The Cook It Raw Journey
by Alessandro Porcelli
How did we go this far? how it became so big? how did we manage to capture the collective imagination of the world? Where did it all start?
In mid 2000, the world of gastronomy was ripe for change, something was boiling under the surface, interest on Scandinavian and Northern culinary traditions and untouched biodiversity was raising dramatically, and light was gradually being shed on the so far neglected lands of the north.
If northern cuisine was reaching the zenith of world gastronomy, the so far prevalent hype over the molecular, science-inspired and highly visual style of Adria and Blumenthal was reaching its peak and losing steam.
As emphatically stated in Terry Durack article for The Independent: This was one of those "I was there when..." moments. […] Whatever this new movement will be called – Raw, New Nordic, or (my preferred) SuperNatural – it makes Heston Blumenthal, Ferran Adrià and the rest look like old boffins, working in their laboratories making spaghetti out of clarified egg yolks while outside, young chefs walk through meadows and wade through streams, finding their inspiration in nature”.
Renewed interest for nature, soil, and connection with produce was more and more biting away at the obsession for technique and sophistication. A shift was happening from Spain to the north.
Cook It Raw in Alberta
We understood we could ride this wave: the uncontaminated nature of the north was the perfect backdrop of a new narrative, a narrative of nature, of fragments of nature taken into the dishes.
At the same time, globally, we sensed chefs craved for connection. Was during my time as head of communication at Noma, that together with Rene we were experimenting a new idea of chef, out of his sacred temple-kitchen, out of his comfort zone, and ever more questioning, discovering and re-discovering, connecting with the environment, with the forgotten products, and with fellow chefs. Coming from basket, I loved this idea of getting out there and teaming up, to work together towards a gastronomy celebrating localism and nature.
This was the time, in 2007, when I came up with the idea of the first gathering of International chefs and Looking North was the result. Allan Passard, Massimo Bottura, Wylye Dufrasne and Carlo Cracco were amongst the group invited to experiment with the best Nordic produces we could lay our hands on.
In 2008 I developed another concept, this time was under the auspices of Wonderful Copenhagen, for whom I worked as a consultant and head of the steering group that drew ideas for Copenhagen Cooking food festival. The idea was to demystify high end cuisine by having the chefs serving food samples to the public. I gathered 17 top restaurants from all Denmark and the south of Sweden for this occasion, which turned out a major success with almost 3000 people showing up.
I was approached by the Danish government, back then they started taking an interest in looking at possibilities on promoting national gastronomy, and accepted to help them shaping a new model. I knew where high-end cuisine was going, and I wanted to use this newly-found enthusiasm for nature and the environment to promote Danish cuisine and to nurture and facilitate an arena for chefs, for them to exchange ideas, learn from each other, and become friends.
So I did a study for the Ministry of Economics and Business Affairs about gastronomy promotion based on these 2 founding ideas: nature and a new chef culture based on collaboration and experimentation.
Fishing in Lapland
The government wanted this ideas to come to life, and there was no better time that taking the chance of the 2009 UN Climate Summit of Copenhagen. I was given support and funding to organise an event where the desires and moods and this upraising culinary style would be conveyed: love of nature and chef collaboration. The first Cook It Raw was born.
In this inaugural gathering the focus was on exploring nature and its place in contemporary gastronomy. Ingredients were foraged in the grounds of Dragsholm Castle before the chefs were challenged to each create a dish for the event’s closing dinner using zero energy. We wanted and needed to give a strong environmental message, it was necessary to reinforce and stress the themes of the climate change summit. Every dish created needed to carry such message. For example, Massimo Bottura came up with Pollution, a seafood creation, muddy and murky like the ocean pollution, like the bleak desperation and anguish for the dying sea. But surprisingly delicious like the taste of hope, of change of direction, of redemption.
Cook It Raw number 1 was such a success that we decided to make it a recurrent annual event, every time in a different, iconic location, because developing a sense of place is so integral to the philosophy of Cook It Raw.
THE PREVIOUS FORMAT
With Cook It Raw we wanted to establish an occasion to explore cultures, communities and natural environments through the lens of food. We wanted to create a space for chefs taken out of their comfort zone, but at the same time safe, protected, tolerant, and understanding. A playground to forge and foster mutual empathy, friendship, and creativity. A platform for culinary creatives to feel free and true to themselves, away from the pressure of the professional kitchen, form their expected public role of stardom, and from media attention.
“At Cook It Raw, chefs are invited somewhere new each year to learn, to exchange ideas. And, most interestingly, to fail, gloriously, by creating dishes they have never attempted before.”
SNAPS OF PAST EDITIONS
And so it went. We started in Copenhagen by learning that no matter how neglected and little-known the place, there is a wealth of precious biodiversity and wonderful products to turn into imaginative and delicious food.
In the following 10 years of this adventure, we toyed with strong, wild, and primitive winter products and people in Italy’s remote north-east region of Collio, a social melting pot between Italy and Slovenia where we were confronted with the links between cultures and countries; we used mighty and inhospitable nature as an open workshop in Lapland, where the chef researched the countryside with their own fingers, and foraged, fished and hunted for raw materials; we relived incredible rituals and ancient traditions, we witnessed the incredible respect for materials and craftsmanship, and we explored the interconnection between food and art craftsmanship in Ishikawa, japan; we encountered a melting pot of ethnicities and cultural influences in the exceptionally pure, glacier-shaped landscapes of Poland’s Suwalki region, where we gathered chefs, hunters, anthropologists, artists, farmers, and foragers, all under the intention of sharing ideas and transmitting traditions.
In Charleston (USA) we were confronted with the bitter side of the food supply chain and the appropriation of Africa-originated food cultures during the slavery time, and we discovered how tradition can help, and not hinder, change. We experienced the Maya tradition, rituals, and stories through the lens of their unique food culture in Yucatan, and we brought our group of international chefs to explore how culinary traditions are kept alive through the ritual aspects of contemporary Mayan culture; we learnt about ancestral practices and elements of frontier identities in remote Alberta, Canada; we worked as mentors, helping local chefs, producers and farmers identify the materials and techniques that are unique to their region and then helping to craft a strong culinary narrative; we witnessed the power of the ocean dominating the sleeping giant Norway, and we debated and experimented with ways in which innovation built on old knowledge can be the key for developing new ways of food production.
