The Philosophy
Recipes are more than instructions. They're cultural artefacts, historical documents, acts of memory. A recipe for ragù bolognese isn't just "brown mince, add tomatoes" — it's a Sunday ritual in Emilia-Romagna, a three-hour conversation between heat and time, a tradition carried across oceans by migrants who refused to forget.
At Provenance, we believe that understanding where food comes from — the geography, the culture, the hands that shaped it — makes you a better cook and a more thoughtful eater. Origin is not a footnote. It's the whole story.
"Tell me what you eat, and I shall tell you what you are." — Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, 1825
Our Principles
Recipes Are Not Just Instructions
A recipe divorced from its context is like a sentence without a paragraph. Knowing that ragù is a Sunday ritual in Bologna — not a weeknight shortcut — changes how you approach the dish. Context is flavour.
Ingredients Have Geography
San Marzano tomatoes taste different because they grow in volcanic soil south of Naples. Oaxacan corn has been selectively cultivated for millennia. When you know where an ingredient comes from, you understand why it matters.
Attribution Is Respect
Every recipe was invented by someone, refined by a community, and passed through hands. We credit our sources — not because it's polite, but because the chain of knowledge is part of the dish itself.
Tradition Is Alive, Not Frozen
Recipes evolve. We acknowledge variations rather than prescribing a single "authentic" version, because food traditions are alive, not frozen in time.
What We Do
Provenance is an origin-first recipe collection. Every recipe begins with a story — where it comes from, who taught it to us, why it matters. We trace the lineage of dishes, honour the people who shared them, and make visible the cultural and geographical roots of the food we cook.
We're not a food blog. We're not a cookbook. We're a map of culinary memory, tracing the paths that food takes through families, across borders, and into our kitchens.
Why Origin Matters
When you know that shakshuka is a North African dish that migrated to Israel with waves of Jewish immigration, you see it differently. When you understand that butter chicken was invented in a Delhi restaurant in the 1950s to use up leftover tandoori chicken, you appreciate the ingenuity behind it. When you learn that nixtamalisation — the process that makes corn tortillas possible — enabled the rise of Mesoamerican civilisation, you hold that tortilla with more reverence.
Origin is not about gatekeeping. It's about understanding. It's about respect. It's about acknowledging that food doesn't come from nowhere — it comes from somewhere, and that somewhere matters.
Who We Are
Provenance is a concept prototype exploring how recipes might be presented if we put story and origin at the centre, rather than treating them as optional garnish. It's an experiment in culinary cartography — mapping the invisible lines that connect food to place, person, and history.
If you have a recipe with a story, if you know where your food comes from, if you believe that attribution matters — we'd love to hear from you.