Intellectuals, housewives, cooks and cooks: the women who have maintained the gastronomic tradition in Spain

When Pardo Bazán published the first gastronomy book,

La Cocina Antigua Española

, the year was 1913. In 1917, he would release a second volume under the name

La Cocina Española Moderna

.

She published both copies in a collection called

The Woman's Library

, which she herself created in order to try to modernize the women of that time, and contribute to their cultural and intellectual liberation.

Carmen de Burgos from Almeria would also do something similar, in 1918, with her book

De ella La Cocina Moderna

and, later, with her

De ella ¿Do tú donde comers bien?

(1943).

“In this question of cooking, as in all those that concern women, people tend to make mistakes,” writes Pardo Bazán, in

La Cocina Española Antigua

— without remembering the superiority of chefs over female cooks, it is implied. that cooking is essentially a feminine thing.”

In that same prologue, the author confesses that the reason for this second volume was to preserve the taste memory, the recipes learned in her childhood, to try to capture the Galician culinary tradition in particular and the rest of the regions of Spain, in general.

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Old Spanish Cuisine

still survives in bookstores in two formats: as a facsimile and in a more careful edition published by Umbría and Solana in 2021. In both cases, the original text remains a cooking manual, a teaching book for those who want to enter the world of cooking or those who simply aspire not to forget their roots.

Illustration of the interior of 'The Old Spanish Kitchen', by Emilia Pardo Bazán (Editorial La Umbría y la Solana, co-published with Pandorado).ROBERTO CUÑA (ILLUSTRATOR)

“The most feminine thing about this book is the recommendation with which I am going to end the prologue.

In the recipes that follow, ladies will find many where onion and garlic come into play.

If you want to work with your own delicate hands to make a stew, make sure that the cook handles the onion and garlic.

It is her job, and there is nothing dishonorable about handling those bulbs with their penetrating aroma;

"But it would be very cruel for ladies to keep, between a ruby ​​ring and the open sleeve of a blouse, a traitorous and dishonored chive."

This is how the Countess of Pardo Bazán signed the end of the prologue.

Shadow work

Many of the cooks lived in the shadows of the noble kitchens or in front of the stoves of anonymous inns.

Cutting onions, crushing garlic, sautéing tradition over very low heat.

And, in all that profession, far from applause, newspaper reviews and photographs, there were those who dedicated time to transmit what they had learned and even those who decided to write it down, so as not to forget it.

Thus two of the books were born that, even today, continue to be top sellers in bookstores throughout Spain:

Culinary Encyclopedia.

The Complete Kitchen

(first edition of the year 33) by María Mestayer de Echagüe (Marquise of Parabere) and the

1080 Cooking Recipes,

by Simone Ortega, from the year 1972.

Renewed and corrected edition in 2020 of the classic '1080 Recipes by Simone Ortega', from 1972 (Alianza Editorial).

In order not to forget where we come from and to reclaim the name of the cooks, women who, without much pretension, “gave food”, the Guisanderas Club was born in Asturias in 1998. The Guisanderas have always been the guardians of our authentic cuisine. and hence the need to join together, share the recipe book and leave your mark on three books.

The last one,

25 years of the Guisanderas de Asturias

, edited by Delallama, we find an emotional manifesto of those who, today, fight so that the cuisine of roots and products that so characterizes Asturias remains alive, but also, so that it does not forget who were the ones who have maintained that legacy: women.

But what is the difference between a cook and a cook?

“A woman who cooks is considered a guisandera, but she cooks altruistically.

In the towns it was cooked at banquets, weddings, baptisms and communions, when there was no catering, and the dishes came from a private house or a place, usually a barn, where each event took place."

This definition is found inside the book, a simple copy, without a pretty illustration or photograph, but full of identity and truth.

Among its pages you can feel the Asturian soul in its 74 recipes such as stuffed onions, fish stew, pitu

caleya

or cabbage stuffed with meat, to name a few examples.

Paloma Alonso Arribas, Casa Zoilo's guisandera, is the author of the Asturian-style 'pixín', a recipe collected in '25 years of Guisanderas de Asturias'.

His best recipes' (Delallama Editorial). Xuan Cueto

And from Asturias to the Basque Country.

In 1912, Nicolasa Pradera opened her restaurant on Aldámar Street in San Sebastián.

Nobody knew her about that one and, possibly, they didn't even question who could be in her kitchen.

But over the years she became a reference.

Her fame was such that, in 1933, she published her cookbook

De ella La Cocina de Nicolasa

and, in a short time, it ended up being the best-selling and, therefore, most consulted in the Basque Country.

In 2010, the Txertoa publishing house, within its Sokoa collection, recovered the original book, maintaining a simple style, without illustrations or photos, but with all the substance and wisdom of this “artist and priestess of the kitchen,” as Gregorio called her. Marañón in the prologue of said book.

400 recipes to spend hours in the kitchen: frog legs in their different preparations, goose liver and its sauce, crab puree or hake pie, for example.

Sara Cucala is a writer,

filmmaker

and journalist specialized in gastronomy.

The creator of one of the first gastronomy and travel blogs, she has written numerous books, coordinated the culinary content of TVE's afternoon magazine and directed several films and documentaries.

She is founder and co-owner of the food bookstore and cooking school A Punto.

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