Travel, culinary diversity, migrations and genealogy

Travel, travel... cuisine, migrations and genealogy go well together!

Travel is a true wealth; it allows you to discover cultures, lifestyles. One of these wealths is the exploration of different culinary traditions around the world. According to one's origins, everyone has a family recipe passed down by their parents, grandparents... For us Bretons, it's often crepes (admittedly, not the most complicated recipe in the world). Here's a common point between cooking and genealogy: transmission. Another common point: Data. Yes, if numerical data often serve genealogy, it's also the case for the study of culinary traditions.

The so-called "culinary" data allows for a comparison of different culinary traditions based on geographical areas. You surely noticed during your travels that there are many cultural similarities between neighboring countries, and this is also the case for their culinary traditions. This is what the graph network created from Sina Sadjamanesh's study shows, which was done using online recipe lists and nutritional databases. Thus, the different countries of Asia, for example, have a very close culinary culture. However, if one analyzes the recipe directory of the Yummly website, one can realize that Mongolian cuisine is "gustatively close" to Canadian cuisine! As they say...

Culinary diversity, a testament to migrations and population movements

Thanks to the geographical analysis of culinary traditions, one can establish a map to highlight the link between different migratory movements and culinary practices. Each migrant brings with them the culinary practices of their country. These recipes are not meant to remain only on the plates of the ethnic community concerned, but rather to spread and enrich the gastronomic culture of the host country. Who has never eaten, for example, a good couscous, a dish that has become cult in France, and whose industrial version is increasingly present on the shelves of our supermarkets? It is in fact a testament to the colonization of the Maghreb in the 19th century, then reimported by the pieds-noirs after the independence of Algeria. But each country has its particularity, even in traditional recipes, as evidenced by looking at the recipes for Tunisian, Algerian and Moroccan couscous to realize the diversity of different recipes for the same dish.

The cultural heritage of a country is therefore the testament and legacy of a migratory and colonial past, passed down by previous generations and identifiable through travel. One solution to discover this heritage: try everything!