Participants at the third edition of the competition Milan Mudec 2016 - - PDF document

THE VEGETARIAN CHANCE

Presentation

The idea and the creators

The Vegetarian Chance is a cultural association based in Switzerland, which aims to promote vegetarian cuisine and

• culture. The founders are the chef Pietro Leeman,
• wner of Michelin-star restaurant Joia in Milan and food

journalist Gabriel Eschenazi, repectively President and Vice President of the Association. We work for a project: spread true knowledge of vegetarianism, often victim of stereotypes, prejudices and even fashion which, while giving this diet more popularity and acceptance, it

• bscures its deeper and inner reasons.

› There are more and more people in the world who embrace the vegetarian diet (more than half a billion). They do so to give an individual contribution to environmental awareness, to protect their own health and lifestyle, to explore and discover more natural and less processed/industry adulterated foods while better nourishing themselves. This choice is not only oriented towards plants as such, but focuses on products that haven’t depleted our soils, our biodiversity and aren’t loaded with harmful chemicals. This phenomenon is more cultural than just culinary/gourmet. It involves consumers, farmers, entrepreneurs, chefs, doctors, nutritionists, public and private organizations, governments. Lately IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) has indirectly addressed the audience towards the vegetarian diet by including red and processed meat among cancer’s risk factors. We are leading in the right direction. Not by spreading panic, but inviting to receive and ask for accurate information about what we eat in order to choose without interference. › The Vegetarian Chance (TVC) seeks to foster the ongoing revolution with its activities which include cultural nd gastronomic events (conferences, films, book a contest, show cookings, workshops, participation at events). The chief event of TVC is the annual festival hosting the international contest which in 2017 will reach its fourth edition on May 27 and 28. The third edition took place in Milan on June 11 and 12, 2016 at MUDEC, Milan’s museum of cultures.

Gabriel Eschenazi Pietro Leemann Participants at the third edition of the competition Milan Mudec 2016

The Vegetarian Chance’s manifesto

› Vegetarian cuisine offers an answer to the evolving needs of modern civilization: looking for a relationship with nature that is more aware and respectful, of a healthier life, of healthier, more nutritious and tasty food. Dishes in which meat or fish don’t find a place anymore are not missing something, but are actually fuller and richer in a variety of flavors, nutrients and a relationship with nature. There’s no giving up, just gaining. › There is no competition between carnivorous and vegetarian cuisine. The choice of eating vegetables rather than meat is an evolution of omnivorous cuisine that involves us as human beings endowed with conscience and free will, which allow us to make our own choices. › It is well proven that the hyper-production of meat and fish is rapidly depleting the planet with an infinite exploitation of resources which instead aren’t "infinite". › It will no longer be sustainable to use fifteen thousand liters

• f water and 15 kilos of soybeans to produce one kilo of meat when

from just one kilo of soy it’s possible to obtain two kilos of tofu. › We aren’t sensitive to sustainabilty because we often pay very low prices for the meat we buy. The real cost, however, is not the one we read in the receipt, but the one we are all paying in terms of adverse effects on the environment and human health. Moreover we should not overlook the price of the suffering we inflict upon other living beings. Through mass slaughtering, man gives up inner growth, evolution, the pursue of happiness, the aspiration of every human being, always evoked by all philosophers: from Aristotle to Kant and also by scientist Albert Einstein. › Vegetarian culture proposes the use of nutrition to build a different relationship with nature; more advanced, more peaceful. No longer an ephemeral enjoyment of food, but a prolonged state of happiness. › Almost with no choice our eating habits will have to change: more awareness and less conditioning. As of today we are much too used to fill our plate with food that is most easily available, without making a real choice, without looking at the ingredients, just allowing ourselves to be seduced by images and popular culture. › We all must learn to eat in a better way and this means to get to know the products of our territory, give value back to the seasons, make up time to dedicate to cooking and to what we put in our plates.

