Diego Demarco, naturist chef and promoter of sustainable cuisine. At the age of 19, he studied a degree in International Gastronomy and has been involved in the field for almost 20 years. For 15 years he has been working with healthy, vegetarian and vegan cuisine, and for 8 he has been promoting sustainable, healthy, conscious and naturist cooking and eating.
(Photo: Diego Demarco's Instagram)
Mariano Pisani: How did the idea of a sustainable gastronomy arise?
Diego Demarco: It was born from a personal need. I needed to improve my diet in order to improve my health, since I lived with some allergies, which, thanks to eliminating certain foods, disappeared over time. That made me rethink myself as a cook. And I thought, if I am going to provide food to other people and since food is one of our main fuels, it must be of quality and cannot dirty the body. And there I began an inexhaustible path of constant search, study, research and testing, which continues today in order to improve more and more the knowledge that I can share to help everyone who needs to improve their health. That, unfortunately, due to the lifestyle and diet that we have led in the last 20 years, there are many such people.
M: How would you define sustainable gastronomy?
D: For me, it should be a kitchen that includes many points: the health of the diner, the health of the land, the ecosystem and the environment where its ingredients come from. Also good culinary practices, awareness when choosing ingredients and combining them, and that no food is wasted, that you can take advantage of all the parts of each of its ingredients, especially in fruits and vegetables. In addition, tools such as fermentation that allow full use, nutritional enhancement and a wide range of flavors are included.
M: Besides fermentation, what other tools would you include?
D: The good knowledge of agriculture and the origin of its ingredients. Knowing more about what foods each season gives me and the importance of taking advantage of them at that time of the year and not at another. And in the kitchen: dehydration in solar where this is possible, steam cooking, long cereals and legumes. Also the activation of seeds, the long and slow fermentation of masses, among other things.
M: How important is sustainable cooking in Argentine gastronomy?
D: I see that recently, since the pandemic, there is a little more room for this type of cuisine. With which I feel that it is not massive yet.
M: Can it be compared to the rise of food without tac?
D: They are different things.
M: What would you recommend to a person who approaches this type of gastronomy?
D: Try to live it, feel the benefits in your body, not only nutritional and medicinal, but also the satisfaction of providing something that contributes to the construction of this new world that many of us want to build. From the plate as food and, through it, involving as many people as possible. Like those who cultivate, collect, pack, transport, etc.
M: What's the best dish to start with?
Q: I think it would be a dish where you can include whole grains, seasonal vegetables, activated seeds, some yeast and some wild plants and edible flowers. And, if possible, that they are agroecological ingredients. It could be a fermented millet porridge, with raw spinach, pickled cerraja buds and, on top, a spinach stem and root pesto with chopped activated nuts. To finish with some sauerkraut and Santa Rita flowers or violets, and a few drops of homemade pomegranate vinegar.
M: What is probiotic cooking?
Q: Probiotic cooking, for me, is cooking that is crossed by this variety of techniques such as fermentation, activation, dehydration and others, which what they do is allow different microorganisms to develop to improve the food wherever it is I can look at. to it.
M: How much does it influence sustainable gastronomy?
Q: Well, from the activation of the cereal, such as pearl barley grains to improve digestibility and cooking. From the fermentation of an almond cream to improve its flavor. From a maceration of some vegetables it could also be born. And in the use of some cabbage stalks or some fermented milk beet stalks. I think all these tools give sustainable cooking the chance to fly a little more with flavors, textures, aromas and, of course, improve the dishes from a nutritional point of view.
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