A Haute Meal: Why we need sustainable gastronomy with style

World Sustainable Gastronomy Day is June 18

Since 2017, international Sustainable Gastronomy Day has been celebrated on June 18 to focus the world’s attention on the delicious and impactful role of gastronomy in sustainable development.

That’s because gastronomy mediates between food producers and food consumers, by having a positive influence on sustainable consumption while supporting local food producers.  In this way, it has a key role in promoting and achieving the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Along with the agricultural side and its impact on the natural environment, cuisine is seen as a cultural expression related to the natural and cultural diversity of the world. While the food industry contributes so much to economic development around the world, cultural diversity is key to ensuring that development is ethical and representative of all.

Sustainable gastronomy can play a role in sustainable development due to its interlinkages with the three dimensions of the SDG framework:

Economic:

• agricultural development
• food security
• nutrition
• reducing poverty

Social

• the protection of cultural values, heritage, and diversity

Environmental

• sustainable food production
• efficient use of resources
• conservation of biodiversity

Chef Massimo Bottura takes this role seriously:

Today chefs have a greater social responsibility than ever before. They are not only responsible for their customers at the table but also for the community at large– the artisans, the farmers, and the cheesemakers– as well as the next generation of chefs that will follow in their footsteps. Chefs are becoming ambassadors of culture, influential thinkers, and activists. There is more we chefs can do to make the world a better and more delicious place.

Massimo Bottura, Bread is Gold

Haute Meals for the Hungry

Theatre of Life documents the development of Refettorio Ambrosiano, a high-end soup kitchen facilitated by chef Massimo Bottura at the Milan Expo 2015. With assistance from a local priest and other organizations, Bottura converted an abandoned theater into a soup kitchen that serves a multi-course meal over two hours each night for anyone who needs a meal.

It’s like Food Not Bombs with a permanent location designed by renowned architects and designers, where the food is cooked by award-winning chefs.

In the film, each meal is developed by a rotating roster of guest chefs and their teams who are in town for Expo, and must incorporate the day old bread left unused from Expo events, as well as other available “waste” ingredients.

The way the world’s top chefs make use of day-old rolls and baguettes will make you pause and look closely at the items in the back of your pantry, or the day-old clearance shelf at the supermarket.

Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz says in the film,

If you have all of the world’s best ingredients, you’d start to have doubts. But when you have a limited choice of [ingredients], then you can do great things.

Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz

Recipes are Solutions

Since watching this documentary, and linking it to my interest in urban foraging, I am fascinated by cooking with scraps and using leftovers in an elevated way. As with upcycling textiles in fashion design, I see it as another playful, but impactful, creative challenge.

I picked up Bottura’s companion cookbook, Bread is Gold, which contains many of the recipes created by the guest chefs at Refettorio Ambrosiano. I’ve also taken more direct inspiration from UK writer and food blogger Jack Monroe’s Cooking on a Bootstrap website, which is a bit more my speed for things I tend to have on hand that will come together quickly on a weeknight.

The arte povera of food

That’s not to say that this is innovative at all – this is, of course, how our moms and grandmas fed the family through tough times, especially before the conveniences of refrigeration and supermarkets and packaged foods.

I think what is interesting from Bottura and co., and other chefs and food bloggers embracing this approach, is the perspective that these scrappy meals can be just as aesthetically pleasing to the senses as a high-end meal made from “virgin” ingredients.

Bottura writes. “The recipes in this book are odes to imperfection. On one hand they can be considered ordinary; on the other hand, they just might be the most extraordinary proof that cooking is a call to act. Recipes can change the way we look at the world. … A recipe after all is a solution to a problem.”

Recipes can change the way we look at the world. … A recipe after all is a solution to a problem.

Bottura

While people living in poverty have always been resourceful in achieving a quality of life and making sure their families get the calories they need to survive, the appeal to aesthetics and taste are not usually afforded to them. Food for thought is: how to grant people living in food deserts and relying on welfare permission, ideas, and resources to craft beautiful, tasty meals.

Furthermore, this approach is also important from the other end of the income scale, since we tend to consume more as our income rises. With the climate crisis, and global food production contributing mightily to it, this approach must also appeal to the wealthy and those who already put a premium on aesthetics. Efficiency of resources and slower consumption can be beautiful.

How to eat more sustainably

• Local, from small growers
• Organic and regenerative – permaculture farming
• Low-water cultivation
• In season
• Less meat (especially beef) and seafood
• And of course: re-imagine leftovers, scraps, ugly produce, and “waste”.

Something to consider which I haven’t seen much discussion of recently: low heat cooking (raw foods), and of course using sustainable fuels.

For more ideas, try these easy-to-implement tips from the sister chefs at Mei Mei in Boston.

Chef Bottura calls us to action:

Food waste is one of the biggest problems of our century and our generation’s cross to bear. Numbers are numbers. Almost 1 billion people are undernourished. One-third of the food we produce globally is wasted every year, including nearly 4 trillion apples. Just imagine how many apple pies we could make?

Bottura, Bread is Gold

Learn more:

• Find out more about Refettorio Ambrosiano and the Food for Soul organization here
• Learn more about the film here. It’s available streaming on Netflix at the time I’m writing this.
• Find a Food Not Bombs chapter near you

Help me make this article better: Food is so not my wheelhouse. Who are the women chefs and chefs of color who are talking about this and doing cool things? Alice Waters and …? Please comment below, or shoot me an email, in the sidebar. Thanks in advance.