March 27th & 28th, 2023

Talks About Food and Future

A collective partnership: Terroir Hospitality, Collectibus, Food on the Edge & Denis Pizza Milan

This design workshop collected ideas on how to move forward in the future for sustainable practices. The workshop integrated three pillars: Business Model, Sustainability Integration, and Community Building.

A strong collective of partners provided support and mentorship. The influential chefs and leaders not only celebrated but also embodied the spirit of collaboration, fostering a sense of achievement and unity.

Organizations committed to working with chefs in leadership on sustainable food systems and collective networks gathered. Local and international influential chefs worked to improve sustainability in food systems and collaborated with their peers.

COLLECTIBUS as the copyright

Deliciously Sustainable Stories

Pizza is the ultimate storytelling device, according to Denis Lovatel of Denis Pizza di Montagna in Milan. So it was fitting that for two days, his pizzeria was the scene for the Talks about Food and Future program, a two day gathering organized by Terroir, Collectibus and Food on the Edge. International chefs were joined by a collection of journalists, scientists, researchers and more, to share their ideas on ways the hospitality industry can (and should) become more sustainable. Storytelling turned out to be a main theme. 

The days concluded with the international launch of Food on the Edge, where chef JP McMahon spoke as to why food is so important. “We used to think that it is cooking that set us apart from animals”, he explained, “but now it’s being discovered there are actually animals using fire to cook.” So what does set us apart? And does that still pertain to an international gastronomic conference? The answer is, it does. “What sets us apart is storytelling. Using something that happened in the past and reitering it at a later point in time.” Storytelling will be a main theme running through the annual gathering in Ireland, as it also turned out for our gathering in Milan. And that’s how we ended up eating pizza, the ultimate storytelling device. 

For the closing event, Denis hosted a group of chefs that all have a story to tell. To paraphrase one of them, Matt Orlando (formerly of Amass and currently of Endless co.), the starting point of any food related story should always be delicious food. Then, the story elevates that food into a greater experience. This was put in practice by Orlando and the other guest chefs of the two-day event: Amanda Cohen, Blanca del Noval, Claudio Schiano di Cola and JP McMahon. After the official FOTE launch, where all of them shared their insights, the team of Denis served an array of pizza’s ‘topped’ with their stories. 

Pizza

The first pizza entering the dining room was Orlando’s, topped with generous scoops of a sort of ‘XO sauce’ made of vegetable-skins the pizzeria saved up for him to use. This harkened back to his talk the day before about foodwaste. Or actually, not about waste because we shouldn’t call it that. It’s simply another product to use. And, in this way, adding a beautiful richness of flavour to the pizza, whilst showcasing another pillar of his talk (and the whole two days): the power of collaboration.  

Amanda Cohens pizza was next, dotted with thin slices of purple carrot with a spice mix to taste like pepperoni. The vegetable centric New York flavour clearly showcased her personal story, the one she talked about the day before. Every restaurant should have one, she said, and Dirt Candy’s groundbreaking approach to using vegetables shone through brightly. The umami rich pizza surely looked like it was topped with dark colored discs of sausage, while obviously being deliciously vegetarian. It was also an insight in their way of doing things differently, as she spoke on how eliminating tipping increased the revenue for their employees.  

An aged acorn miso was the star of the next pizza, prepared by Blanca del Noval of the Basque Culinary Centre. A research heavy product, utilizing specifically acorns from the south of Spain, as they have less bitter notes than their northern counterparts. It was indicative of her love of wild foods and her penchant to teach. The tree-fruits also invoked the images she showed the day before of wild forests. Using that as an example, she spoke on how communities can be sustainable. Being adaptive is one of the necessary traits and showcasing a foraged, fermented, Spanish ingredient as the star of this pizza certainly was a testament to how far one can take things. 

At the next serving of pizza’s was a bold move on part of chefs JP mcMahon and Claudio Schiano di Cola, as they translated their Irish pride of their Aniar kitchen into topping their pizza with raw oysters, studded with seaweeds and algae from the Irish coast. The orange trout roe gave it a twinkle, reminding me of JP’s eyes whenever talking about his culinary heritage. If his lesson of the day before, not keeping your head down in the kitchen but communicate(!) was tangible in any dish, it was this one.

Last but not least, Denis’ own pizza that night featured fried leeks, sausage and cheese fondue. It was a clear representation of ‘his’ mountains but also a very tangible and visible way of breaking the mold that pizza can be. The way he opened his pizzeria to all of us and have his dough be the platter on which these very different chefs, from four very distinctly different countries could tell their story was in every way a celebration of what gastronomy could be. 

Written by,

Guus Thijssen | Guustronomie