................and then there was the beginning!

Some how this seems like an emotional day for me: 4 or 5 years ago, I started to collect links on wine, beer, jobdatabases, not knowing how to find use for them, but I knew it would be a shame to keep them just to myself. The process of creating graens.com started a year ago and now, by February 2010, I feel it is ready to go live. So from now on, February 18th will go down in history, as the birthday of graens.com!

First of all; English is not my native language! So please excuse me if you find a few "hick ups" in english- I just hope that you dont miss the meaning.......

The first issue I would like to put in this blog, is regional cooking. In the nordic region a manifest was created on March 18th and 19th 2004 by a group of highly profiled chefs in an 18 hours long debate. The manifest states what is seen as a new nordic kitchen. The purposes of the New Nordic Kitchen are as follows:
1. To express the purity, freshness, simplicity and ethics that we would like to associate with our region.
2. To reflect the different seasons in the meals.
3. To base cooking on raw materials which characteristics are especially excellent in our climate, landscape and waters.
4. To combine the demand for good taste with modern knowledge about health and well-being.
5. To promote the Nordic products and the variety of Nordic producers – and to disseminate the knowledge of the cultures behind them.
6. To promote the welfare of the animals and a sound production in the sea and in the cultivated as well as wild landscapes.
7. To develop new possible applications of traditional Nordic food products.
8. To combine the best Nordic cooking procedures and culinary traditions with impulses from outside.
9. To combine local self-sufficiency with regional exchange of high-quality goods.
10. To cooperate with representatives of consumers, other cooking craftsmen, agriculture, fishing industry, food industry, retail and wholesale industry, researchers, teachers, politicians and authorities on this joint project to the benefit and advantage of all in the Nordic countries.

Please visit http://www.nordiskkoekken.dk/ for more details!
In my oppinion, this manifest is the first step towards recognizing cooking, as a part of our individal regional herritage. In my early days as a cook the theme was, that when you wanted to eat exceptionally good- on a Michelin level-, you for instance visited la Tour d'Argent in Paris. But what you found there, was a international kitchen: Their "Canard au Presse" or "Croquant au Chocolat" was served everywhere from Stockholm to the Cape. Not that is was not good (it was fantastic!!), but in the future, based on the regional kitchen manifest, maybe you will experience that what is on the menu in Baltimore, will reflect their region and what is on the menu in Copenhagen, will reflect upon their region. I sincerly hope so!

I only know of the Nordic Kitchen Manifest, so what is it like in your part of the world- are there manifests in South America, Africa and India? Or are your working on it?