Transnational routes for hyper-local practices. Homemade food of Moroccan migrant women in Italy.

Stemming from a doctoral research on the culinary practices of a group of Moroccan migrant women living in the north of Italy, this paper will focus on some narratives and habits concerning homemade food. This food was the result of the combination of hyper-local and transnational practices. In fact, preparing some food at home instead of buying it (bread, for example) was possible also thanks to the use of some ingredients that were bought in or coming from Morocco. The issue at stake was that of control: a control exerted at a hyper-local level (in one’s home) on procedures and at a transnational level (by personally knowing ingredients’ producers) on food elements. This combination let women prepare some representative food of their memory by using the traditional techniques learnt from their mothers and by excluding intermediations. Homemade food translated the reassuring utopia of keeping a link with a cultural belonging in spite of migration and of reducing the fear of being contaminated by the unknown products of the diversity.
Some ethnographic data will be presented to show these dynamics, and they will be supported by the visual material collected through participant observation.