CWe all remember, last year, the alarm over the exceptional spread of the blue crab in Veneto. Here you are, Chiara Pavan she is the chef, or rather cheffewhich dedicates a dish in each of its menus to that invasive and demonized species. Head of the restaurant’s starred cuisine Venissain the lagoon, thanks to its vocation for sustainability it conquered the Michelin green star. And, this year, another equally stellar gig. It is indeed the anti-waste “lookout” of MasterChef Italy 2024: again tonight, from 9.15pm, his role in Sky’s culinary talent show will be to check that the Live Cooking contestants use the raw materials to the best possible extent. Not only that: Chiara Pavan is also ambassador of the three-year European project LIFE Climate Smart Chefsproject coordinated by Barilla Foundation and aimed at educating chefs to cook and propose recipes with low environmental impact.
Who is Chiara Pavan, anti-waste “fourth judge” a MasterChef Italy 2024
With a small face and Amelie Poulain-style bangs, Chiara Pavan is a very tough guy, as she has already demonstrated in the first episode of the culinary talent show. Since 2017 he has been at the “Venissa” in Mazzorbo, an island in the Venetian lagoon: here, with his partner Francesco Brutto, he offers an “environmental cuisine” which (for four years) has done without meat and focuses on the seasonality of the products. In short, he is the perfect and charismatic icon of the anti-waste philosophy, both on MasterChef (orevery Thursday exclusively on Sky and streaming on NOW) how much for the project Life Climate Smart Chefs.
Interview with the cheffe, icon of environmental cuisine
Born in Verona in 1985, she was studying philosophy when she began to be interested in cooking. She trained under the guidance of female chefs: with Valeria Piccini “Da Caino” in Montemerano, two Michelin stars, and with Anna Matscher at “Zum Löwen” in Alto Adige, one Michelin star. But, above all, she cut her teeth from Alma, haute cuisine school in Colorno (Parma).
«I can say I served in the militaryfrom Alma: back then it was a very hierarchical environment, focused on team work. He taught me rigor, which was extreme there but which is truly fundamental in the kitchen. Even in today’s kitchens, which are decidedly healthier and based on collaboration.”
Chiara Pavan in her lagoon. The Venissa cheffe is the anti-waste “lookout” in the new season of MasterChef Italia, a Sky Original show produced by Endemol Shine Italy, every Thursday on Sky and NOW (photo by Chiara Dalla Rosa).
Chiara Pavan, a “beast” on MasterChef
The protection of rigor is his mission at MasterChef.
«How strict I am, right? They gave me that role, and… what a beast I feel! It’s certainly a part of my character. Also because, I truly believe, cooking is like a dance in which the entire dance troupe must do well, otherwise the gear breaks, the mechanism gets jammed. And it also applies to the order and respect for raw materials, which allow us to avoid waste.”
Where are we at in terms of awareness of our food waste?
«It’s certainly better than a few years ago. I remember episodes of MasterChef where the plates flew away, everything to be thrown away. The fact that they called me is indicative of a change in mentality. But there is still a long way to go: there is a lot of talk about a plant-based diet but it is theory. In reality, meat is still central to our daily lives, as in the menus of trattorias, which are popular. I am not for the total exclusion of animal protein but for its conscious limitation.”
Chef in the time of climate change
How does a cheffe’s cuisine change as a result of climate change?
«It changes a lot. In 2022, due to the great heat and low rainfall, in our hotspot, which is the Venetian lagoon, we lost fruit trees and a third of the vineyard. Every year we carefully evaluate what is best to sow based, for example, on the amount of salt in the soil due to drought. We work on halophytic plants, which also grow in these soils, and we always try to limit the water footprint of our menus (it is no coincidence that the Best Non-Profit Initiative awarded to Life Climate Smart Chefs Award, Horizon Salt, received recognition for the innovative use of halophytic plants in the Venetian Lagoon, ed.)”.
She is a creative person who does a lot of calculations.
«Many. There is a lot of thought in my work: philosophical and ethical, but not only. I also have to think a lot about food costs, the percentage of food waste, the water and carbon footprint of menus, and how to reduce them.”
A menu with low environmental impact: how to do it
Advice to our readers for good shopping?
«I would focus on fish, which is a little-discussed topic, while it is very hot. I invite you to always choose based on seasonality and only fish that comes from non-trawling, which destroys the seabed and devastates the posidionia, the nursery for the fish fry. And, of course, only fish that comes from our sea, even if, of course, it costs more.”
What should we expect from “your” MasterChef?
«You will see me as severe but… at the moment I don’t know anything, I’m just very nervous».
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