The "Gurmeet Day" of the Universitat d'Alacant was held at the Dénia CdT where the students of the Degree in Gastronomy and Culinary Arts present their gastronomic entrepreneurship projects, fairs and gastronomic companies before representatives of the Dénia City Council and Dénia Ciudad Creativa of Gastronomy, which helped to assess their quality and viability.
The day is part of the transversal activities carried out by this degree. The ultimate goal of the event is for students to carry out collaborative tasks, work as a team and face real situations, in which they must defend their ideas and projects before organizations and companies.
"Gurmeet Day"
The projects presented have shown the knowledge acquired during the training process and reflect aspects such as gender equality, inclusion and sustainability. In the same way, the work sought to achieve at least one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) promoted by the United Nations.
The evaluation court was chaired by the professor of the subject Protocol and Management of Events in Gastronomy, Rosa María Torres, and had the opinion of Vicent Martín Ronda and Toni Reig Pérez, from the Office of Innovation Dénia Creative City of Gastronomy of UNESCO and the presence of Juana Jordá Guijarro, director of the Center for Mediterranean Gastronomy UA- Dénia GASTERRA.
The event was opened by Melani Ivars, Councilor for Education of the Dénia City Council, Luis Gras, dean of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Alicante and Floren Terrades, Director of Dénia Creative City.
The projects
In total, 16 projects were presented, distributed in three categories: Gastronomic Fair Design, Culinary Arts and Restoration, Local Rural Development and Sustainability.
The projects presented were highly valued by the jury who, in the words of Rosa Torres, "highlighted the high level of knowledge about gastronomy, the originality of some projects, presenting highly suggestive innovations in the conception of the restaurant business with an artistic perspective, healthy and inclusive, gastronomic consultancy, attractive combined routes, territorial gastronomic fusion, taking into account the SDGs in a transversal way”.
In the category of Local, Rural Development and Sustainability, the project entitled Recasolá Mediterrani stood out, which made a unique proposal to fight depopulation in the municipality of Fageca based on gastronomic tradition and landscape value. This project, which has the support of the Fageca City Council, will be implemented this year.
The conference also proposed the creation of a professional association of gastronomes, as a preliminary step to the development of a professional association. Many of these projects have opened lines of research that the jury deemed necessary to develop in the field of gastronomy and culinary arts.
