Waste, junk food, pollution and good practices.

Students of our school are really involved in issues about environment and sustainability, but how can everybody act effectively?

The cooking lab is a perfect field to experience, explore and design a more sustainable and environmental friendly  nutrition; it is where students try to combine techniques, creativity and flavours through innovative and eco-responsible recipes.

“Metti a fuoco il tuo futuro”- focus on your future –  is the school motto, as here students learn much more than how to cook: they learn how to live as responsible and healthy citizens.

Projects and competitions are a good opportunity to deal with urgent issues, such as food waste, junk food, pollution. “Gustophonie” – an international project held in France, was a challenge for our students who prepared a blendend Apulian and Senegalese menu, finding out how these two countries, despite distance and diversity, share mutual ingredients, recipes and traditions.

The complete menu constists of a starter (pastels) a main (yassa-poisson) and a dessert (Mbouraké); Apulian ingredients are mixed according to the Senegalese authentic tradition, aiming at the use of local and low impacting products, avoiding food waste.

Local ingredients for the starter are: flour, extra virgin olive oil, salt, yeast, tomatoes, mozzarella and basil.

For the main course, artichoke scraps became a delicious broth, while stale bread,  local fresh cheese and a pinch of sugar turned into a tasty the dessert.

From 2022 Erasmus+ projects “Save Our Sphere (SOS) 2020-1-DE03-KA229-077111_2″,  ” Alarm Rings for All of Us- Save Water KA220-SCH-705199D0″ and  “Young Europeans – The Crew 023-1-RO01-KA220 SCH-000153773” have dealt with environment and sustainability issues. School chefs and students have learnt how to recycle food leftovers, reduce waste food, promoting local products and still making authentic traditional Apulian dishes.

Best practices in the school kitchen have become: reuse vegetables cooking water to be part of bread baking, have leftover pasta as omelette main ingredient to give flavour and taste, fried potato peels as crunchy parts in salads.

Sustainability can be a theoretical concept or can be a guideline to act in a responsible way, in order to contribute to a better world for next generations. And you? Are you ready to act?

Prof. Valeria Andolfi e Marialucrezia Dentuto

Photos: “Gustophonie” experience

Erasmus+ ricycle labs