An Anti-Communist Revolution of Gastronomy. The Gastronomy Renewal Movement and Hungarian History Gábor Egry Institute of Political History, Budapest, Hungary Ágnes Kata Miklós Budapest College of Management, Hungary ABSTRACT The article’s aim is to analyze how parts of the gastronomy renewal movement in Hungary are connected to nationalist politics of identity in Hungary. Based on insights from the study of everyday ethnicity, banal nationalism and comparative memory studies in CEE it shows how the nationalist anti-communist concept of history that constitutes a cornerstone of the identity of the right is inherent in the gastronomy movement. It is a-historic and manifestly mythicizing, finding the lowest point of gastronomy history in the Kádár-era, a period also excluded from national history in the great narrative of the right. This adjustment enables the movement to overturn existing hierarchies and infuse the public discourse with its own lan- guage with the help of politics but at the price of obligatorily lending its support to political PR action that contradicts its own promoted values. KEYWORDS gastronomy – post-communism – politics of identity – Kádár-era – Hungary – history – myth- making 1. Introduction The famed culinary competition Bocuse d’Or hosted for the first time a cook from Hungary at its 2013 final, in Lyon. Competing teams are small, according to the rules only three people are allowed to participate on the floor, but the road to fame is usually shared by a group of other helping hands, arranging for accommodation, travel or organizing the program of the team during the event. There is obviously someone re- sponsible for on the spot communication too – in the Hungarian team this task was taken over by a young lady, a stagiaire, who happened to be the eldest daughter of the country’s then-prime minister. Viktor Orbán, a right-wing, nationalist politician is usually seen as having a natural instinct of populism that he uses with extreme skill to garner votes. His family could take no refuge from this fate too, the same daughter’s marriage was staged as a local imitation of the marriage of UK royalties. Orbán’s in- terest in the culinary competition, already signaled by the presence of his family in the team was also emphasized by his appearance at some of the training sessions of the team. (Orbán kóstolta a versenymenüt, 2013) Statě / Studies Gábor Egry / Ágnes Kata Miklós 8