Ethical Cooking School was born as a movement that connects cooking schools around the theme of sustainability: where did this idea come from and what problem was it trying to solve?
The idea grew out of a movement designed to share expertise, sustainability, and nutrition. It all started with a magazine conceived specifically for cooking schools. We then set up a round table where we asked the schools which sustainability-related topics needed to be brought into their lessons, and from that emerged our Manifesto “A Lesson in Sustainability”: a body of content and in-depth material that, in the presence of an educational partner, becomes a masterclass. Our scientific grounding comes from our research and from the journalistic data we gather. When we work with companies, the case studies are built around their own know-how.
In Italy, roughly 67 kg of food per person is wasted every year, largely in domestic kitchens. Can cooking schools genuinely move that number? And if so, how do you measure changes in the behaviour of people who have attended your courses?
Our added value comes from the practicality of someone who tells you which ingredient will make your menu more sustainable, advises you on how to use the less prized parts of food, or steers you towards lower-impact packaging. Our ability to get inside a single recipe is greatly appreciated and tells us this is the right way to move forward. Results may be small, but they are driven by guides — people with real teaching expertise. The measure of our success is the growing demand for this kind of content from cooking schools.
You have involved a great many teachers across Italy: are there territorial, generational, or cultural differences in how Italians relate to food waste?
I would say there are no significant cultural differences, because our target audience is fairly homogeneous: our schools are urban and work with high-spending individuals of any background and gender. What we do notice is greater awareness among younger generations: young people are far more sensitive to these issues and have a better command of sustainability topics, including in the kitchen.
What has been the biggest obstacle so far — cultural, economic, or practical — in bringing sustainability into a cooking lesson without coming across as too dogmatic or theoretical?
The real challenge is precisely not to come across as dogmatic: self-congratulatory tones and guilt-tripping over any misstep push people away rather than raising awareness. Our approach leads us to avoid pointing out failings and instead to reward efforts. In the world of sustainability, real success lies in the process. If someone pours away the pasta cooking water instead of saving it for another use, we don’t point the finger at them — we’d rather give them credit if, when cooking the pasta, they turned off the heat halfway through and used residual heat, for example. Only that way does sustainability “come down from its pedestal.” Another priority of ours is integrating sustainability into all training courses as an embedded thread rather than a standalone subject: that way it permeates every learning environment and stops being a niche concern.
Where do you want to be in the coming years, and how do you measure the success of a project like this in terms of real impact on food waste — not just network growth?
We would like to move beyond cooking schools and communicate through social platforms, using a tone of voice crafted to be contemporary and engaging. We don’t want to create an online sustainable cooking school — we want a space where these themes are always present and shared through short, easily digestible videos.
Can you recommend a book or a film that, in your view, helps people understand your work and the problem you are addressing?
I cannot really answer that question: to teach cooking you need to be a teacher — being a cook or a chef is not enough. You need empathy in whoever is listening, a recognised expertise… and that does not come from the books you have written, or read, but from your ability to earn the trust of your students in everything you offer them.