Foodies on Menorca Vintage revives the spirit of the 1950s to celebrate Menorcan gastronomy

Bep Al·lès/Ciutadella – Gastronomy is also part of a people’s visual memory. Recipes, sweets, traditional dishes and family preparations tell the story of a way of life, but they can also become images capable of evoking an era, a human landscape and a shared identity. This is the idea behind Foodies on Menorca Vintage, a collection of posters inspired by the tourism aesthetics of the 1950s and 1960s and devoted to Menorca’s traditional baking and cuisine.

The project revives the spirit of the old travel posters that, for decades, turned destinations, hotels, beaches and cities into true popular icons. In this case, however, the protagonists are not the island’s great monuments or best-known landscapes, but products and preparations that form part of the everyday and festive life of Menorcans.

Formatjades, pastissets, carquinyols, amargos, Sant Joan confits, besitos, Ciutadella macarrons, Ferreries mocadorets, coques dels Reis and different fruit coques are among the first preparations to be included in the collection.

The aim is to look at these products with fresh eyes and give them the prominence they often hold within family memory, but not always within the tourism representation of Menorca. They are preparations associated with festivities, celebrations, family gatherings and specific times of the year, and many of them still retain a strong connection with particular towns, traditions and customs.

Fruit coques are a good example of this richness. Made with apricots, plums, figs or cherries, they reflect a cuisine deeply linked to seasonality and to making the most of available produce. For generations, Menorcan baking has known how to turn each season’s fruit into something simple yet deeply rooted in local identity.

The same is true of formatjades, especially associated with Easter, or pastissets, one of the most recognisable products of Menorcan baking. Each item preserves a story, a way of making it and, often, a family recipe handed down from generation to generation.

Foodies on Menorca Vintage is based precisely on this desire to respect the essence of each product. The aim is not to invent an imaginary Menorca, but to visually reinterpret what already forms part of the island’s gastronomic heritage.

The collection also highlights the objects and settings that have traditionally accompanied these preparations: old plates, trays, pantries, laid tables and household objects that form part of a collective memory that is increasingly appreciated. Through them, the posters do not simply show a product, but evoke moments and customs.

A tray of pastries on a festive table, freshly made formatjades before Easter, macarrons prepared for Sant Joan or a coca just out of the oven can awaken different memories in each person. This evocative power is one of the keys to the project.

In this sense, Foodies on Menorca Vintage is more than a simple collection of images. It is also a way of documenting and promoting Menorcan gastronomy from a different perspective, one that is more emotional and closely linked to memory.

At a time when food photography dominates almost all communication connected with cuisine, this project recovers the value of illustration and the poster as tools for dissemination. The product ceases to be merely food and becomes a symbol, a visual attraction and an element of heritage.

The initiative also opens up new possibilities for giving visibility to Menorcan cuisine through exhibitions, decorative prints, calendars, covers, postcards and materials linked to gastronomic and cultural tourism.

This tourism dimension is especially interesting because it offers a way of explaining Menorca beyond its beaches and best-known landscapes. Gastronomy is also a gateway to the territory, a way of understanding its rhythms, its festivities and the relationship between people and local products.

Ultimately, Foodies on Menorca Vintage revives the spirit of old travel posters and places it at the service of Menorcan gastronomic memory. A collection that turns traditional sweets, pastries and preparations into small icons capable of speaking about Menorca, its people and the traditions handed down from generation to generation.

Because gastronomic heritage is not only something to eat. It is also something to remember, explain, preserve and transform into an image capable of travelling through time.