“Le Portugal Gastronomique” and the Paris International Exhibition of 1937

Abstract

In 1937, the Salazar government's National Propaganda Secretariat published a leaflet entitled Le Portugal gastronomique. Produced for distribution at that year's Paris International Exhibition, it featured a text written by Albino Forjaz de Sampaio aimed at attracting tourists to Portugal by promoting its culinary specialities. This article analyses the document in order to understand its possible contributions to the affirmation of a Portuguese culinary identity at the time. This is a case study, with a descriptive and exploratory approach, and recourse to a bibliographical survey focused in its historical and cultural context. In the first half of the article, we look at the document as an object and at its textual content. In the second half, we sought to understand the relevance of the piece, focusing on the food-place identification it endorses and considering the national political context and the international gastronomic scenario in which it was inserted. We conclude that the document allows us to observe a process of culinary codification informed by its contemporary gastronomic grammar, while at the same time echoing a dynamic of identity construction that was not exclusive to Portugal.