Gualtiero Marchesi, guest of honor and judge in the first edition of the contest at Joia in June 2014 with Pietro Leemann and the chefs

Our first three years (2014/2016)

In almost four years we’ve built a story, an identity, along the way we’ve found new friends, allies and admirers. On the top of the list are Lorenzo Castellini (http://www.esterni.org/ita/home), Vittorio Castellani (http://www.ilgastronomade.com), Jenny Sugar (www.jennysugar.com), Professor Carlo Modonesi (http://www.valorealimentare.it/autore/carlomodonesi), Agnese Z’graggen (http://www.agnesezgraggen.ch). We started building an international network that will involve not only vegetarians and vegans, but also those who look at vegetarianism in perspective with sympathy and interest but have not yet abandoned the idea of being

• mnivorous. Our open proposal and all inclusive approach are achieving success in the entire gastronomic world

and beyond it. There are many different vegetarian realities in the world. We intend to build a meeting point among them starting from Milan, where the debate on nutrition continues even after Expo (2015).

› On June 7, 2014, a symbolic place, Monte Verità in Ascona, Switzerland hosted the first event of The Vegetarian

• Chance. We began with a movie of Vandana Shiva, theme related conferences and a gala dinner.

At the beginning of the 20th century, this place became a magnet for a community of “new thinkers”, who combined their ideas of purity and freedom with the practice of a vegetarian diet, in sharp contrast with the carnivorous eating habits of the time. Two weeks later, on June 22, we held the first edition of the international contest won by Daniela Cicioni, freelance chef (see picture of her couscous winner), followed in ranking by Femke van den Heuvel, Dutch chef of Vlam In de Pan restaurant in Haarlem, Netherlands and Antonia Klugmann chef of Venissa restaurant in Venice. Among the jury we had the father of Italian cuisine, Gualtiero Marchesi, the nutritionist and writer Marco Bianchi, Joris Heijnen Director of Variatie in de Keuken, Dutch foundation that promotes healthy and sustainable cooking in the Netherlands. On March 2015 at Palazzo Isimbardi in Milan we held a panel discussion entitled Feeding the planet with the vegetarian diet. In May we twinned our event with Ortinfestival, in Turin. On June 4, 2015, we awarded young participants of a vegetarian recipes’ contest for secondary school classes promoted by the school ICS Milano Spiga. On June 7 we organized the second edition of the Festival at Cascina Cuccagna and Joia restaurant. Central to the program was the international contest, won that year by Swedish chef Anders Ramsay, next two second winners Carla Aradelli and Nadia Morandi. For the public there were international shows coookings like the one performed by the Japanese chef Toshio Tanahashi, promoter of the vegetarian Japanese Shojin cuisine. On June 30, at the Joia restaurant we met with Eva (Ethical Vegetarian Alternative, www.evavzw.be) Belgian NGO promoter of the Veggieday every Thursday in Gent. At Expo on September 15, we promoted a vegetarian day. At the Slow Food Theater scholars and representatives of different creeds expressed themselves

• n the topic: Vegetarian nourishment and spirituality. The

importance of food choice for a holistic dimension of life. Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food, participated in the

• event. Following, in the Identità Golose Expo Pavillion we

held a meeting on the topic Haute cuisine of vegetables: for

• ur environment, health and taste. Among participants we

had Carlo Modonesi, professor of human ecology at the University of Parma; chef Davide Oldani; Mark Moriarty, San Pellegrino Young Chef 2015; Clement Vachon, Head of International Relations of San Pellegrino.

Expo’s Slow Food theater: the debate on spirituality Femke van den Heuvel on work

› In 2016 on June 11 and 12, at MUDEC museum of cultures in Milan, an

• verall of a thousand people participated in the rich program of the

festival’s fourth edition. Open minded omnivores, new and former vegegetarians, convinced vegans all sat side by side to taste, listen and

• watch. Saturday, June 11 we had several show cookings: Simone Salvini,

chef and TV performer, Jenny Sugar, health & food coach, Agnese Z'graggen, Swiss artist and cook, author of special vegetable jewels. Vegetarianism: return to the origins of civilization, or a look into the future? was the theme

• f the round table

conducted by Gabriel Eschenazi with the participation of biologist Remo Egardi, TV host Paola Maugieri, journalist Giulia Innocenzi and chef and nutritionist Pietro Leemann. Egardi, Maugieri, Innocenzi and Leemann, each from a different point of view, stressed the most disturbing aspect of

