FoodLessons: Culinary Heritage as a Resource in Developing "Food Nation Norway 2030"

This project will take a closer look at how a revitalization of our culinary heritage can be used in business development and value creation.

In 2010, food was first listed on UNESCO's intangible Cultural Heritage List with the entry of the Mediterranean diet, French gastronomic cuisine, Michoacán cuisine, and Croatian gingerbread. The interest for Nordic cuisine and its techniques, ingredients and dishes has risen in recent years. The project will take a closer look at how a revitalization of our culinary heritage can be used in business development and value creation.

The project's goal is to showcase our diverse food and drink culture in innovative and exciting ways, and stimulate better interaction between traditions and new impulses. Our hypothesis is that the culinary heritage has great potential in product and service development, can be a resource in terms of identity creation, brand building and marketing of the food nation Norway.

Through our domain Foodnation.no, we will develop a platform for disseminating user-oriented research, knowledge and methodology that will contribute to increased production and use of food and drink based on local, land-based resources. The field work will be done in rural settlements with different topography and natural environment: mountain, forest and flat settlements. We will especially focus on grain, dairy, berries, fruit, vegetables, meat and inland fish.

Consortium

The consortium consists of 4 Norwegian and 3 foreign research institutions, and 20 partners representing the entire value chain. To succeed, we have put together a transdisciplinary consortium that will work at the interface between research, business development, gastronomy and dissemination. Our approach will combine top-down effects represented by leading chefs, developers and other key people with "bottom-up" activities represented by cutting-edge producers and providers. Our theory is that Norway's food history is an under-researched, under-utilized & under-communicated field that could contribute to a significant increase in value creation and employment in land-based food and beverage industries.