Maggi Galaxy
Presented by Stephan Palmié, Anthropology Dept. at University of Chicago
Antoni Miralda, Artist and founder of Food Cultura, Foodcultura*
As part of the Living Together Performance Series which took place in Little Haiti, the Haitian neighborhood of Miami, 2018, The Maggic Banquet, a participatory food-performance by the internationally acclaimed Miami- and Barcelona-based artist Miralda, celebrated Miami’s diverse cultural heritage by tracing the culinary history of Maggi, the ubiquitous and universal seasoning brand. Presenting dishes from the kitchens of Miami's various ethnic groups — all made with Maggi — in an altar-like buffet, Miralda explored the commodification and globalization of food and tradition.
"The Maggic Banquet", a pun on the surname of the Swiss Julius Maggi, who was the first to market these dehydrated broth cubes that have given flavor to an incalculable number of soups and other dishes since the first decade of the 20th century.
And unlike those manufactured at the beginning of the 20th century by Julius Maggi, who was a philanthropist who wanted to help alleviate the hunger of humanity with something cheap and easy to prepare, they all have a lot of sodium and chemical components as its ingredients. Maggi offers cubes for all tastes (chicken, beef, vegetables or others) and country of origin: Nigeria, China, Haiti, United States and Egypt, where it is made to Islam halal standards.
What Miralda explores in his "buffet" is the commercialization and globalization of food, as well as tradition, identity, "memory of taste" and eating habits. Stephan Palmié contributed an essay on the history to this project’s fanzine.
Miralda is interested in materials and information about Maggi from anywhere in the world and in any language, images of product packaging, posters, advertisements and billboards, as well as published articles and recipes and images of dishes from cookbooks that include cubes of Maggi as an ingredient.
Recorded at Bethany Retirement Community on November 9, 2019
