Waste not…Want only good food!
With an early start, the Fippers woke up to a sunny morning in Amsterdam, had a quick breakfast and headed to the Scelta Institute together with Professor Peter Klosse. This institute has started off as a local business that grows mushrooms in the 60’s. Today it is a global leader in mushroom production and a food innovation hub with diverse activities, with an exciting range of products based on mushrooms. The Scelta accelerator was awarded in 2015 for the best functional innovative ingredient at the Food Ingredient Innovation awards in Paris. I could go one writing volumes about the inspiring work they do.
It was an absolutely pleasant surprise to meet our friend Chloé Rutzerveld, an inspiring food designer with her new project Stroop! showing how she uses vegetable pulp that is leftover from juicing to make delicious waffles!
During the day, the group stopped at byFlow, who work on 3D printing technology, a promising way to manufacture food, in addition to a range of materials.
On the way to Maastricht, the next stop was Maison Van de Boer catering. The name kind of raised the expectation of a posh catering service. Indeed it is, but beyond the sophistication and elegance is the FoodforCare projects, which offers gourmet meals to patients in hospitals, which disrupts the notoriously bland hospital food. Patients get to enjoy six small meals, get to choose among different items, and get the best quality, offered in a manner that is sensitive to their health conditions. This example emphasizes in a powerful way the kind of difference food innovation can make.
Moving on, the Food squad gave the Fippers another example of how rescued food could be given a new (and hopefully short) life as delicious dishes, by collecting leftover tomatoes from fast food restaurants that only serve perfect tomato slices with their burgers and discard the rest.
In Maastricht the students had their second encounter with professor Mark Post. Professor Post came to our headquarters in Reggio Emilia, and supervised the students at the laboratory in Modena showing them how they can produce in vitro cultured meat. But will we ever get to enjoy a cultured burger at a reasonable price in a local restaurant? Time will tell.
What could possibly match all these exciting projects when it comes to dinner time? De Niuewe Winkel restaurant does! Besides the waste reduction philosophy, de Niuewe Winkel boasts a range of new products that even the most squeamish eaters would be curious to try such as black garlic, and yeast icecream!
It gets better, De Niuewe Winkel source their products from Ketelbroek food forest. Using permaculture techniques, Ketelbroek produces an abundance of ancient and rare varieties of fruits, berries, and nuts. It is a dream come true for those passionate about the concept of short travelled food.
Want to learn about the Dutch food valley? Stay tuned for the post on the third day…
