Gastronomy students present their imaginative culinary ideas in Dénia

A school canteen that makes children's diets more appetizing and healthy, a gastronomic fashion catwalk or the organization of a global macro-festival in China. The students of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts of the University of Alicante made a display of creativity on Monday in Dénia to present in one more day what they call Gurmeet. It was also an end-of-year exam and an extraordinary class in which they were able to learn about the experiences of Dénia professionals, such as those of the chef with a Michelin star José Manuel López or the ice cream maker Álvaro Verdú.

Gurmeet Day in Dénia

The intense day took place at the CdT-Dénia and was organized by the third-year students themselves who are studying the subject "Event Management and Gastronomy Protocol". The students, gathered in groups, have developed projects throughout the year focused on very different areas of the gastronomic concept with the aim of "learning by doing", according to the teacher Rosa Torres, who teaches the subject. And, furthermore, to do so "showing their investigative, innovative and creative skills".

Gurmeet adopts an innovative format. With unique presentations, staged and devised by the students, twelve works were unveiled. After the interventions, their authors responded to questions from professors, colleagues, professionals and the public, after which a jury evaluated the proposals to be taken into account by academic managers when assigning grades.

Student presenting her project at the Gurmeet conference in Dénia

The students' proposals were mostly imagined, although they were based on realities related to any element of the gastronomic value chain and had to be documented in aspects such as their implementation, organization or financing. From the creativity of the students came, for example, the "Aestivum" gastronomic advice center, the "Gastroworld" festival, the "Inn Tradition" obesity prevention program, the "La Perla de Dénia" fashion catwalk or the “Greendrops” hydroponic systems business plan. Among the proposals was a beer tasting and production workshop and reflections were provided on gastronomic culture and citizen participation, the use of transgenics, street gastronomy, or the role of women and communication in the gastronomic world.

One of the works was part of a larger project and constituted the first field work of the Mediterranean Health and Diet Agency's proposal to identify municipalities that conform to the ideal patterns of the Mediterranean lifestyle. Among the five cities in the province of Alicante under study is Dénia.

Mediterranean diet and trade

Precisely, the researcher from the Mediterranean Health and Diet Agency, Alfonso Soler, gave a presentation at the beginning of the day in which he spoke of the Mediterranean diet as "successful cultural content" and labeled it as the healthiest in the world for its involvement with the environment. He used a musical simile to talk about the importance of a constant and maintained healthy diet in which the Mediterranean diet would be "the harmony" of "the melody of life". He also warned about the progressive abandonment of this diet, especially in the younger population.

Of practice of the Mediterranean diet and cooking and product of the Marina Alta Juan Manuel López, chef of the Peix&Brases restaurant, and Álvaro Verdú, manager of gelateria Verdú and from the Gelart company, who shared their professional experience.

López stressed the importance of linking the cuisine of a place to its environment, its territory and its products. In this sense, he felt particularly satisfied to have contributed with his interest to now have strawberries made by a local farmer when a few years ago he had to get them more than 30 kilometers from Dénia. For his part, Álvaro Verdú narrated his personal situation and that of his brother, having to take charge of his family's traditional ice cream company at just over 20 years of age. He explained how they have evolved in aspects such as business management and orientation or the renewal of flavors and the incorporation of pastry production.

The day was inaugurated by the dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Magdalena García Irles, who praised the working method used and stressed that "gastronomic tourism is about being sustainable, of the territory and of the product". The director of the CdT-Dénia, Pepe Vidal, and Vicent Martín also took part on behalf of the Office of Innovation and Creativity of the Creative City-UNESCO.

This is the third year that students have organized Gurmeet, an initiative that has the support of the Faculty of Sciences and the Center for Mediterranean Gastronomy (Gasterra UA-Dénia).