From prehistoric food traditions and Phoenician influences to Andalusian ingredients and a handwritten 1938 family cookbook, archaeologist Adriana Serra traces the centuries-long evolution of Ibiza’s cuisine.
Several centuries of history are laid out on Adriana Serra’s table. Vessels, plates and cooking containers — reproductions of objects from different periods — help the archaeologist explain how the way people cooked and ate in Ibiza has changed from prehistoric times to almost the present day.
Around fifteen students watch and listen as Serra takes them on a journey through the island’s culinary past.
“A cuisine where very little could be turned into a great deal.”
That is how Serra sums up one of the defining characteristics of traditional Ibiza cuisine during the opening session of the Curs d’especialista en cuina eivissenca (Course in Ibiza Cuisine and Gastronomic Culture), held at the School of Hospitality of the Balearic Islands in Ibiza.
How Ibiza’s Island Geography Shaped Its Cuisine
For centuries, Ibiza’s insular location determined what could make its way into the pantry and ultimately onto the table.
With limited resources and an economy that was largely self-sufficient, Ibiza’s inhabitants learned to make the most of whatever was available, Serra explains.
This gave rise to a culinary tradition defined by “making use of leftovers and available ingredients”, transforming a small number of products into dishes capable of feeding entire generations.
Serra invites her students to travel through time using food as their guide.
The journey begins in prehistoric Ibiza. At the time, she explains, “the diet was rich in animal protein”, relying mainly on sheep and goats, cattle and birds. Fish and shellfish, meanwhile, played a smaller role than might perhaps be expected on an island.
The Phoenicians and the first major changes
Centuries later, the arrival of the Phoenicians and Punic peoples brought new foods and new ways of eating.
Between the 7th and 1st centuries BC, cereals such as barley, millet and wheat became increasingly important.
Serra describes the transformation as “a small revolution on a global scale.”
Each historical period left its mark on Ibiza’s pantry.
The Great Roman Banquets
The Roman period introduced not only new culinary influences but also a different way of sitting down to eat.
Large banquets became a feature of elite Roman society, while specialised cooks — many of them enslaved people — were responsible for preparing the food.
The next major transformation came centuries later.
Between the 10th and 13th centuries, the Andalusian period represented “a major cultural and gastronomic rupture”.
The list of foods introduced during this period would now seem completely familiar: rice, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, watermelons, melons, sugar, artichokes, aubergines and spinach.
Many ingredients that are now seen as inseparable from Mediterranean cuisine also had a moment when they first arrived and became established.
The Birth of Catalan Cuisine in Ibiza
Another decisive change took place between the 13th and 15th centuries with what is known as the emergence of Catalan cuisine.
“Ibiza’s cuisine is the daughter of Catalan cuisine,” Serra explains.
The transformation was not limited to what people ate. It also changed how food was consumed.
People increasingly gathered around raised tables, food service became more individualised, and new rules and manners began to shape mealtimes.
The kitchen itself also changed.
Cooking became increasingly professionalised, with specialised cooks — mainly men — taking on the role. Kitchens became more organised, tasks were divided, and techniques such as cutting, cooking and picadas became more refined.
Cooking was no longer simply a matter of necessity. It was becoming a craft involving increasingly sophisticated techniques.
From the Modern Era to the Family Kitchen
As the historical journey reaches the Modern Era, however, the evidence becomes less certain.
“There is little documented information about Ibiza from this period in the Balearic chronicles,” Serra says.
She adds that one thing is clear: “Products that arrived from the Americas took longer to become part of the island’s diet.”
The story eventually moves much closer to the present, reaching the 19th and 20th centuries, when Ibiza’s cuisine developed the “customary and family-based” character that can still be found in many homes today.
It is at this point that Serra introduces an object that comes not from an archaeological excavation, but from her own family.
She shows the students a 1938 document containing handwritten recipes by Ana Tur Vidal, her grandmother.
After travelling through centuries of cooking vessels, ingredients and dining traditions, the history of Ibiza’s cuisine ends somewhere much closer to home: a family cookbook and a culinary tradition passed from one generation to the next.
Fanny Tur Explores Ibiza’s Culinary History Through Historical Documents
Once Serra’s class comes to an end, it is time for Fanny Tur, director of the Historical Archive of Ibiza and Formentera, to take over.
Tur examines the evolution of Ibiza’s cuisine through a range of historical documents, focusing primarily on the Modern and Contemporary periods.
She previews some of the historical evidence she will present during her session.
“There is a very interesting and amusing document from 1874 containing two letters written by a Mallorcan priest,” she explains.
“Normally, people from Mallorca used to say that we Ibicencos were savages. But that document explains that while people in Mallorca were still eating with their hands, that was no longer the case here. In fact, it portrayed us very favourably.”
Tur also examines the differences between gastronomy before and after the conquest of the Americas.
“We did not have products such as maize, potatoes, pepper or tomatoes, and now they are essential to our cuisine,” she says before beginning the practical part of her session with the students.
A New Course Dedicated to Ibiza’s Culinary Heritage
The course is the first of its kind to be held on the island and was also created to address a specific need, according to Pepa Costa, director of the School of Hospitality in Ibiza.
“We had to make the effort to create this qualification because, if we do not defend what is ours, who will?” Costa says.
The course brings together history, archaeology, traditional cooking and local culinary heritage, offering students a journey through the ingredients, techniques and traditions that have shaped Ibiza’s food culture over thousands of years.
For visitors interested in discovering what to do in Ibiza beyond its beaches and nightlife, the island’s culinary heritage offers another way to understand its history: through the food that generations of islanders grew, prepared, shared and passed on.