Learning our kitchen and products as a university lesson
A total of 49 students of the first year of the degree of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts have transferred to Dénia the classrooms of the campus of the University of Alicante. In the CdT facilities they have received theoretical classes and have made contact with cooking practices for the first time. The students have known first-hand the gastronomic offer of the Marina Alta in a program of complementary activities.
The presence of university students in Dénia is part of the agreement signed between the town hall and the University of Alicante and falls under the training program of the university degree of Gastronomy that began to run the 2018-2019 academic year. The subject “Immersion and experimentation in gastronomy”, framed in the area of Culinary Science and Technology, has been taught in the CdT of Dénia. Professor David Roca, from the University of Alicante, has coordinated the stay, which had as its main incentive for students their first cooking practices, which they have done under the watchful eye and advice of chefs of the Marina Alta as collaborators Teachers Most of the students have stayed in apartments and houses rented in Dénia during their stay, which lasted from January 26 to February 6.
The group of students on Tuesday 27 welcomed the mayor of Dénia, Vicent Grimalt, during a morning activity to learn about the environment. The session was attended by the head of Tourism, Pepa Cardona, and the manager of the Marina Alta Hospitality and Tourism Association (AEHTMA), Remo Cerdà, who spoke to them about the characteristics of the city, its gastronomy and the importance of the hospitality sector in the local economy. For its part, the Office of Innovation and Creativity explained what it is and why Dénia is part of the UNESCO network of Creative Cities of Gastronomy, and informed them of the Dénia & Marina Alta Tastinglife project, at a regional level, which is being developed .
In the same first contact activity, with the collaboration of the Melicatessen company, they were presented a sample of the various products of the Marina Alta while explaining their role in local tradition, in the conservation of the environment and in the regional economy: Pego Marjal rice, oils and almonds, cherries from the valleys of the interior, muscat and wines ...
On the last day of stay in Dénia, the students met within the operation of a large five-star hotel. With the help of Jerome Gateau, director of the Marriott La Sella Golf Resort & Spa, the group toured the facilities of the catering area: kitchens, restaurants, lounges and warehouses. They received detailed explanations of the organization of the hotel's daily work together with the chef responsible for the culinary offer and the director of food purchases. The students could thus check the workload, the meticulous logistics of the kitchens and the protocol of performance in the room at the time of the daily meal services.
In the afternoon the students and the tutor teacher visited the fish market of Dénia, where they had the opportunity to see the arrival of the boats, the discharge of the catch, the classification of the catch of the day and the operation of the electronic auction. The visit was guided by Jordan Lips, which made a summary of the fishing tradition of Dénia and its peculiarities, in addition to describing the arts commonly used: drag, trasmallo and longline.