There is more to Maltese food than what arrives on the plate. KulStoria, a new venture, explores the stories, people and landscapes behind what we eat, writes Warren Joseph Budeja.
“Għidli x’ħobż tiekol u ngħidlek min int.”
Tell me what sort of bread you eat, and I will tell you who you are.
It is an old Maltese saying, but perhaps also a rather good starting point for understanding a country.
Ask someone what the flavours of Malta are like and the quickfire answers will probably be: pastizzi, rabbit, ftira, ġbejniet, perhaps a glass of local wine.
But ask why Malta tastes the way it does and things become rather more interesting.
Behind our food lies a story of scarcity and abundance, faith and fasting, invasion and trade, migration and memory. Generations learnt to make the most of seasonal ingredients, preserve what nature provided and waste very little. Meanwhile, Malta’s position at the centre of the Mediterranean brought new ingredients, flavours and influences to our shores.
It is this Malta, the one hiding behind the menu, that KulStoria wants people to discover.
KulStoria brings together project manager and avid cook Yasmeen Hayes and heritage interpreter and food-history writer Warren Bugeja, both of whom have spent years creating immersive culinary experiences that brought together food, history, art, and storytelling.
Although KulStoria begins close to home, it isn’t confined to Mediterranean culinary traditions. We are also launching KulStoria Asia, with a series of culinary workshops drawing on Gujarati, Burmese and Malaysian food cultures.
Whether in Malta or further afield, the underlying question remains much the same: what can food tell us about the people who make and eat it?
The name itself brings together kul, Maltese for “eat”, and storia, the Italian word for history or story. Its premise is equally simple: food, stories, culture.
And those stories aren’t only found at the grand tables of rulers and colonisers.
KulStoria celebrates the ingenuity that scarcity produced. Its Mediterranean journeys are built around five enduring pillars: wheat, olives, grapes, goat’s cheese and honey.
Simple ingredients that sustained communities for centuries and remain at the heart of the wholesome, seasonal tradition we now call cucina povera; food born from necessity and transformed into an enduring celebration of flavour, resilience and hospitality.
KulStoria takes much the same approach.
One forthcoming experience, A Baroque Knight’s Table, enters the world of the Knights of St John through appetite rather than armour
The idea is not simply to recreate an aristocratic banquet, but to place it alongside the cucina povera of the islands and explore the strikingly different worlds that existed around the same table.
Every journey has been carefully curated from years of working in heritage interpretation, food history, culinary workshops and local food culture, bringing together producers, artisans and experts who know the places and traditions being explored.
The intention is to slow things down, to connect food with landscape, history with people, and taste with place.
And somewhere between the bread on the table, the wine in the glass and the story being told lies something harder to package, but considerably more interesting.
A taste of place.
Discover more: KulStoria.com
