In Portuguese, \u201cputting your hands in the dough\u201d means engaging in something, taking an active approach to any task, recognising \u2013 and reclaiming \u2013 the idea of being directly involved in some activity, almost always with pleasure (or at least with some energy). Here, \u201cmassa\u201d (dough) translates this idea of initiative. But \u201cmassa\u201d can also refer to the origin of everything, like a sourdough starter (\u201cmassa-m\u00e3e\u201d, literally \u201cmother dough\u201d), the primordial substance from which things are born, often fermented and developed slowly. We want to talk about the immersion that is \u201cputting your hands in the dough\u201d. The richness of food allows us to address and explore questions of memory, production and industrialisation, nutrition and consumption, as well as issues of gender and class. In this series of conversations, we bring together people who, in one way or another, will share insights on these and other matters, bridging knowledge and posing questions \u2013 which, as we know, is what matters most in a conversation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
21 January<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll give you the rice<\/strong><\/p>\n With Vasco Ramos and Amor no Prato<\/p>\n Sociologist Vasco Ramos takes us on a journey through the study of food, delving into spaces of transient companionship and the rhythms (and preparation) of everyday meals and celebratory food. Somewhere along this journey, we encounter the Amor no Prato (Love on the Plate) project from Serra das Minas, which, during the COVID-19 pandemic, distributed food baskets but, more importantly, created ways to preserve recipes so that lesser-known ingredients wouldn\u2019t go to waste. By doing so, it built bridges between the fleeting moment of tasting and the creation of recipe books, now a part of our material heritage.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 28 January<\/p>\n It will fall to you<\/strong><\/p>\n With Joana Lucas (\u00c0 Mesa) and Andr\u00e9 Carapinha (Mula Cooperativa)<\/p>\n We invite anthropologist Joana Lucas, who is involved in the \u00c0 Mesa project, to share how food serves as inheritance and matter. Here, she intersects with Mula Cooperativa, a canteen initiative supported by Andr\u00e9 Carapinha. Canteens are perfect places to discuss relationships formed by subverting pure profit-driven logic and addressing scarcity. But they are much more than that. Starting from canteens, we can launch reflections on consumption and waste, gender and class, memory and authenticity, addressing issues that extend beyond the realm of canteens and treating food as the universal subject it is.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 4 February<\/p>\n