• mnivorous nutrition namely the production and marketing of

animal products which are biologically and ethically unhealthy. A proof of the mankind’s damage to the environment was given by Yann Arthus Bertrand’s documentary, presented in the auditorium of MUDEC by Roberta Cecchetto of Good Planet Foundation. A world full of thirst because of a disproportionate consumption of water was the theme of The Thirsty World, while Earth led us on a journey to a planet we don’t know and from which we drift away as if what happens to it would not affect us. Sunday, June 12 was the day of the contest, but it didn’t end there. Chocolier International Institute taught the audience the secrets of chocolate sensory analysis. Following Vittorio Castellani, aka Chef Kumalè, proposed a salads’ world tour. And after the awards ceremony the Israeli chef Moshe Basson of the Eucalyptus Restaurant in Jerusalem, an expert in biblical kitchen, got the public involved in the collective ritual of Makluba, a plate of burgul and vegetables to be eaten together. Theatre of the international competition was the MUDEC restaurant of Enrico Bartolini. The jury chaired by Pietro Leemann was composed of the same Enrico Bartolini, the gastronauta Davide Paolini, th Ayurvedic cook Marisa Scotto, the vegan nutritionist doctor Michela De Petris, the environmental biologist Carlo Modonesi, the Israeli chef Moshe Basson. Among the eight chefs in the competition to prevail was Antonio Zaccardi, sous chef at the restaurant called Piazza Duomo in Alba with Rosso, revised spaghetti with tomato sauce and Almods Tacos, one of his creations made with dried fruit and saffron scents,

Rosso by Antonio Zaccardi Paola Maugieri and Simone Salvini with jewels by Agnese Z’graggen Starting at my own land and let my mind expand by Lennart van Weert Round table: from left to right Remo Egardi, Paola Maugeri, Gabriel Eschenazi, Giulia Innocenzi, Pietro Leemann

flowers and herbs. Place of honor was given to Dutch Lennart van Weert chef at hotel Sandton Chateau de Raay, who presented Fresh from the earth in the chef's hands, two dishes in one. First white asparagus, which emerge from the "ground", second a mix of various herbs combined with pearl tapioca and potato rings. Lennart’s second dish was Starting at my own land and let my mind expand: an eggplant caviar gently wrapped in ravioli made of flour and chickpea flour. Special mention for sustainability to the Japanese Okuda Masayuki of the restaurant Al- checciano in Tsuruoka. Okuda proposed Forest Aroma: five types of mushrooms different in flavors and textures associated to spaghetti and then Raw Caponata, very thin vegetables seasoned with okra, extravirgin olive oil and salt. Also the level of all the other competitors was very high bringing judges and public to discover unknown gastronomic traditions such as Basolu, the chickpea soup of Fabio Vacca (Punta Caneddi) or various interpretations of well-known dishes such as Risotto with Asparagus by Tommaso Segato (La Montecchia Alajmo), Fresh Orecchiette with faked tomatoes by Andrea Ferrucci (Marcelin), Wild Piramid, combined red rice with beans, flowers and herbs by Gianfranco Ceccato (Osteria Zanzibar), and last but not least Serbian Sabina Joksimovic (Venissa restaurant) presenting It’s not liquid, zucchini soup with herbs and red lentils with gnocchi made with semolina, rice flour, buckwheat flour and potatoes. The public award ceremony featuring interviews to all stakeholders was attended by nearly 200 people.

The International Contest

❯ The competition is the main event organized by The Vegetarian Chance. It’s unique in its kind at an

international level where competitions dedicated to vegetarian cuisine don’t have a proper specific space dedicated to signature cuisine. Only senior professional chefs with at least 4 years of experience can participate in the contest. Eight of them will be selected based on two recipes to be presented no later than March 15, 2017: a traditional dish of the country of origin that can also be a revised version of it, and a creation of the chef’s own

• choice. A set of Rules establish the terms and ingredients

allowed for the preparation of the recipes. The jury headed by Pietro Leemann will consist of starred Italian and foreign chefs, environmental experts, nutritionists and food journalists.

The Festival’s fourth edition

The fourth edition of our festival will be held in Milan, May 27 and 28, 2017 at a location to be defined. Center to the program is the international contest and also show cookings, a round table, signature documentaries on environment, health and food. The Promoting Committee Pietro Leemann Gabriele Eschenazi Vittorio Castellani Lorenzo Castellini Jenny Sugar The Vegetarian Chance Association President: Pietro Leemann Vicepresident and Press office: Gabriele Eschenazi tel +393779835207 Address: Paese 6678 Giumaglio Ticino Svizzera www.thevegetarianchance.org email: thevegetarianchance@gmail.com

The awards ceremony The winner: Antonio Zaccardi