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Ana Vega Pérez de Arlucea
Viernes, 10 de enero 2025, 00:35
Mr. Arraiza held many titles. He could boast of being a lawyer, councillor, mayor, regional deputy, tourism and cultural promoter, member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, and president of a choir. However, one of his greatest achievements, being the father of Navarrese cuisine, is often overlooked in his brief biographies. He was also a significant advocate for regional and popular gastronomy as we understand it today: the culinary expression of a territory or that famous landscape in a pot often attributed to Josep Pla, although Pla never actually said such a thing. Francisco Javier Prudencio Arraiza Baleztena (Pamplona 1886 - Ibero 1937) did not invent this flavorful aphorism, but he did champion the idea of cuisine rooted in place, with flavours born from specific social and environmental circumstances, ultimately becoming unique and identity-defining dishes.
Today, it seems logical to assume that each region has a special way of cooking, but in 1930, this concept was still quite novel and even somewhat subversive. You may recall that we recently discussed the notion of "national gastronomy" and how Spanish gourmets of the late 19th century had to tread carefully to conceive the idea, not universally accepted, that our country did not have a single cuisine, but rather a grand federal banquet composed of the unique contributions and ingredients of each region.
In response to the long-standing tyranny of French tastes in Spain, during the early decades of the 20th century, local kitchens gradually emancipated themselves from foreign influence and embraced what had previously been considered vulgar: indigenous flavours. From the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera until the onset of the Civil War, the country experienced turbulent times, revolutionary in both social and gastronomic terms. Modernity arrived, along with the first household appliances and bars; hundreds of cookbooks were published, and dozens of culinary academies were founded.
Gastronomy found a place in almost all media (radio, newspapers, and magazines), and the first links between food and politics (vegetarianism, feminism, collectivism, nationalism...) emerged. In this environment lived Francisco Javier Arraiza, a Navarrese with Basque sympathies and a conservative Catholic who passed through the ranks of Carlism, Jaimism, and the Patriotic Union.
Between January 1918 and April 1921, he was the mayor of Pamplona, a role he combined during that same period with founding the Society of Basque Studies-Eusko Ikaskuntza, a scientific institution involving the provincial councils of Navarra, Álava, Gipuzkoa, and Bizkaia. Our protagonist regularly collaborated with this association and was a member of the organizing committees of several Basque Studies Congresses.
The fifth of these, dedicated to popular art and held in Vergara (Gipuzkoa) from August 31 to September 8, 1930, featured a very special installation: a kitchen with a dining room replicating a traditional house from Baztán. This fully functional kitchen was lit to offer a typically Navarrese banquet, and the stand's organizers published a book on the gastronomy of their land. 'La cocina navarra' by Francisco Javier Arraiza (1930) was the first printed book dedicated to the culinary art of Navarra and also the first work in Spain to elevate indigenous gastronomy to the status of culture, as important for understanding a region as its architecture, geography, or language.
Tired of the pretensions of modern cuisine and the prestige of all things foreign, Arraiza championed traditional stews. "Who said that cooking is not an art, and that our classic cooks are not consummate artists? In times when the great Chicote, with the thousand formulas of his exotic and explosive cocktails, earns the title of scientific barman in illustrated magazines, and when the kitchens of grand hotels and restaurants, with their ambiguous sauces and false roasts, are schools of culinary science, it is not surprising that the genuine popular cuisine is not even considered an art."
For him, the rural kitchen was a sacred space, the place where humble daily life unfolded and where, on occasions of 'mecetas' (patron saint festivals), weddings, funerals, and other major events, the unique idiosyncrasy of its inhabitants was expressed through roasted lambs, stuffed dishes, 'tripakis', ajoarriero, and chilindrón. In addition to an introduction about the different Navarrese cuisines, their ingredients, and history, he included a list of culinary terms in Basque and Spanish and also an extensive recipe collection of Navarrese stews.
"Dishes with strong, defined, and clear flavours, perfectly adapted to the climate of each area, the predominant temperament of its inhabitants, and their working life. Homemade, healthy, and clean stews, [...] without Perrins sauces or English mustards," he explained. Look for it, the mayor's cookbook is happily digitized.
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