A Durham-led activity from the Horizon Europe project RELISH was recently featured in the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia. The article highlighted collaborative workshops with Fundació Alícia exploring medieval Catalan recipes, food heritage, and culinary migration through innovative historical gastronomy methodologies.
A recent activity from RELISH (Reframing European Gastronomy Legacy through Innovation, Sustainability and Heritage), the Durham-coordinated Horizon Europe Pillar II research project, has been featured in the Spanish news outlet La Vanguardia.
Led by Durham University, RELISH brings together researchers and partners from 11 institutions across Europe and Canada in a multidisciplinary collaboration exploring how food heritage can connect young people with Europe’s diverse cultural histories. The project develops innovative digital and cultural tools centred on culinary recipes, sustainability, migration, and heritage.
The La Vanguardia feature highlights collaborative work carried out with RELISH partner Fundació Alícia to develop a new methodology for recreating and interpreting historical recipes.
In particular, the article focuses on a series of workshops held in December 2025 dedicated to the medieval Catalan dish escabetx, a preparation with deep connections to Arab food culture and the long history of culinary migration across Spain and the Mediterranean.
The workshops brought together researchers, food specialists, and participants to test how historical gastronomy can be explored through practical, sensory, and participatory approaches. By reconstructing recipes from the past, the project seeks to foster new forms of engagement with European cultural heritage and encourage conversations around identity, sustainability, and intercultural exchange.
Professor Rosi Song and post-doctoral research associate Janita Van Dyk, both part of the Durham RELISH team, played a key role in the development and delivery of the workshops and in advancing the project’s interdisciplinary research on gastronomy and heritage.
The methodology and outcomes of the workshops were also recently presented as part of the International Society for Gastronomic Sciences and Studies (ISGSS) webinar series on 30 April 2026.
As project coordinator, Durham continues to lead RELISH’s international collaboration and public engagement activities, strengthening research connections across Europe and demonstrating the important role of food heritage in understanding cultural exchange and shared histories.
Further information about RELISH can be found on the project website and social media channels.
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