The Spirit of Pollenzo on a Plate
Back again this year at the Academic Tables is the Ten Menus for Ten Students project, conceived by the students of the Pollenzo university together with Nicola Perullo, associate professor of Aesthetics.
After last year’s success, which centered on numerous students from many different countries, a new group of young men and women have come up with more culinary styles linked not only to territory, but also themes related to encounters between places and cultures, and that feature an overabundance of inspiration, fusion, and stories of the past and present.
The Academic Tables, besides being a one of a kind university cafeteria, are in fact a place for experimentation and transfer of knowledge using food as the favored instrument, of sociality and of sharing.
The storytelling aspect of the ten menus is one of the focal points of the project: each group of students involved has developed a series of dishes that speak, narrate, and, of course, nourish.
The first students to open the series were Elisabeth Wittich and Sofia Elisabeth Berlinghof, on May 9th, with a proposal on the culinary identity of their country of origin, Germany, but with a deeper exploration of what lies behind some dishes, the result of passages, exchanges, and development.
On May 21st, the trio composed of Phillip Oggiano, Gianmaria Fasce, and Davide Esposito took their turn, proposing a “Green Menu” dedicated to spring and all the green facets of gastronomy: vegetables, legumes, and also a bit of fish.
It was Sicily’s turn on May 28th, with the flavors of the Vucciria, the traditional market of Palermo, presented by Antonio Conticello. The table featured some iconic dishes of the island: caponata, arancina (fried, stuffed rice balls), pani ca’ meusa (spleen sandwich), and cannoli.
June 4th was time for the menu “Personal Storytelling Dishes” by Indian student Smriti Rao, Swiss student Philippe Kaempf, and French student Matthieu Romain Tristain Lecuit: three flavors from their countries of origin, with some original touches.
The next appointments before the end of the summer break are for June 11th with the “Medicinal Menu” of Andrea Pera and Naomi Ann Maisel and June 18th with a “Garden Revolution Menu” curated by Amber Bewick and Safiye Karuna Akdag.
Continuing the program in autumn will be the Israeli-Sicilian group Good Mood Food with “Tell Me What You Eat and I Tell You Who You Are – Meal of Diversity”, then the team from Salento and Ecuador with Vincenzo Antonaci and Matteo Gongora, and then the intriguing “Rich Menu, Poor Menu” with Paolo Salvatore, GIacomo Gentile, and Quirino Tedesco.
Following that, there will be Lorenzo Breda with dishes from the Venetian tradition, and then finally Elisa Cionchi and Vlad Robu with “Codru, Typical Moldavian Cuisine.”
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