UC Center, Barcelona (Multi-Site)

At the end of the 20th century, the official reinvention of the city for the 1992 Olympic games placed Barcelona on the map for the rest of the world. The dramatic changes in the cityscape post-1992, as well as the clever marketing campaigns, rapidly turned Barcelona into the place to be. In the wave of that international renown, Ferran Adrià’s worldwide fame influenced and revolutionized not only the work of many chefs, but also the ways in which we all understand the creative process behind transforming food into cooking and cuisine. The city and industry would never again be the same, but thirty years later and with the UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 on the horizon, Barcelona is now looking at the significant tensions that this transformation involved in terms of gentrification, food insecurity, and social inequalities. This course explores the clash between the celebrated innovation of cuisine that transformed Barcelona and the complex challenges of the resulting 21st century global city, thus deconstructing the myths of food and celebrity.