This week a motley group assembled at the magnificent landed estate of Rhederoord. They had gathered together to prepare a public information book for Primeval Dish, a concept of InnovationNetwork. The book will contain an explanation of the merits of a primeval dish, plus a number of menus and recipes. The host was the well-known ‘Patron Cuisinier’ chef Eric van Veluwen. Together with dietician Karine Hoenderdos he had put together menus and recipes based on a study into the dietary patterns of our very, very distant ancestors. And Eric had subsequently transformed the recipes in his own kitchen into the finished article, so that these could be served up as mouth-watering illustrations in the book. The group was given an opportunity to sample some of the products, such as a delicious curry soup and a pan of mussels. The primeval dish displays some interesting characteristics: it is breadless, low in calcium and carbohydrates, high in fats and, according to the dietician, surprisingly well-balanced and nutritional in terms of calories, vitamins and minerals. To her own surprise, compiling healthy menus based on primeval principles was as easy as pie.

A tasty primeval dish from one of the menus of the day!
Photo: Gerhard Witteveen.

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You could say that the sampling session was the dessert after the main course of the meeting: a first presentation of what the Primeval Dish Book should look like. The people of Housefly and Funktioneel Wit showed their design and layout for the book on the basis of some specimen pages. This sparked a lively discussion as to whether the design fitted the subject (scientific insights into primeval food plus a practical translation into menus and recipes) and the target group (the general public). The designers were delighted with all the opinions and observations they received as feedback.
With all those scientists, dieticians, publicists and cultural entrepreneurs gathered together, a probing discussion was inevitable: are our insights into the primeval dish sufficiently reliable to replicate menus with such precision? And if you make menus with ingredients that must be readily available in today’s supermarkets, won’t you be making too many concessions? And, given these restrictions, how ‘different’ can a primeval dish still be? Organizer Henk Huizing drew no conclusions from the discussion about these questions – the meeting was too informal for that – but if he had, it would have been along the lines of: in making this book, we are taking a useful step towards a dietary transformation. Those present were of a similar mind. The medical scientists Frits Muskiet, Hanno Pijl and Harry Wichers see Primeval Dish as a brand-new approach to research into patients with Type II diabetes. And everyone saw Primeval dish as a very challenging reference for healthy food.
For all participants, the meeting was an excellent stimulus to continue the good work. This means pressing ahead with the production of the book, with primeval dish-related scientific research into food and health, and with research into the market opportunities for primeval dish. The search for a new food culture is on!