On 18 June 2017, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and UNESCO created the Day of Sustainable Gastronomy, which is celebrated annually to promote food security, sustainable agriculture, nutrition and biodiversity conservation.
This year, the World Food Forum, FAO’s movement to transform agri-food systems through youth, has decided to go a step further by launching the first-ever Sustainable Gastronomic Restaurant Week from 17-24 June 2024.
“Sustainable Gastronomy Day was one of the UN days I was most interested in. I wanted to find a way to celebrate the day in an intentional way, while shining the spotlight on youth, and what better way than to showcase sustainable gastronomy chefs under the age of 40 from around the world,” says Lindsay Hook, Head of UN Sustainable Gastronomy Day. the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Food Forum and the Ministry of Culture.
You’ve probably seen or participated in a restaurant week in your city or town where top restaurants offer special menus. The idea is to promote the restaurant and get diners to spend money during the off-season. But Sustainable Gastronomy Restaurant Week’s plan is the exact opposite. “While world restaurant weeks tend to focus on money and high-end cuisine in certain areas, this restaurant week will shine a spotlight on young chefs in the industry, catering to all budgets and making food accessible to more people around the world, from restaurants to bakeries and even popsicle shops,” says Hook.. The restaurants and chefs are diverse and, unlike other restaurant weeks, it takes place on a global scale.
Food aside, Hook points out that her ultimate goal is to educate the public about the important role of young people through sustainable cooking, particularly food waste. “It’s a useful initiative for chefs to share more about the sustainable practices that we usually take for granted,” she says. The theme is “More Taste, Less Waste,” and she reiterates that delicious seasonal cooking and minimizing food waste can coexist in the same space.
“Some people think that sustainable gastronomy is expensive, but if you think about the origins of gastronomy and food culture, it goes back to how our grandparents and great-grandparents learned to cook,” says Hook. “Many grew up in the countryside during wartime, when food was scarce and local produce couldn’t go to waste,” she points out. “Historically, in Italy, for example, some of the most iconic dishes in Italian food culture today, such as the Tuscan ribollita or the Florentine lampredotto sandwich, have their roots in ‘cucina povera,’ or ‘bad cooking.'” Sustainable Gastronomy Restaurant Week aims to connect the dots and take people back to these roots, highlighting seasonal ingredients in certain places and showing that good food doesn’t always have to hurt your wallet.
It’s not just fine dining or Michelin-starred restaurants taking part; participants range from upscale seasonal dinner menus to gelato and even zero-waste cocktails. Valerio Esposito of Gelateria Tonka (in Aprilia, outside Rome) created innovative flavours for this year’s Restaurant Week. “He really considered every element of waste, from broken cones to used coffee grounds, and even went so far as to work with a small local bakery run by a young woman to utilise unsold bread,” says Hook.
At Il Marchese (Rome), the menu will feature mocktails created by bar director Fabrizio Valeriani, using every part of the citrus fruit in inventive and refreshing ways. Ristrub, in the province of Salerno in southern Campania, will focus on the lost and forgotten wild produce of the Cilento region. In Sweden, partners Mattan Levi and Charlotte Nikander of Two Folks (Malmö) will follow the seasons, working with local growers, brewers and food innovators to showcase the nuances of the region. Members of the Malmö Food Council, the first food council in Scandinavia, the duo worked with the World Food Forum to coordinate a local version of Sustainable Gastronomy Restaurant Week.
While the majority of participants are based in Italy, specifically Rome, the goal is to expand globally and have a multitude of attractive options. This year, several restaurants and chefs will be taking part from Greece, the US, Ireland, Sweden, the UK, Indonesia and Benin. “Starting next year, we will be making an open call to chefs under 40 from all over the world to participate in Sustainable Gastronomy Restaurant Week,” says Hook. “The call is open to all countries and regions without discrimination and will be presented in a format that is easy to scale and implement, which is crucial for growth,” she adds.
This year, Hook points out that while most restaurants are already practicing sustainable cooking practices, they don’t have to be sustainable to join the movement. “In the future, we hope that this movement will inspire less sustainable restaurants to improve,” she says. “We believe that by engaging both the hospitality industry and its consumers to make better choices for both, we can inspire change on the consumer side of the agri-food system. And that’s where the change starts.”
You can find out more about each restaurant and how you can get involved on the World Food Forum site , and if you’re traveling to any of these cities, be sure to stop by and take part in the first Sustainable Gastronomy Restaurant Week.
Rome, Italy: Tonka, Il Marchese, Moma, Tulipane, Central Market, Ruma, DLR (Recreation Workshop)
Cilento, Italy: List Love
Athens, Greece: Manu
Dublin, Ireland: Glass, Oberends Kitchen
Malmö, Sweden: Folket Pops, Two Folks
London, UK: Silo, EDIT, Peter Sham Nurseries
Portland, Maine, USA: Honeypaw, The Ugly Duckling, Chaval
Bohicon, Benin: Les Secrets, Signed by Lady D
Jakarta, Indonesia: Juicable by Surplus
“I can’t wait for the world to find out about this event,” says Hook. “It’s something people are excited about and it warms my heart to see so many people coming together at the World Food Forum with one goal: to transform agri-food systems with the power of youth. I think this is really embodied in Sustainable Gastronomy Restaurant Week.” If you missed it this year, look out for the growing event taking place around the same time next year in even more locations around the world.