with the Fundación Escuela Taller de Bogotá – FETB. It has four general sections: gastronomical manifestations, “unmissables”, gastronomical zones and restaurant lists.
• Almojábana Route (2015-2016). A route designed by local authorities and producers of the municipalities of Turmequé, Arcabuco and Paipa, with the purpose of highlighting and promoting one of the most representative products of the Boyacá Department.
• Special Coffee Route. A tour around the various municipalities of the Quindío Department to highlight the best coffees as part of the “Cultural Coffee-growing Landscape Routes” (National Cooperation Commission UNESCO Colombia).
• Educational Research Routes of the Gastronomy Degree at the Sabana University (Bogotá). They are part of the program’s curriculum and were included with the purpose of promoting the safeguard of the Colombian gastronomical heritage. A total of eight that cover a large portion of the Colombian territory: Eje Cafetero, Nariño, Morrosquillo Gulf, Cauca and Valle del Cauca, the Caribbean, Santander and the Pacific Region.
All of these spaces (conferences, publications, awards, organizations, etc.) are indicative of the changes taking place in regard to the culinary scenario and its significance in the country’s
24 La María is a famous novel by writer Jorge Issacs that portrays among other cultural expressions, mestizo culinary
fusions of Valle del Cauca in the second third of the 19th century, and the characteristics of indigenous, afro- descendant and Spanish cuisines.
25 Destino Paraiso is a social development project of the Valle del Cauca Governor’s Office, municipal Mayor’s
economic growth. These efforts coincide in contributing to an increase of the availability and use of local products and artisanal preparations, and in offering greater visibility and importance to “traditional” cooks, or “bearers of tradition” – as they have been defined or categorized within the discourse of cultural heritage and safeguard of traditional and popular culture, led by UNESCO (2016: a). Their overall objective is to protect social and economic dynamics and cultural practices associated with the country’s culinary traditions. Therefore, a key question to pose is why traditional culinary knowledge in particular what wants to be protected and promoted and by whom. I borrow Steven Kaplan’s words to describe what bread signified in Old Regime France, to help explaining the symbolic psychological and cultural force that traditional culinary knowledge seems to be having in the construction of a culinary identity in Colombia: “crystallizing both, collective identity and individual, bread forged the complicated links between sacred and profane, hope and anguish, whole and part, mother and child, prince and subject, producer and consumer, seller and buyer, justice and injustice” (Kaplan 1997: 1). Traditional cuisines are indeed linking opposite cultural forces, clashing intentions, divergent economic interests, different socioeconomic groups, collective and individual perceptions and motivations and, moreover, a good dose of social anxiety and faith in a better future.