Slow Food: key words
Learning Community
A learning community is composed of various people interested in food, who organize educational projects. It is not only a question of creating relationships around a particular initiative, but of forming a community where learning is understood as a constructive, mutual process of learning and educating.
Educational Projects - Contents
1.) UNISG: the University of Gastronomic Sciences
2.) UCC Diploma in Speciality Food Production Course
2a.)UCC Bursary
Subsections
i.) Article by David Prior, UNISG Student who visited Ireland as part of his Diploma
IMPORTANT NEWS ON UCC DIPLOMA - New Dates Scheduled (this page updated 2nd June 2007)
UCC Diploma - Rescheduled
UCC DIPLOMA IN SPECIALITY FOOD PRODUCTION
UCC have now rescheduled the Diploma in Speciality Food Production.
The course format has changed to a part-time basis which will run throughout the academic year 2007/2008. It will commence on the 10th September 2007 with one full week session and two day sessions every three weeks thereafter.
UCC would also like to to thank all applicants for their continued support for the Diploma and look forward to the future development of this important national initiative.
Please down load the brochure, and application forms below
download brochurerevised.pdf
download application_formrevised.pdf
For more information on the Course please call:
Mary MacCarthy-Buckley:
Tel: (021) 4903178
Email: fitu@ucc.ie
The Slow Food Bursaries will still apply...
All existing application have been passed to Mary MacCarthy-Buckley and Dr. Seamus McSweeney and will remain on the files. We very much hope to be able to see you back on the re-scheduled dates.
Giana Ferguson - West Cork Slow Food
Tel: 028 28231
For more information on the Course please call:
Mary MacCarthy-Buckley:
Tel: (021) 4903178
Email: fitu@ucc.ie
Scroll down for more details on the course
1.) UNISG: the University of Gastronomic Sciences
Have you ever sipped olive oil and wondered why you’re tasting black pepper and green bananas? Eaten a piece of Parmesan right from the wheel, surrounded by shelves of the stuff piled three stories high? Questioned why Madeira takes oh-so-long to slide seductively down the inside of your glass? At the University of Gastronomic Sciences, students learn not just the answers to such queries, but the reasons those answers are important. Blending classroom time with analytical food tastings, field-study expeditions, and small-group seminars, programs merge anthropology with biochemistry, history, marketing, packaging design, agriculture, and much more. And this all in the hills of Piedmont, home to some of the best wines of Italy (or anywhere). Co-founded by Slow Food in 2004 with the goal of building food-industry and food-culture leaders for the complex realities of today, the University of Gastronomic Sciences offers plenty for active minds to chew on. But we think it’s better to stop and think a bit, before swallowing anything whole. So for more information, visit www.unisg.it.
Pictures from the UNISG
LETTER FROM CARLO PETRINI, REGARDING THE UNIVERSITY OF GASTRONOMIC SCIENCE, ITALY
Dear Friends,
As many of you may recall, last year we contacted you to ask you to spread the word about the University of Gastronomic Sciences around your area and particularly to let us know about any young people who might be interested in attending the course here. Some of you will be receiving this information for the first time, so we’ll briefly repeat the message.
This letter comes out of the desire to create an ever-stronger link between the various spheres of Slow Food and the University of Gastronomic Sciences.
Our University is becoming an increasingly international community, reflecting the development of our movement and amplifying its resonance in the academic world.
Following the dialogue begun at Terra Madre and the growth of the Slow Food Foundation’s projects to defend biodiversity as part of the greater aim of promoting sustainable food production, we believe that the University is key to teaching a new generation a new way of thinking about food from production to consumption.
Because of this, we would like to give young people from all over the world the opportunity to come visit our University and spend some time with the current students.
The University is planning to host aspiring applicants for a week in Pollenzo. During this time they will have the chance to get to know the campus, the teachers, the syllabus and the aims of the project and learn how to apply to the degree course in Gastronomic Sciences.
These visits will be possible from 16th April to 31st May 2006. A selection will be made from among all the candidates with the aim of choosing 15 young people who are strongly interested in applying to the degree course for the next academic year, 2007/2008.
This will be an extraordinary occasion for them to learn more about the teaching program, the philosophy and work of Slow Food and the realities of student life.
While participants will be responsible for their own travel expenses, board and lodging will be provided by the University (visitors will be hosted in student housing and can eat at the student canteen).
We would like to ask for your help in finding and selecting young people for this project, people you know who in your opinion would benefit from this kind of experience.
This will be an important investment for Slow Food in the world: the young people who have this opportunity, and who we hope will also apply to the University, will be able to provide solid support for the association in their respective countries of origin.
The students who attend the University receive a specialized education in all aspects of food culture, and in the future they will be able to transfer their knowledge into the development of new projects, a consolidation of the associative life of Slow Food and the diffusion of a renewed gastronomy.
Therefore I would like to invite you to visit the University’s website (www.unisg.it, in Italian and English, constantly updated and enriched) where you will find detailed descriptions of the degree course and Masters; information on the syllabi, teachers and international stages; news about extra teaching activites and on seminars and conferences open to the public; and where you can subscribe to our e-mail newsletter, sent out once a month in Italian and English.
We ask you to send us, as soon as you can, possible names (and addresses) of young people who would be interested in learning more about the Gastronomic Sciences degree course: the University will then contact them to provide information on how to apply for this visitor’s program.
