Iberian-American Academy of Gastronomy Introduced into Mexico
Iberian-American Academy of Gastronomy Introduced into Mexico
Doña Maria de las Mercedes Foundation, and the Iberian-American Academy of Gastronomy, promoted by the former, have covered one more stage in their intense efforts across Iberian-America, this time, in the capital of Mexico, where they made a big presentation before the best of that country’s society.
Both institutions, having emerged from the Andalusian Business Association, have Iberian-America as their center of activity, and for that reason, the two of them have already seized many opportunities to strengthen their bonds with Spanish-speaking countries.
The Foundation, which honors the memory of Maria de las Mercedes of Bourbon, the mother of His Majesty King Juan Carlos, was created in 2006 in the Spanish city of Seville and, since then, it has hosted several official acts in Lima (Peru), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and in July in Havana (Cuba), where it offered a musical show of the traditional repertoire of Seville. The performance was part of events celebrating the 100th issue of the Excellences of the Caribbean magazine, published by Excelencias Group.
Meanwhile, the Iberian-American Academy of Gastronomy, inaugurated in 2009 in a ceremony held at Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza of Seville, has led intense efforts in Latin America, as shown by its active participation in the latest Gastronomic Fair of Lima, Mistura; its work at the Cervantes Institute of Sao Paulo; and its role in the International Gastronomic Seminar “Restaurants in Cuba and the Caribbean: Fusion and Pairing,” that took place earlier 2011 at the Meliá Cohiba Hotel in Havana, under the auspices of Excelencias Group.
The Academy, which comprises the cuisine academies of Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Peru with the goal, has fostered since the very beginning of its foundation “the research on, and the promotion and protection of cooking traditions of the different Latin America regions and peoples,” in addition to “spreading its different forms, looking after the pureness of its traditions, supporting the modernization of techniques and considering new gastronomic-diet proposals.”
In Mexico D.F., the presentation by Doña Maria de las Mercedes Foundation and the Iberian-American Academy of Gastronomy before the Mexican society took place in a dinner at Club de Industriales, an exclusive private institution created in 1956 for business associates for the promotion of the haute cuisine.
The reception was presided over by Spanish ambassador to Mexico, Manuel Alabart Fernandez-Cavada, who was accompanied by his wife Cristina de Alabart, and by the President of the Club de Industriales, Jose Carral Escalante.
Doña Maria de las Mercedes Foundation’s representation was led by the Doña Maria de las Mercedes Foundation’s General Director and deputy president of the Academy Nicolas Muela, who shared the table with the President of the Mexican Academy of Gastronomy, Laura Caraza, as well as with the former presidents of the institution Lourdes Ariza and Lourdes Ascensio, and the general director of the Company “Viva en el mundo,” Ingrid Yrivarren.
The dinner was attended by personalities of the social, cultural and gastronomic sectors of the host country; among them: businessman Ignacio Arzuaga; Fernando Ortiz Monasterio; Ernesto Canales; outstanding chef Guadalupe Goenaga and sommelier Areli Curial.
Sitting in the table of honor were the wife of Colombian ambassador to Mexico, Diana Vammeerbeke de Ortiz and, and the Spanish consul and Tourism Attaché Maria Palacios and Alvaro Renedo.
In representation of the Mexican government were Carlos Armida, Juan Manuel Corrales and Gaston Ramos, the latter member of the Tourism Secretariat.
The speakers in the ceremony were the President of Club de Industriales, Jose Carral Escalante; the Director of Doña Maria de las Mercedes Foundation and Acting President of the Iberian-American Academy of Gastronomy, Nicolas Muela; and the President of the Mexican Academy of Gastronomy, Laura Caraza.
Muela reiterated strengthening bonds between Ansalusia and the Iberian-American Community of Nations through the social, cultural and economic sectors and by means of cooperation remained as one of the goals of the Foundation, and for that reason the Iberian-American Academy of Gastronomy emerged “as a firm bid for the quality and pureness of the Ivero-American cuisine, but, at the same time as a linking point between our peoples.”
Prior to the dinner, the Iberian-American Academy of Gastronomy had penned a cooperation agreement with the Pan-American Confederation of Hotel, Gastronomy and Tourism Schools (CONPEHT), which shows the strengthening presence of gastronomy in the hotel and tourism business, while establishing new bonds to bring gastronomy in to the university world.
An agreement could mean the beginning of a long-standing and fruitful period of collaboration between the two institutions, based on the absolute conviction that gastronomy is one of the cornerstones for the development of the economies and societies of the future.
