Hope Also Nourishes

Bep Al·lès/Ciutadella - “Hope cannot be eaten.” “It cannot be eaten, but it nourishes.” The dialogue between the colonel and his wife in No One Writes to the Colonel, by Gabriel García Márquez, transcends literature to become a universal metaphor for hope, perseverance and dignity. It can also serve to explain, with surprising precision, the reality of today’s gastronomic world.

Gastronomy is food, but it is much more than food. It is culture, identity, territory and memory. It is the everyday gesture of the producer who sows without knowing what the harvest will be like. It is the confidence of the fisherman who goes out to sea before dawn. It is the effort of the restaurateur who raises the shutters every morning despite the difficulties. In all of them there is an essential dose of hope, an invisible force that does not appear in financial statements but sustains projects, families and communities.

From the great temples of cuisine to small family businesses, hope has always been an essential ingredient. Without it, it would be impossible to strive for excellence, research new techniques, recover traditional agricultural varieties or defend seasonal products against the standardisation of markets. Hope is what drives people to do things better, to take risks and to keep moving forward when the numbers are not always favourable.

But gastronomy also knows the harshest side of reality. Rising costs, climate uncertainty, pressure on prices and the lack of generational renewal force many professionals to move between excellence and survival. In this context, the colonel’s phrase takes on a new dimension. Hope, indeed, cannot be eaten. No one lives on hopes alone. But without hope there is no future either.

Policies, commitments and decisions are needed to make the sector viable. But it is also absolutely necessary to preserve that hope which nourishes vocations, protects landscapes and keeps alive the link between the kitchen and the land. Because behind every dish, every local product and every season there are people who continue to believe that it is worth persevering.

And it is this conviction, silent but tenacious, that continues to nourish gastronomy.