Álvaro Vega I Córdoba, (EFE) candidature in the European Parliament.
The double condition of president of the Asaja Garlic Sector and of the Cordovan Salmorejo Gastronomic Brotherhood of Miguel del Pino facilitated the dissemination of this proposal, when he coincided in the community capital with the Andalusian MEP of the PP Juan Ignacio Zoido, who has served of introducer in the European Parliament of the dish made with bread, garlic, salt and virgin olive oil.
Last September, Del Pino headed a garlic delegation that went to Brussels to raise with representatives of the European Union institutions the problems facing the sector, such as the entry of fresh Chinese garlic as if it were frozen to avoid quotas.
“I was in Brussels with the issue of garlic,” recalls Miguel del Pino in a conversation with EFE, “and I explained to Juan Ignacio Zoido the idea of asking for support in the candidacy for the Cordovan salmorejo to be declared a World Heritage Site Humanity”.
Zoido and Aguirre, brothers of honor
From there, Zoido’s team in the European Parliament began to prepare an act, which took place a few days ago, in which he was invested as an honorary brother together with the president of the Andalusian Parliament, Jesús Aguirre from Cordoba, who expressly went to the community capital on a practically round trip to receive the distinction.
According to the president of the Cordovan Salmorejo Gastronomic Brotherhood, the event was “a success”, with an attendance of some two hundred people including MEPs and Parliament staff. The goal is for “Europe to know such a good dish, so cheap and so healthy and request support for the candidacy.”
Rafael Moreno Rojas, director of the Andalusian Gastronomy Chair at the University of Córdoba, and nutrition specialist Antonio Escribano Zafra participated in this meeting to present the excellence of salmorejo on health.
For Miguel del Pino, “the two conferences showed that salmorejo is not only cheap and simple, but that it is perhaps one of the best foods that exist in the world.”
Consensus and calendar
From the meeting, the members of the Brotherhood drew the conclusion that there was “a consensus on support and the need to have a calendar and to redouble promotional actions,” says Del Pino.
“We are getting our batteries to make it the fifth World Heritage Site of Córdoba” after the Mosque, the Historic District, the Patios Cordobeses and Medina Azahara.
Until now, the Brotherhood has collected support by “listening to people.” The next institutional adhesion that is expected, after the one obtained from the City Council and the Córdoba Provincial Council, is that of the Andalusian Parliament.
“When we have seen that it is feasible and that we have a lot of support, we are going to set up a technical office and we are going to prepare the document that must be presented to Unesco”, explains its president.
In this task they hope to have the support of the Córdoba City Council, whose mayor, José María Bellido (PP), who was unable to go to Brussels, sent a video message in which he highlighted the work of the Brotherhood and welcomed the new members of honor, a distinction that he himself holds.
How to approach the candidacy
Now there is the arduous path of knowing how to focus the candidacy, something transcendental to achieve the distinction, as the councilor knows well, who lived through the end of the process, twice unsuccessful, in the case of Patios Cordobeses as deputy mayor.
Then it was the figure of an Eskimo who gave the key, a metaphor that served to put the candidacy back on track until then, which had failed and was given by a high-ranking Spanish official from Unesco: he came to say that what had to be done was to explain what was being done in the Patios Cordobeses to an Eskimo, to someone who had no idea what he was.
The Cordoba Gastronomic Brotherhood of Salmorejo has two recent examples to look at, that of the Neapolitan ‘pizzaioli’ (2017) and the French baguette (2022). In both cases, together with the “culinary practice” in the first, and the “artisan knowledge” in the second, UNESCO has valued the “close ties of coexistence with local communities” of the Italian dish and the fact that bakeries to be “a neighborhood hangout” in the case of France’s long loaf of bread.
Miguel del Pino believes, for his part, “with all due respect”, that salmorejo is also the essence of the Mediterranean diet. EFE