The UA Publishes a Cookbook Showcasing the Culinary Knowledge of Castell de Castells

The Carmencita Chair of Taste Studies at the University of Alicante has published a cookbook that captures the culinary knowledge of the town of Castell de Castells. The publication, titled Castells sap a tradicions, will be presented next Friday, June 20, at 8:45 PM at the Castell de Castells school. This cookbook gathers the town's gastronomic traditions through fifty recipes grouped into sweet dishes, savoury dishes, and beverages.

The book also explores the impact of migratory movements on local cuisine and is presented as a journey to the past designed to preserve a cultural legacy that is part of the community's future. It can be downloaded in its digital version from the Carmencita Chair's website at this link. Additionally, a printed edition has been produced by the University of Alicante's Printing House, available upon request on the chair's website.

The work has been developed by the students of CEIP Serrella, under the coordination of the school's director, Rosario María Hernández, and the faculty of the University of Alicante: Santiago Ponsoda López de Atalaya, María Tormo-Santamaría, and Virginia Rubio Berenguer.

The cookbook is part of the project "Serrella: Education, Heritage, and Community in Castell de Castells," funded by the Ministry of Culture under the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage Plan. This project, coordinated by UA teachers Santiago Ponsoda and Laura Lucas-Palacios, aims to preserve and transmit various manifestations of intangible cultural heritage, such as celebrations, popular games, music, dance, or gastronomy.

According to Josep Bernabeu, director of the Carmencita Chair, "our participation focused on gastronomic advice. We started the work with a seminar-workshop where we proposed to the students to create a cookbook with traditional dishes following a specific methodology: contact an elderly person from the area, recover a recipe, cook it together, and record the process on video."

For his part, Santiago Ponsoda emphasizes that "gastronomy is one of the pillars of intangible heritage and reflects what a society is like and its evolution. In the educational field, this type of heritage is a first-rate resource, as it allows students to reflect on the present based on the legacy of the past."