lunes, 20 de septiembre de 2010

SWEET CUISINE AS THERAPY


With this third workshop Art and Culture as Therapy, the debate on Alzheimers is opened up towards experiments within the research where the art of cuisine, sweet cuisine in particular, joins the scientific investigation. The sense of taste is extremely complex. Here receptors of taste, sight, touch, smell and hearing all participate together. This is a result of a complete sensorial perception that incorporates the notion of memory and social, cultural and even religious influences.
Sweet cuisine can stimulate emotions and evoke memories of lived experiences whether they are happy, pleasant, sad, lively or even of anger. It is not only people who awake memories, the fragrance of a lemon or the sound of a nutshell breaking can have an equal effect.
Within this context, the pastry chef, Paco Torreblanca stirred up memories of happy moments and good company. Offering the patients desserts that belong to our collective memory, of family gatherings and celebrations. While enjoying the tastes of “sablé bretón” with Angel hair squash and cinnamon, “mille-feuille” puff pastry, meringue and cinnamon, chocolate bonbons of flower tea, and Panettone, the patients’ palates danced between sensations of sweetness, sourness and bitterness, listening to the sound of the biscuits and feeling the texture of the sponge cake. “Don’t be afraid,” exclaimed the pastry chef, “break the Panettone with your hands and eat the piece you like. The Panettone is not cut with a knife!”
In Torreblanca’s words, “the dessert is the pinnacle of the meal”:

“One of the things I have learnt is that the bakery must evolve. We have to look for new paths, experiment with new products from whatever country in the world without, of course, forgetting our gastronomic roots.
I use to say to those who are working with me that the dessert is the pinnacle of the meal. It is as jewellery that enables us to have an unforgettable memory of good moments.
I have always been defined as a designer of desserts but for me, the most important thing is the taste, because of its richness and enormous diversity. This is, of course, without ruling out the aesthetics. Aesthetics is the perfect complement. We cannot forget that the appearance of the dessert is the first sensation we perceive. The dessert must affect us, surprise and touch our feelings.”
[Paco Torreblanca (2007): La Dulce Cocina. Ediciones Temas de hoy. Madrid]

In this workshop, in collaboration with Paco Torreblanca and his son, David, the sweet cuisine has helped the participants to stir up emotions that have brought them in contact with their feelings and lived experiences. The process ended with the elaboration of Murcia Tart, which managed to surprise and call on emotions and where familiar fragrances and tastes coexist with extraordinary textures and new compositions.
Together, the Torreblanca team and the Alzheimers patients have evolved pastry making in Murcia. They have offered a new recipe, Murcia Tart, which has been the fruit of the study: “Where do we come from?” and “Where are we going”?
The experience is all gathered together in this book, which pages are impregnated with the fragrances of the ingredients of Murcia Tart to help us to remember its flavours. This is reinforced in the recipe, printed on an edible paper and perfumed by lemon and cinnamon fragrances!
Additionally, the book presents the patients’ recipes of their desserts, transcribed with the help of the students at the Hotel Management School in Murcia. The aim is to keep the patients’ memories of the present and to create future memories for their children and grandchildren.

Halldóra Arnardóttir
PhD Art Historian and Coordinator of Art and Culture as Therapy.

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