2025 - 2026 FACTORY student led: Strange heat

We would like to use chili pepper as a starting point to think together about poverty, migration, and colonial history through food. In the early modern period, chili travelled along two major routes: with the Portuguese from Brazil to Asia, arriving by ship and first recorded in Hangzhou in 1591; and from Mexico to Europe via Spanish trade networks. In Europe it was initially not widely embraced, taking root mainly in poorer or peripheral regions such as Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, where it was cultivated around Budapest as early as 1569. Although chili now feels deeply embedded in both Southern Italian and Chinese cuisines, it was not native to either place. It became “traditional” only through global trade, imperial expansion, and local adaptation.

In Matera, we will work with local dried peppers alongside selected Chinese chili varieties. The factory will begin with a small chili tasting, paying attention to differences in heat, sweetness, texture, and aftertaste. Through shared tasting and close conversation, participants are invited to reflect on how flavour carries history. The session will conclude with the collective preparation of Pasta con i peperoni cruschi, sharing a simple meal as a way to consider how an imported plant becomes local identity. Due to the scale of the kitchen and the format of the workshop, they can host a maximum of six participants.

Strange heat is a follow up to HTCTWR#7 and in preparation to our communal dinner.