The Art Of... Respectful Rebellion
Gourmet Traveller|May 2021
Heritage is far too important to take seriously, writes Anna Hart.
Anna Hart
The Art Of... Respectful Rebellion

Heritage is the history we choose not to leave behind. This makes heritage as much about progress as it is about preservation. It also makes heritage a hell of a lot more fun to think about than the word might sound. Because heritage isn’t really about staid old traditions, or keeping things “as they were”. It’s not about idealising the past.

Humans are fickle creatures with really bad memories. We only bother to preserve the bits of the past that are valuable and desirable to the present. Whether we’re talking about a hand-me down family recipe for steak pie, an iconic hotel or the cultural identity of an entire nation, heritage is the stuff that survives because it remains relevant.

I have a good friend, Aleksandar, who is a Bulgarian chef working in London. He experiments with traditional Balkan dolma, wrapping citrus spiced chestnuts in Korean kimchi cabbage. To a purist, I suppose this would be sacrilege – but nobody has more reverence for traditional Balkan cooking than Aleks, and nobody is working harder to revive interest in it. He just believes in remixing the cuisine he loves, to make it more exciting and relevant to a new generation of food lovers.

This story is from the May 2021 edition of Gourmet Traveller.

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This story is from the May 2021 edition of Gourmet Traveller.

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