How Covid - 19 puts on the breaks to review the complete gastronomic branch worldwide

In Italy, the hotel and catering sector on the warpath was postponed with the entry into force of the last Dpcm on the management of Phase 2 until 1 June, not only because of the date of reopening, but also because of uncertainty and the almost total absence of adequate economic and legal support.

Problems that thousands - if not millions - of restaurant owners all over the world are experiencing, or will experience, who see the earth beneath their feet missing. Also restaurateurs who experience other needs, more or less emergency situations, which lead to deep reflections on the role of gastronomy in the light of today's challenges, but also on the forms it can and must take tomorrow, when the emergency of Covid-19 is over.

These themes were at the heart of the online conference "How does gastronomy meet the challenge of the Corona virus?", organised by the Basque Culinary Centre, one of the main training, research and innovation centres for the development of the gastronomy sector in the world, founded in San Sebastian in 2009.

Around the table - virtually - a panel of chefs and protagonists in gastronomy from all over the world, from Spain to Venezuela, from Great Britain to Brazil, to Ghana, followed by almost a thousand journalists in the sector. 

Two of these are ultimately the major themes that have emerged: the first concerns current events and thus the race for solidarity, using knowledge and energy to give a hot meal to those who need it.

A subject that is anything but trivial, because the health emergency has also turned Western cities into "war zones", and in the poorest countries, where the crisis is contributing to structural economic slowdowns and anti-democratic political systems, that of the chefs has become a real mission.

And one must imagine its aftermath, not only from an organizational point of view, but also from a philosophical point of view, because the long confinement has brought deep reflections, and shared for the most part in the world of haute cuisine, on the role of gastronomy itself, as a fundamental element of sustainability and respect for the environment.

For if it is true that the political agenda, and necessarily the information, seems to leave no room, then the great question of the environment is still on the table, and the stagnation forced on the production chains visually gives us back the weight of our actions on the ecosystems, but also all our vulnerability, even more so in the face of an invisible enemy.

"In Madrid, after the first positive news of a decline in the number of infected people, people are still living in uncertainty and doubt," says Diego Guerrero, two Michelin stars with his Dstage Concept in the Spanish capital and on the board of the Basque Culinary Centre. "Reality has paralysed the world in every way. A return to a reopening is complex, the risk is that it is not economically viable. From what we see, one must be cautious, despite the desire to reopen. Hurry is not a good counselor in this situation.

We want to open, but we also want to know how to do it. And understand what economic and social measures will be taken. We're talking about 30% of productivity here, at the reopening, that is, an announced death.

The situation is unprecedented and nobody has the right solution, it depends very much on the sectors, but we certainly need a lot of flexibility and the will to contribute to the debate, not just the controversy. In the meantime, to help others is also to help ourselves, it means giving ourselves a sense and meaning to our work, according to what is a real vocation.

With José Andres, we have been working for years to feed the victims of disasters (with the NGO World Central Kitchen, ed.), and this is even in a city like Madrid, where we cook for health workers, on the front line. Without forgetting, of course, migrants and homeless people. In the end we do what we always do, we try to make the people we cook for happy, in this case in an even more important way.

For tomorrow - Diego Guerrero continues - I don't think we will go back to the way we were before, all this wakes us up, makes us aware of our vulnerability and makes us aware of everything we have done wrong, in relation to the world and the society we have built. Perhaps what used to be our normality was not normal: we will have to rethink our priorities, take our time back, especially for those things that had no place in the system in which we have lived until now, that is, almost everything that in a way cannot be expressed in money".

From the Basque Country, Eneko Atxa, one of the most revolutionary chefs of recent years, continues with his Azurmendi three Michelin stars: "the use of gastronomy to create a better society." We are facing a global financial crisis, unexpectedly, but we must keep away from who we are and think primarily of food.

it Basque Country, one of the most revolutionary chefs of recent years, Eneko Atxa, three Michelin stars with his Azurmendi, takes it upon himself to "use gastronomy to create a better society". We are facing a global financial crisis, unexpectedly, but we have to distance ourselves from who we are and think primarily of food: for me, gastronomy is a necessary medicine, also to bring new ideas into society, thinking in a broad and multidisciplinary way.

In recent weeks we have seen how people have stopped buying ready-made products (the so-called fifth series, red), rediscovering raw materials and the pleasure of cooking. In Spain, the pandemic has slowly come to deflagration and is making us feel all our fragility. There is no solution to all this, we have to listen and have faith in science.

But also think about the future, starting with knowledge, to be creative in our needs. To give a small example in terms of flexibility, the idea is that, pending final legislation, we will have to use our creativity to adapt to our needs, turn our commitments into something beautiful and not let going to a restaurant become a "hospital" experience. Of course, this is only a metaphor for what we will have to do.

