By Real Academia de Gastronomía
Los Recetarios
Detail from Guillerma Vicuña's recipe book (1886) by Guillerma VicuñaOriginal Source: Los Recetarios
Guillerma García de Vicuña was from Gipuzkoa, in the Basque Country, but lived in Bilbao. Her notebook dates from 1886, when she entrusted the transcription of her recipes to Constantino Martínez, one of her husband's employees.
Most of the recipes are adapted from the first cookbook published by a woman in Spain, The Spanish Table: The Art of Cooking Within Reach of the Average Fortune (La Mesa Española: Arte de Cocina al Alcance de una Fortuna Media) by Dolores Vedia de Uhagón (Bilbao, 1873).
Many of these were not copied word for word, but rewritten in her own way, added to, and even improved.
The flavors of her native country were reflected in some of her specialties, like alfajores (sandwich cookies, often filled with dulce de leche). María Faustina is the paternal grandmother of Ignacio Altube Garay, who is the recipe book's current owner.
Discover more cookbooks in this exhibition created by Los Recetarios, a touring and collaborative digital initiative bringing together handwritten and typed recipe books.
This notebook is part of the Los Recetarios (Cookbooks) project: a digital repository giving recognition and a voice to those who—without realizing it—helped to build and impart their country's gastronomical culture from the intimacy of their kitchen table. It was started in 2019 by four gastronomes: Ana Vega, Carmen Alcaraz del Blanco, Helena Vaello, and Gabriela Lendo.
This exhibition is part of the Spanish gastronomy project, España: Cocina Abierta (Spain: Open Kitchen), coordinated by Google Arts & Culture and Spain's Royal Academy of Gastronomy (Real Academia de la Gastronomía). The section on culinary legacy was coordinated by María Llamas, director of the Alambique cookery store and school.
Acknowledgements
Lourdes Plana Bellido, president of the Royal Academy of Gastronomy; Elena Rodríguez, director of the Royal Academy of Gastronomy and Carmen Simón, academic of the Royal Academy of Gastronomy.
www.realacademiadegastronomia.com
www.alambique.com
