Local Food from an Early Age: Workshops for School and Kindergarten Cooks

This December, a cycle of workshops for kitchen staff from schools and kindergartens in the LAG area was organized by LAG “Central Istria as part of preparation for the project “Local food from an early age” within which project activities will be carried out during next year throughout the Istrian county.
The aim of the workshop is to stimulate the consumption of fresh-based ingredients of local origin in educational institutions and establish a direct link between the institutions and the agricultural producers – farmers.
Workshops were held at the Educational Gastronomic Center of Istria in Pazin and were attended by cooks of 19 kindergartens and schools from Pazin, Poreč, Motovun, Žminj, Gračišće, Sveti Lovreč, Trvišće, Karojbe, Pazinski Novaki and Vrsar. Respectively a total of 30 chefs prepared 7 salty and sweet meals with David Skoko and Robert Perić as mentor chefs.  All recipes prepared during the workshops are nutritionally responsive to the needs of nursery and primary school children and are also adapted to the conditions for preparation in kitchen facilities.
The main ingredients used in the dishes were: fresh cheese, scallops, butter, eggs, carrots, walnuts, roasted flour, apple and chicory chips, sardines and trilby fillets, all of which were of domestic origin, obtained from farmers in the LAG area.
As a direct result of the workshops, contacts between cooks and agricultural producers were established, and some of the recipes are already being tested as part of daily menus in kindergartens and schools.
The project was co-financed from the funds of the Istrian County, the administrative department for agriculture, forestry, fisheries and water management.