Highlander cuisine. Between ethnographic detail and late modern simulacrum

Abstract

This text presents the phenomenon of the so-called highland cuisine in the perspective of changes experienced by the traditional culture of Podhale from the second half of the 19th century to modern times. In the first part, it presents the basic ingredients and dishes of simple and very poor shepherd-peasant cuisine from the period of discovering Podhale and the creation of the myth of highlanders. Next, it analyzes the processes that determined the qualitative transformation of highlander cooking, which, although from the position of a classical ethnographer remains loosely connected with traditional cuisine, for tourists visiting Podhale, as well as the inhabitants themselves, becomes an important determinant of the local color and highlander identity.