Culinary Adventures With World Nomads in Andalucía, Madrid, and Cataluña
Food brings us together. Family dinner tables, restaurant dining rooms, and bustling local food markets are all places where communities gather, and bonds are strengthened. When traveling, one of the best ways to experience local culture and community is to allow your hunger and your taste buds to be your guide.
World Nomads understands the fabric of food and culture as well as anyone. It's why they dreamed up 'Passport & Plate.' This program gives culinary adventurers the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore new destinations alongside chefs, food lovers, and local producers. The lucky winners learn about local food culture and history and "meet the people that keep the recipes and traditions alive through their passion and dedication." For a foodie traveler, it's the ultimate prize.
In 2016, World Nomads contacted our Spanish production company and tasked us with documenting the culinary journeys of that year's 'Passport & Plate' winners in Andalucía, Madrid, and Cataluña. They didn't just want us to tell the story of a food lover's adventures in Spanish gastronomy, but to showcase how a passport and a plate can bridge the barriers of language, culture, and borders.
Catching good vibes and seaweed in Andalucía
In Andalucía, our story focused on Aube Rey from the USA. Aube entered 'Passport & Plate' with a beautiful story of surprise and delight: a long, exhausting car journey that was brightened by an unexpected breakfast. Aube is a fervent food explorer: she has eaten rotten shark in Iceland and made poi in Hawaii. Our Spanish production company had the privilege of capturing her exploration of the bonds between food, people, and place.
In just 4-minutes, we see the culinary diversity of Andalucía through Aube's curious and ever-open eyes. She explores a fish market in Malaga, samples fresh oysters with an immaculately dressed Spaniard, sips on the world's finest sherry straight from the cask in Jerez, 'catches' fresh seaweed from the shimmering Mediterranean, and then samples a seaweed tasting menu. She even hops in a tractor for an impromptu ride with some local farmers as they till the fertile soils of southern Spain.
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None of the 'characters' we captured in these videos had ever been on camera before, but what shone through in the videos was their joy at sharing their enthusiasm with a fellow food-lover. That's what this series of videos is about: the personal ties that come from a shared love of food. Although these videos feature plenty of shots of typical Spanish cuisine, the real stars of the show are the people.
The video ends with Aube meditating on the singular focus of the people she met during her Andalucian food adventure. She speaks about how their zeal for one specific thing, be it olive oil, seaweed, or sherry, reveals the complex relationship between food and culture. Ultimately, the artisans’ and producers’ desire to share their passions to bring people together is what this story is about.
Making a pig's ear of it in Madrid
Nicola from New Zealand’s prize took her to the Spanish capital. Her winning story was all about a traditional Italian comfort food dish - Tagliatelle al ragù Bolognese – and the story of food as a way of life. In Madrid, she visited a wonderful mix of people who have dedicated their lives to food and she made quite a few new friends along the way.
'Passport & Plate: Madrid' is all about the humans behind the food and drink. All of Nicola's wanderings feature the people she meets in Madrid. The delights she's tasting come second to the artists behind the food. Our Spanish production company produced a "top foodie moments" video from Madrid, and almost all of them are about Nicola's encounters with a colorful cast of culinary characters.
Nicola is serenaded in the streets by an operatic cherry vendor. She 'skulls' the best Asturian cider with the mustachioed maestro Nicolas; dances in a hipster clothing market with Jacome, and marvels at the skills of Jose the mixologist. She eats strawberries fresh from the fields with Fernando, a third-generation strawberry grower, and she jokes with a not-so-serious sommelier. And how can we forget the long-haired lothario with whom she slow-cooked a pig's ear? Now there's a character!
From farm to table in Cataluña
According to World Nomads, Australian food-explorer Edwina's winning story "transported us to Turkey where we found ourselves lost in the twisted streets of the Grand Bazaar uncovering a treasure trove of edible gems." Edwina's prize, a Catalan adventure, took her out of the city and into the countryside, where she got an up-close-and-personal look at how food is produced from the very farmers and fishers who bring these beautiful ingredients from the fields and oceans to the tables of the world's top restaurants.
Edwina was a very hands-on traveler, which was ideal for the video our Spanish production company produced in Cataluña. She learned how to plant rice by hand while knee-deep in muddy water. She then took the rice she harvested and cooked up paella, her favorite Spanish dish. She joined local fishermen on a boat in the Mediterranean and caught sea bass. Then she rolled up her sleeves, grabbed the fish by the eyeballs, and scaled it herself with a cleaver-wielding, octopus-tattooed chef. Her freshly-caught sea bass was served for lunch. Finally, she pulls up fresh shellfish from the mussel beds and eats them with the sea breeze blowing in her hair. The freshest mussels you'll ever taste!
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'Passport & Plate: Cataluña' is a farm-to-table adventure that teaches us to value the hard work that goes into our food. Her involvement in the process enhances all of Edwina's culinary experiences. As she says herself in the video, she will never look at store-bought rice the same way again, or take for granted the effort that goes into bringing fresh fish to a restaurant table.
The series of videos that our Spanish production company created for World Nomads were shot in three different regions of Spain, and featured three food explorers with different personalities and ways of looking at the world. Yet, what these videos have in common is the idea that food is a way of forging a deeper connection with people and place; that a well-thumbed passport and a delicious plate of food are the best way to get under the skin of a country and make a host of new friends in the process. That's what 'Passport & Plate' is all about.
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WhereNext's production services in Spain have included filming mountain biking adventures, tourism productions, footwear marketing campaigns, and a culinary travel series. Discover our top filming locations in Spain.