Take the tomato — what is local and traditional food after all?

Imagine biting into a sweet, ripe tomato, with its juices bursting out as your teeth pierce its flesh, with its smell and aroma providing your gustatory system with a great deal of pleasure. I am among the lucky ones to be able to recreate this feeling just by thinking about it. It must be rooted in my grandpa’s skill to only choose the best tomatoes at the local farmers’ market. As I sip my wine to the tunes of Tom Waits, my mind lingers on the thought of that floral sweetness of a tomato I don’t even currently have in the house. Food is love, happiness, beauty and much of what makes us humans. But what about that tomato?

The transformation of ingredients through cooking techniques helped our brains develop. The domestication of animals and plants, some ten-thousand years ago created civilisations. Empires thrived on the trade of ingredients and wars started when food was scarce.

Gone are the days when black pepper could be used as currency, and while our society may have gone slightly adrift with influencers trading an Instagram post for a meal, food has never been more exciting than it is today.

Gastronomic revivalists — those heroes of our time on a quest to preserve and modernise old ways of transforming food, have easier access to information and a stronger voice to pass on their…