Please note that the deadline for the application is 30th March 2007.
Thank you for your invaluable help. I would also like to take this opportunity to give you my warm regards.
Carlo Petrini
2.) UCC Diploma in Speciality Food Production Course
For Further Details, please also:
- download the below PDF Files
- Read the information below
download brochure.pdf
download application_form.pdf
2a.)Bursary for UCC
Slow Food West Cork has two Full Bursaries for the UCC Diploma in Speciality food Production Course
To apply and to learn more about the course please see below...
Geographical Area for Applicants: West Cork
Suggested eligibility / Criteria for application for the Bursary:
To have left School with a Leaving Certificate, or equivalent as a minimum Educational Standard.
The Applicant would best be from a Farming or Fishing background or to have had contact through family with traditional food making or selling. If this doesn't apply precisely and an applicant is very clear about a proposed Speciality Food that he/she is interested in making they would certainly be considered.
Slow Food West Cork would like to think that with this bursary, and the advantage of the UCC Diploma Speciality Food Production Course to support them, two new West Cork businesses could be established bringing to the Farmer's Markets and the West Cork population some new Irish Slow Foods!
To Apply:
Together with your name address and all contact details, please send in your own words (150 words or more), an outline setting down your plan for the foods you want to produce and the back ground ideas that have inspired the idea along with thevision for the first two years of production. The outline would be viewed only by the panel of judges who will be assessing the applicants and will not be published or used in any way outside of this panel'swork.
Application Deadline: 15th March.
To:Slow Food West Cork, c/o. Gubbeen House, Schull, Co Cork.- OR - email:cheese@gubbeen.com
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NUI Diploma in Speciality Food Production:
Quality products, sustainable businesses
University College Cork
April/May 2005
Background
During recent years Ireland, as elsewhere in Europe, has witnessed considerable growth in the small food enterprise sector. This sector is characterised by craftsmanship and a high ‘hand-made’ element producing relatively low volume but high value foods. While many of the innovators behind this resurgence have been new entrants to rural food production in Ireland, on-farm production of high quality specialist food and direct selling through short food supply chains is becoming increasingly attractive amongst established farm families both for monetary reward and creating employment for family members. This new course is for individuals who are considering starting a speciality food business as well as for those already involved in the sector as producers, retailers, culinary specialists, buyers, food designers, journalists and so on.
Structure
This National University of Ireland Diploma will be held over a four-week period in a “summer school” block format beginning 11th April 2005. The course will involve preparatory work beforehand and a project assignment will be completed after the four-week block of lectures and workshops.
Aims and Objectives
· To provide a broad understanding of the growing differentiation of the food market in which a significant segment of consumers are motivated by characteristics of taste, traceability, sustainability and proximity.
· To encourage a more reflective analysis of the wider social, historical, cultural and economic changes that has led to the emergence of this new food culture.
· To provide an insight into the challenges of creating a small food enterprise and the skills required to manage a successful business.
· To provide essential scientific background in the field of food science and technology including elements of food microbiology, food safety, food chemistry, process technologies, nutrition and sensory food science.
· To provide intensive workshops on HACCP, information retrieval, and regulations/legislation.
· To provide an introduction to small business management, financing and marketing.
Course Fee
The course fee will be €2,500. A limited number of bursaries will be available to delegates.
Further information
Mary McCarthy-Buckley
Food Industry Training Unit
Faculty of Food Science & Technology
University College Cork
Cork
Tel: (021) 4903178
Email: fitu@ucc.ie
i.) Article by David Prior, (July 2007) UNISG Student who visited Ireland as part of his Diploma
Travelling to Ireland with the University of Gastronomic Sciences was like finding the vital piece of the wider Slow Food puzzle. Being an Australian and living in Bra, the home of Slow Food I have two very different ideas of what Slow Food is. Seeing how the Slow Food message tailors itself to each very different country has provided a much clearer insight into what is happening globally. The Irish experience for me acts as a bridge between Australia and Italy.
As Italy it is a country that has unique products and a rich culinary tradition to be preserved. Like Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom it has seen a massive proliferation of fast food with all the health and social problems that go in hand with that. So Slow Food Ireland is operating in a very real way on two fronts.
Ireland has had good press in the past years and almost without exception any writing on the topic of Ireland has made much of its recent prosperity and confidence. From an outsider perspective it is clear that there has been a shaking off of long held clichés and stereotypes and that there is a sense of real pride in all that is Irish. This confidence has translated to the producers, cooks, food academics, brewers, cheese makers, and fishermen and, in turn the consumers at one of the many new farmers markets dotted across the country. Visiting the various places we did, and meeting such diverse people there was only one discernible thing each had in common, a kind of wide-eyed excitement that only comes with a special kind of discovery. It is perhaps not an understatement to say that only relatively recently has it become clear, for historical reasons surely, what exactly this beautiful green landscape and its surrounding seas are capable of in a food production sense. The enthusiasm for it is infectious and charming but well founded as the products tasted were, without exception, a terrific expression of place, environment, people and history. Tastes as diverse as antique apples, wild periwinkles, world beating farmhouse cheeses, incomparable stout, spring lamb, freshly picked sea kale and the palest blue duck eggs. The generosity, openness and willingness to teach and share their knowledge was much appreciated, as was the unique opportunity for all to see a nation’s palate in revolution. A rare experience, not easily forgotten.
David Prior