Media Heritagization of Food

Based on research on cookery programs in the Italian television archives and on other practices of "food reinvention", this paper explores both the historic and present-day television depiction of local community and ‘traditions’. The article situates this analysis in a broader theoretical reflection on food heritagization and communication, in conjunction with the redefinition of landscapes and cultures as intangible cultural patrimonies. In food heritage programs, specific styles of filming, editing and text production define a clear relationship between gastronomic ‘traditions’ and the rural countryside. The programs are characterized by an extreme ‘folklorisation’ of its social and territorial context. Singing and dancing, tales and stories of ancient times, and a number of tacit implications about food as simple and genuine, all point to an evident communicative project, involving homesickness, genuineness, authenticity, history and purity. Food is thus made noble, but at the same time alienated vis-à-vis changing everyday life standards.