Teaching Basque Gastronomy: From on Location to Online in Pandemic Times

Abstract

In the early spring of 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak obliged us to slow down the pace of life in many ways, altering our well-laid plans. This included canceling a travel course trip I had planned with a group of undergraduate students from Siena College (near Albany, New York) to the Basque Country in Northern Spain for May 2020. In thinking about how to replace the sensory richness of a highly experiential trip, I created a series of online projects that incorporated tenets of the Slow Food movement, mindfulness, and Basque gastronomy in context. Home cooking became a necessary alternative to travel for my students not only to complete their course requirements remotely, but ultimately to mindfully reflect upon valuable culinary experiences and a slower pace of life through both sensory and cognitive educational methods.