3rd Edition Fabrico Próprio: Encyclopaedia and Panorama
The research conducted from 2021 to 2023 for the 3rd edition of the book Fabrico Próprio – the design of semi-industrial portuguese confectionery continues the pioneering action that this project has carried out since 2007 at the disciplinary intersection between design and confectionery, both as professional practices and cultural manifestations. This process of reflection and research, which intended not only to rethink the book as a publishing initiative but, above all, to identify the people we want to invite to contribute to its 3rd edition, was supported by the Garantir Cultura Programme of Portugal’s Ministry of Culture.
To this end, we contacted designers and confectioners, but also journalists and researchers, photographers and illustrators, writers and entrepreneurs, in order to better identify themes and issues that we would like to address together. We also contacted people in charge of institutions whose interests converge around these areas, with the aim of including them in a national (and also international) discussion about the present and future of gastronomy and semi-industrial Portuguese pastry in Portugal.
The first decision taken throughout the research and editorial coordination process was to restructure the 3rd edition of Fabrico Próprio as a book made up of 2 separate volumes.
Volume 1 – Encyclopaedia Fabrico Próprio
This volume is a systematic collection of examples of Portuguese semi-industrial confectionery, which was the main section of the book in its 1st and 2nd editions, respectively released in 2008 and 2012. In these editions, this section was composed of photographs of 92 cakes and notes relating to their ingredients, history and curiosities.
In its 3rd edition, this Encyclopaedia also includes a new section dedicated to the savoury side of the counter. In other words, to semi-industrial products such as fish cakes, pies, rissoles and other specialities made and consumed daily, just like sweet cakes, all over the country. The photographic record of each new product will also be complemented by a brief description of its characteristics and special ingredients, history and curiosities.
Volume 2 – Fabrico Próprio Panorama
Contrary to what we have often heard since we started researching the Fabrico Próprio universe in 2005, semi-industrial confectionery is far from over. The consumption of cakes and other high-calory pastries has not become conscious enough to drive to extinction an industry which, like any other, has adapted to changes. Some of such changes include an enhanced role for tradition, local and artisanal as ideas, values or adjectives that have been added, even if superficially and opportunistically, to everyday consumer products.
Volume 2 thus intends to approach this rich universe through an extensive Panorama. Composed of entirely new contents, this volume will complement both Volume 1 and the book’s 2008 and 2012 editions, which included several sections dedicated to diverse Fabrico Próprio phenomena such as the interior design of notable Portuguese patisseries, the singularity of Berlin Ball sellers on the beaches of the Algarve, the consumption of cakes in the early hours of the morning in Lisbon, the unusual shapes and compositions of some “rare species” of cakes, the childhood memories of talented illustrators or the famous drawings of one of the most esteemed Portuguese pastry masters.
This Volume 2 of Fabrico Próprio‘s 3rd edition will therefore include new sections, in which its editors – Rita João and Frederico Duarte – and their invited authors will reflect on the changes in the supply and demand for semi-industrial pastry in almost 2 decades. But also on the recognition – in the academic, institutional and business fields, among others – of the intersections between design and gastronomy, to which the Fabrico Próprio project has decisively contributed.
