A medical oncologist looking for the most suitable diets for his patients or an architect interested in linking the urban design of cities to their food system. They are two of the profiles of the students of the "Master Food City Design" organized by four UNESCO Creative Cities of Gastronomy, among which is Dénia, with its leading universities. This transnational master's degree in Gastronomy began its journey this Thursday with 27 students from very diverse backgrounds.
The students themselves expressed their interests in the telematic opening of the course. He was surprised by the variety of fields and fields of knowledge that show his interest in gastronomy as a strategic element and a basic pillar of his activity. The student body includes professionals from the world of tourism, nutrition and food production, but also from engineering, chemistry, art, economics, medicine and even philosophy.
In the opening day, representatives of the institutions that actively participate, contributing professors, syllabi and practices participated. Dénia's intervention was in charge of Alexandre Peretó, technical coordinator of the Center de Gastronomia del Mediterrani UA – Dénia (GASTERRA), who presented a video on the training, research and promotion activities carried out by the center. Peretó pointed out that, from the University of Alicante and Dénia, as the City of Gastronomy, four major issues are contributed to the master's program: gastronomy as a tourist resource; the key role of the local gastronomic ecosystem; the importance of food sovereignty and the Mediterranean diet and health.
This agenda will be developed through several sessions by five professors from different departments of the University of Alicante: Samuel Ortiz (Gastronomic Tourism and Local Development), María Hernández (Gastronomic Landscape and Cities), Antonio Belda (Biodiversity, Agriculture and Traditional Food), and Eva María Trescastro and Ana Zaragoza (Food Policies and Education).
The master is led by the University of Parma (Italy) and the University of Bergen (Norway), the Mid Sweden University representing the city of Östersund (Sweden) and the University of Alicante have joined through GASTERRA. The training contents, coordinated by the School of Advanced Studies in Food and Nutrition of the Italian university, focus on the promotion of sustainable local food value chains. A total of 60 ECTS credits will be taken and the classes will be online. Although in principle it was planned to carry out face-to-face practices in the four cities of the UNESCO network, finally and in response to the evolution of the COVID 19 pandemic, it has been decided to do them also in telematic format.
