The Alfândega building, in downtown Faro, next to the recreational dock and the Hotel Eva, will become a «Gastronomic Embassy», a «space for gastrodiplomacy, where cultures will be crossed» and the flavors and culinary knowledge of different countries, he revealed to Sul Informação Paulo Santos, vice president of the Chamber of Faro.
The municipality of Faro and the Ministry of Finance are about to conclude the agreement that will allow this iconic building to pass into the possession of the Chamber.
«We have long announced the prospect of the Customs space coming to the possession of the Chamber. And it wasn't just because we felt like it: coming to our inauguration with a well-defined objective», added Paulo Santos.
And the goal is to make this «a multicultural space for dialogue and meeting of gastronomic culture».
And what does that mean in practice?
“There are already several projects happening in Faro at the moment they are an example of gastrodiplomacy. One of them is the Cataplanas of the World", said.
In this project, «a typical Algarve kitchen utensil, markedly ours, but with different flavors» is being used.
«We challenged cooks – they can also be cooks, but, until now, it was only ladies – from Cape Verde, Romania, China and other countries to put their ingredients, their flavors, their palates in a container that is Algarve », added the councilor for Culture of the Chamber of Faro.
But in the Alfândega building, in the future, the opposite may happen: «Crossing with the cuisine of other places, based on our gastronomic culture, our flavors and our products».
For this to be possible, it is necessary, first, that the Customs pass to the jurisdiction of the municipality.
«When we started the candidacy process for European Capital of Culture in 2027, it was one of the first buildings that we understood would be strategic for this process. In the application process, we chose not to proceed with the construction of large and new buildings. Our idea involved a lot of reusing what already exists, giving it a new use», explained Paulo Santos.
It was in this spirit that the municipality spent “three years in negotiations with the Ministry of Finance”.
«We have reached the final stretch of this negotiation, we are already at the end of the process. The building will pass to us and the Tax Authority will move to a new location. We are in the process of exchanging our land for the building, with the necessary assessments and compensations», he revealed.
Since Customs is currently being used by the Finances, despite the process “being concluded now in terms of agreement”, the space “can only be used by us after the new building for the Tax Authority is built”.
«But this is an important step towards affirming this building as a space for gastrodiplomacy or gastronomic embassy, whatever you want to call it. In exchange for kids, we want it to be a space for the crossing of cultures through gastronomy », he summarized.
Faro you already know that it will not be the European Capital of Culture in 2027, but, despite having been thought within the scope of this candidacy, «this is another one of the projects that we will definitely develop, regardless of that».
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