The Madrid Culinary Campus leads the European gastronomic dialogue with the Gastronomic Crossroads project

The Madrid Culinary Campus (MACC), a gastronomic and business innovation center at Comillas Pontifical University, developed in partnership with the Vocento Group, is becoming a meeting point for chefs, researchers, and culinary professionals with the launch of the European project Gastronomic Crossroads. This initiative, part of the Erasmus+ program, aims to recover and update traditional culinary practices in response to current challenges related to food sustainability, professional training, and cultural preservation.

The opening day, held at the MOM Culinary Institute, included hands-on training, live cooking demonstrations, and an original beer tasting based on sensory taxonomy maps. The second day, at Comillas Conecta LAB, focused on conferences about Spanish gastronomic identity, a visit to the Vallehermoso Market, and the Sapiens experience, which offered a holistic view of gastronomy from the perspective of sustainability and ancestral knowledge.

Participants include representatives from key institutions such as the University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine in Bucharest (USAMV) and Black Sea Food Dignity, which, together with Comillas University, are committed to an educational approach that combines traditional knowledge with the needs of new generations of chefs. Ottoman, Hispano-Arabic, and Carpathian culinary traditions serve as a common thread to reflect on the comprehensive use of ingredients, reducing food waste, and historical preservation techniques.

This innovative project arose to address an urgent need: to preserve and update traditional culinary practices in a global context marked by the industrialization of food. Local cuisines, rich in history, techniques, and flavors, cannot be forgotten.

What is the objective of the GASTRONOMIC CROSSROADS project?

• Revaluing historical food preservation techniques that promote sustainability.
• To disseminate effective cooking methods inspired by Ottoman, Hispano-Arabic and Carpathian traditions.
• Recovering traditional strategies to reduce food waste, such as the comprehensive use of ingredients: from root to stem and from snout to tail.
• Integrate this valuable gastronomic heritage into professional training and contemporary cuisine.

Undoubtedly, with this project, MACC reinforces its role as a space for innovation, training and international cooperation in the culinary field.