When Larisa Zmud taught a series of cooking classes in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Argentina, she didn’t understand why the women who lived there asked if they could start a soup kitchen and cook the kinds of foods they’d made in the classes — artistic dishes that focused on taste and aesthetic. “When I asked why, one of the women looked at me like, ‘What a stupid question to ask.’” Zmud, an independent curator of contemporary art who coordinates Comedor Gourmet, laughed to the Herald .
“She told me ‘In the city you go out to eat at least once a week. We want to eat differently at least once a week too, we just can’t afford it.’” Comedor Gourmet is an initiative of art collective Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito, co-founded by Fernanda Laguna, a prominent character in the Buenos Aires art scene.
Laguna is well-known for starting the art collaborative Belleza y Felicidad in 1999 with Cecilia Pavón. The Almagro-based collective also operated as an art gallery and cultural center, as well as a publishing label and a gift shop. Against the backdrop of the country’s 2001 financial and social crisis, Belleza y Felicidad became iconic in the Argentine art scene for its eclecticness, collectiveness, makeshift approach and accessibility — selling artworks at extremely low prices and opening the space for artists to perform and exhibit a variety of works.
Laguna went on to start Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito with Isolina Silva in 2003. The Villa Fiorito collective — set in the same impoverished neighborhood where football legend Diego Maradona was born — is a space for art-related community projects focused on culture, work and activism. The gourmet soup kitchen is one such project.
While Silva was already operating a soup kitchen when Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito formed, it quickly became an effort of the art collective. However the kitchen eventually closed in 2008. In 2017 Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito opened a new soup kitchen under the name Comedor Gourmet.
This was an initiative of Ni Una Menos Fiorito, an activist group of Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito. Advocating pleasure as a right, the project uses food as a means of social change. The art collective has stated that they know structural poverty is out of their capacity to resolve.
However, they are trying to change the notion that poverty means giving up one’s right to pleasure. “When we started the art gallery and art project people would ask us why provide art to a community that doesn’t have access to daily meals. At the time, our response was ‘why not?’” Laguna told the Herald .
“Desire should be championed as a revolutionary power that transforms everything. Nutrition is an essential care, and to be delighted by food is a form of integration into the social fabric.” Located in the La Lonja neighborhood in Villa Fiorito, a district of Lomas de Zamora, Comedor Gourmet serves about 200 to 250 meals every Saturday.
The women of Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito help to make and serve the food each week. “Comedor Gourmet isn’t just another soup kitchen, it’s not just filling up a tupperware and done. It’s giving the neighborhood access to food that seems distant and out of reach,” said Gisela Rivas, one of the coordinators from Villa Fiorito who is involved with the Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito projects.
“We are tearing down the notion that these things are only for the rich, and bringing it to people who only see this type of food on TV. For us, that’s more than enough.” The “luxury” soup kitchen serves dishes like eggplant milanesas with pasta and salad, or their famous marmalade cake with strawberries and cream.
Occasionally Zmud’s culinary friends will help out in the kitchen — she recounted a chef who led them in making onigiris, a type of japanese rice sandwich, and another in making a five-tiered cake. When they made tacos in Comedor Gourmet one day, they set out a number of toppings in a buffet style — beet hummus, carrot paste, roasted vegetables and more — so that everyone could choose what they wanted on top. “The first time we did it, we noticed that no one was approaching the table,” recounted Zmud.
“That’s when we realized that for many it was the first time they could choose what to eat,” she added, recalling how they had to explain to them that they could pick whatever they wanted. “It was very moving.”.
