Projects

These people need to be able to respond to very diverse needs, which can’t always be met by simply follow recipes, no matter how well.
"Third millennium cuisine" does not refute the traditional approach, based on the preparation of typical dishes and recipes from each territory, but it must face a series of nutritional needs – unknown until about thirty years ago – stemming from religious needs, ethical issues and health choices. These needs are becoming more widespread, because of growing mobility of people for personal, professional or travel reasons.

A cook working in such a context requires knowledge to allow him or her to prepare dishes for all needs. Often, however, training in the culinary arts lives and dies in its very tradition. Increasing nutritional needs force a new approach to the issue. First of all, the massive migratory phenomenon that involves the entire European continent makes it necessary to analyse the link between food and the sacred sphere.
Of all the cultural elements that most influence our ways of eating, religion is certainly at the forefront: all religions recognise a strong symbolic meaning in the act of eating and drinking and dictate a series of more or less rigid food rules. In the same way, growing attention to the ethical aspects of nutrition has led, throughout Europe, to a rapid increase in the number of people adopting a diet that is vegetarian or vegan or respectful of the community, agricultural practices, and of workers.

Activities

The activities involved in “E.A.R.T.H.” are aimed at professionals working on the market at an intermediate level. The direct beneficiaries are not the great chefs, but cooks working “in the daily life” of a specific sector. The project aims to develop a model that is innovative, replicable and adaptable to various contexts, aimed at training a new professional figure, conventionally defined as “third millennium cook” (E.A.R.T.H. cook). The planned outputs (Manual for the Training Model; Interactive Platform for distance learning; Training materials), the exchange of best practices between partners, transnational encounters, encounters with consumers, mobility of students were all designed to guarantee the most effective contribution to reaching the goals of the project.

Duration: September 2017 – September 2019.