Gastronomic Heritage Workshop

Location: Gravina in Puglia, Metropolitan City of Bari, Italy

Season: September 2, 2025 to September 8, 2025

Session Dates: September 2-8, 2025

Application Deadline: August 31, 2025

Deadline Type: Contact for Details

Website: https://messors.com/shepherds-food-culture-cooking-culinary-heritage/

Program Type:
Field School

RPA Certified:
No

Project Director:
Tonio Creanza

Project Description:

September 2-8, 2025

Harvesting Food through History. Cooking, eating and meeting its makers, the daily life of a shepherd.

Anthropology of Food and Life Style: The Rhythms and the Connections between Food, Culture and Landscape.

The venerated cuisine of the Mediterranean has been created and re-created through the course of history by geography, social customs, migration and the mythical and religious universe wrapped around “eating”. The Mediterranean diet is inclusive of a “lifestyle,” which upholds traditional methods of farming and fishing and nurtures the practice of family meals and celebrations.

Through hands-on activities, cooking, excursions, discussions and lectures, our workshop celebrates and promotes the culture, ingredients, production, and cooking methods of the “diet” deeply rooted in its predominantly Greek and Roman origins.

The workshop is led by Tonio Creanza, the Founder and Director of Messors, a native of the Puglia region of Southern Italy, along with his colleagues of local farmers, cheese makers, shepherds, historians, restauranteurs, etc.

Through talks and discussions on the Anthropology of Food and Lifestyle, the workshop will encompass the sustainability of the resources, the biodiversity and the societal changes, and the current debate on the need to implement a sustainable way of life.

Participants are involved in the “food journey” to learn and understand the rhythms and the connections expressed by food: the seasonality, the social tempo of a weekly structured diet; the pace dictated by yeast rising in bread dough, or the time it takes to make cheese from basic ingredients.

Period(s) of Occupation: September 2 - 8, 2025

Project Size: 1-24 participants

Minimum Length of Stay for Volunteers: all period

Minimum Age: 18

Experience Required: No prerequisites required.

Room and Board Arrangements:
Shared room occupancy accommodation 3 meals per day (exception of 1 dinners and 1 breakfast). Transportation from an to Bari airport (BRI) and field trips. Cost: approx $3000 USD per week.