The event, organized by the Carmencita Chair for Gastronomic Flavor Studies at UA, will take place in the auditorium of the Germán Bernácer building on the San Vicente del Raspeig campus. Under the motto "Teaching to cook and eat through local gastronomy, a guarantee of future for tasty, healthy, and sustainable food," the conference aims to reflect on the need to promote a food model that favors health and sustainability.
Organizers emphasize that "education is a fundamental tool for advancing towards this goal, especially when working from the early educational stages." The conference will serve to review the current context of food and nutritional education and evaluate initiatives such as the 'Centres Cuiners' pilot project, launched in 2023 in three educational centers in the Valencian Community.
The director of the Carmencita Chair, Josep Bernabéu Mestre, highlights that "teaching to cook and eat through local gastronomy is a guarantee of future for tasty, healthy, and sustainable food." The conference will feature a panel of specialists in educational, nutritional, and food matters.
The conference will begin at 9 a.m. with the inauguration. Subsequently, Gregorio Varela Moreiras, professor of Nutrition and Bromatology at the San Pablo-CEU University of Madrid, will give the lecture "Where are we and where are we going in food, nutrition, cooking, and gastronomy education?".
At 10:30 a.m., the Valencian teacher, cultural disseminator, and writer Casimir Romero i Garcia will present the session "Cuina per a menuts i adolescents" (Cooking for little ones and adolescents), specializing in traditional gastronomy and the memory of the Valencian rural landscape.
The program presentation will be led by Pep Romany, an activist and advocate for local cuisine and gastronomy, who has been the head chef at the restaurant Pont Sec in Dénia and curator of the Dna Fòrum.
At 12 p.m., the panel "Our pedagogical menu: collective assessment of the educational experience of the chef centers" will be held, with the participation of teachers from CEIP Bertomeu Llorens i Royo in Catarroja, Jaime Sanz in Peñíscola, and Port de Xàbia. The session will be moderated by Maria Tormo Santamaria, coordinator of the ACORD project of the Conselleria de Educación, Cultura y Universidades of the Generalitat Valenciana.
