ABSTRACT
Thislastessaydemonstratestherelevanceoftheculturalcontextofthe recipetothosewiderfieldsofstudythatconsiderhumanexperience: anthropology,thestudyofmigration,contemporarysociologyandoral history.Theresultsofasociologicalsurveyandoralhistoryproject conductedin1997-1998haveraisedcomplexquestionsaboutthesocial andpsychologicalsignificanceofrecipesandmealsinthecollective consciousnessandmemoryoftheimmigrantpopulationsofSaoPaulo. The'FoodandMemory'researchprojecttookasitsunderlyingpremisethe suggestionthatamongstdifferentformsofcollectivememories,oneofthe mostpersistentisculinarymemory.TheresearchwhichIdiscusshere involvedasocialgroupwherefoodandculinaryhabitscouldbeseenasa distinctivecategory:immigrantsandtheirfamiliessettledinthecityofSao Paulofromtheturnofthenineteenthcenturytothe1950s. 1
Discoursesaboutfoodarepresentinalmostallmemorywork.The reminiscencesofculinaryexperiencesarerichinaromas,coloursandtastes thatresistnotonlytheimpactoftimeandtechnologybutalsoculturaland geographicalchange.Thisresearchhasalreadyresultedintheproduction ofacookerybookwhichdescribestheadaptationandretrieval,through memory,ofparticularrecipesandmealsthatevokememoriesofpersonal, familialandsocialsignificance(HeckandBelluzzo,1998).