This period - Eneko Atxa adds - has made me think about the immanence of things, I think about climate change, because the world of gastronomy plays a fundamental role in this. Let's think about emissions: food weighs 18% of global emissions, that's why we study the foods with the least impact on the environment, they are the ones we should focus on in the future. The point is that we must learn from this crisis to use knowledge to create a better society, without waiting. The sensitivity of the catering sector to the environment has been fundamental for years". In the short term, however, according to Azurmendi's chef, "the delivery culture in Europe is not as popular as in the US, there is a lack of logistics, and then quality is lost: the solution could be in the middle, we control the ingredients and preparations and let the customers finish the dish. But there will always be an interest in good food in the future as well, because it makes us feel good, it is part of who we are and what cooking means to us".

On the other side of the world, in Brazil, David Hertz is speaking, a chef who has been committed to social gastronomy throughout the country since 2004 and who has been accompanying Gastromotiva, the canteen opened in Rio de Janeiro with Massimo Bottura since 2016. "We've been in the midst of an economic and political crisis for a very long time, which now includes a health crisis, but in the favelas there's more fear of losing your job than in the Covd-19, and in fact it's still almost all open. The government has only allocated $ 100 per person per month, but the lockdown here is not total, there are restaurants open, especially in the suburbs, although with fewer people, also because the delivery model is not sustainable, all this despite the fact that we have already exceeded the number of deaths in China. Social gastronomy - explains David Hertz - makes more sense today than ever. We started in 2004, when we became aware of the limits and problems of our society.

We help people learn to cook and we cook for those who have nothing, saving the food donated to 35 associations in Rio de Janeiro from waste and turning it into 32,000 meals a day. Many chefs cook in their restaurants for people in need, transform them into solidarity kitchens, and purify efforts and resources. And then there are chefs who also struggle politically to save the hospitality industry. When all this happened, I was afraid for both the gastronomic community and the favelas: we all have to start to find the energy and share ideas, starting with solidarity".

Another country where the health crisis is contributing to an already very difficult situation, both from an economic and political point of view, is Venezuela, where Maria Fernanda di Giacobbe, winner of the Basque Culinary Prize in 2016, and especially the woman who revolutionized the cocoa chain in the country, with a movement capable of building over the years a production chain that today gives work and dignity to thousands of people. "I would like to think that everything that happens, and that keeps us locked up, we do to let the planet rest and to rethink the unsustainable lifestyle we lead," says the founder of the Kakao movement. "Will it really change the way we live? Will we stop travelling or using imported ingredients from 7,000 miles away? Will we stop thinking and helping people in need, such as migrants or war victims? I know I'm giving a pessimistic lecture, but we're used to dealing with the regime here, with our heads held high, and right now we can't...

Moreover, in this situation, we see that the production chain of raw materials is not enough to feed the Venezuelan population, which has not been the case for years, but now we see and feel it in all its dramas: there is a lack of milk, flour and corn. We also realise that free information does not exist here. Let's see it as a sign, as a zero year to start again: let's start again from ancestral knowledge, let's reconnect with production processes. Without food we cannot even think, but our case is much more basic than that of other countries. Before we ask ourselves how we can reopen restaurants, we have to ask ourselves what we will live on. We have no money, there is not even a coin, and in many houses there is no internet.

Even more dramatic is the situation in Ghana, which, as the chef and entrepreneur Elijah Amoo Addo, founder of the NGO Food for All Africa, tells us, feeds thousands of children all over the country every day, collects and cooks leftovers and food given by supermarkets and shops, and delivers the meals thanks to a mobile app. "Ghana has also taken measures to contain the situation, perhaps too late, but now we are in prison and the many people working in the hospitality industry are unemployed at all levels. Even so many young people who have worked with me on a meal for the needy are now becoming people in trouble themselves. I think even in times like these I have become a chef, when cooking is used to save lives. We have to move together with passion and love, to use the food, but our role goes far beyond the kitchen, here is the fight to starve.

Finally, we conclude this world journey in the hospitality industry at the time of Covid-19 with a return to old Europe, in Britain, where Douglas McMaster runs the Silo, the world's first "zerowaste" restaurant, a sustainable project that is also an example of how to start all over again. "For me," says McMaster, "this is an opportunity to broaden my horizons and rethink the future, with a focus on zero waste. Of course the restaurants in London are closed, but we have cooked for many people, especially the homeless and those who can't take care of themselves. The quickest way to respond, thinking about supporting your business, which is an important aspect, is definitely delivery, but we are not structured to do that, it is certainly not part of the way we work. Instead, we're thinking about a broader horizon, and how to seize the opportunity to rethink the restaurant model, focusing on what's most important to us - the fight against food waste".