Chefs as allies of the Zero Hunger Goal

The V Summit of Zero Hunger Regions, to be held in Barcelona from 2 to 4 October, will dedicate a space to gastronomy and how it can be a fundamental ally for the Zero Hunger Goal. 

This is not the first time that ORU Fogar has turned its attention to gastronomy.  Already at the IV Summit, held in Araucania, Chile, in 2022, the chef and president of the Professional Association of Italian Chefs, Roberto Carcangiu, an advocate of common sense in the kitchen, was present and spoke in favor of local cuisine. Author of several books on Italian regional cuisine, he invited us to leave behind the interest in "Italian cuisine" in the generic sense, and to be interested in the rich and varied cuisine of each region of the country.

Catalonia, where we are going to celebrate this V Summit, is a land with a millenary gastronomic culture, rich in autochthonous and quality products, both traditional and innovative. Catalan cuisine is part of the Mediterranean diet, one of the healthiest in the world, based on a high consumption of plant foods, olive oil, cereals and fresh seasonal products. In Catalonia there are many different chefs, some of them world-famous, who could be guests at this summit. Finally, the space dedicated to gastronomy will be shared by the Catalan chef Maria Nicolau and the chef from the Ivory Coast, Charlie Koffi, both of whom will give a powerful speech on food.

Maria Nicolau is a cook who became famous in 2022 with the publication of the book "Cooking or Barbarism", in which she defends the necessity of cooking, arguing that "cooking is a powerful, useful and revolutionary weapon". A defender of traditional cuisine, cooked slowly, putting the product before the form, she advocates a healthy and nutritious gastronomy, unpretentious and far from the glamour of Michelin stars. 

Nicolau argues that if we want to guarantee the survival of the human species, we must reconnect with our own food, for which it is essential to recover the cuisine of yesteryear. "We need to reconcile," he explains, "what our bodies need and what our environment provides. For years, we have been pretending that the environment adapts to us, but if we want to continue to exist, it will be necessary to adapt our food to what our environment gives us".

Charlie Koffi's approach is not very different from Maria Nicolau's. He does it, however, from the very different perspective of an African cook. He trained in France, learning the trade alongside a chef from Versailles. He quickly became head chef at a restaurant in Bordeaux before opening his own restaurant in 2016. Despite this success in Europe, he decided to return to the land of his ancestors, the Ivory Coast. Today, in Abidjan, he owns a gourmet restaurant known as La Villa Alfira. In this restaurant, he presents a cuisine that is a cross between African flavors and the savoir faire of French gastronomy. A radical advocate of local products, he cooks with peanuts, djansang and cocoa beans, experimenting with the multiple flavors of Ivorian cuisine.

He expresses his approach in these words: "In an ever-changing world, cuisine must not only adapt, but also evolve. As a chef, I am committed to promoting local products and transforming them into refined gastronomic creations, thus demonstrating the extraordinary potential of our territory. My approach revolves around sustainability, innovation and economic inclusion, with the aim of promoting Ivorian gastronomy on the international stage.”

It will be interesting to pit these two powerful personalities against each other in the context of a summit that will discuss agriculture, water management, how to combat anemia and malnutrition, and how to avoid food waste.

More info here: V Summit - Oru Fogar (regionsunies-fogar.org)