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Blanca del Noval, Head Researcher at the BCulinaryLAB, part of the Basque Culinary Centre at the University in San Sebastián, Spain shares the work that they do to develop society through gastronomy.
Bringing an academic approach to the exploration of food, flavour and sustainability, the BCulinaryLAB asses the current gastronomic practices in the Basque region and investigates ways they can be expanded on and developed.
The BCulinaryLAB is a kitchen/laboratory mainly focus on innovation and creativity driven by techniques and products like fermentation and wild plants. Taking sustainability as the core of every research and development, using new techniques to use “food waste” from product development with gastronomical value.
Highlighting examples of the lab’s work, such as with waste whey from sheep’s milk, resulting in an animal based mescal-like alcohol with complex and interesting flavour profiles. Or their work with the Cornicabra bean. Borrowing from the Turkish tradition which uses them to brew a type of coffee. Adding fermentation techniques, the lab was able to produce their own version of the coffee with more sweetness and complexity of flavour.
The Spanish born, del Noval , herself a graduate of the Gastronomy and Culinary Arts programme of the Basque Culinary Center, has worked at different restaurants around the world such as IndeWulf (Belgium) and Central (Peru).
