Teachers from Ibiza and Tallinn (Estonia) yesterday gave a culinary demonstration as part of the Zero Waste Chefs EU educational project, funded by the EU
Ibiza, June 18, 2025 — The Tierra de Ibiza restaurant was the setting for the “From Waste to Taste” event, a “cook-off” that took place on Tuesday afternoon, in which teachers from the vocational Cookery course at IES Isidor Macabich (Eivissa) and Tallinna Teeninduskool (TEKO), of Estonia, created creative dishes with ingredients that would otherwise have been wasted.
The event, coordinated by IbizaPreservation and part of the Zero Waste Chefs EU project, funded by the European Union through the Erasmus+ program, brought together representatives from the educational sector, the restaurant industry, local environmental organisations, and public institutions. In Tierra de Ibiza’s open kitchen, the 22 attendees were able to witness the creation of sustainable recipes using leftover food and sample the results, demonstrating firsthand that, in the words of the organisers, “it is possible to cook consciously without sacrificing flavour or quality.”
Representing Isidor Macabich school, Juan Fernández Gines, Enric Tuduri Sanchis and Juan Tur Serra presented a vegetable pastry made with carrots, cauliflower, aubergine, tomatoes, cucumbers, mangos, red peppers, onions, and leeks, all pickled or preserved in oil. “These are all products we’ve been working on throughout the course, and today we wanted to present them in our recipes through a coherent and thoughtful approach to cooking with leftovers,” Fernández explained.
TEKO faculty members Veronika Eesmann, Sofia Vakulich, and Svetlana Elfimova prepared canapés using Estonian black bread with quail eggs and spiced marinated herring, and crisps made from carrot peel, Jerusalem artichoke and sauerkraut, as well as a black bread layer cake for dessert. “We chose traditional ingredients like black bread and cured fish, which reflect our culinary history and age-old ways of preserving food,” Vakulich noted, adding that the crisps were made from leftovers from the student grading exercise, “a creative example of how to reduce food waste in the kitchen.”
During the event, IbizaPreservation also presented the “Good Practice Guide for Zero Waste Kitchens,” a forthcoming educational tool that includes recycling and conservation techniques , zero-waste recipes created by students from both colleges, and teaching proposals for integrating sustainability into the training cycle. The guide will be distributed throughout Europe as a reference tool for educational centers, the hospitality sector, and environmental organisations.
This publication is a tool developed within the framework of Zero Waste Chefs EU , an educational project led by IbizaPreservation , which aims to reduce food waste in the restaurant sector through professional training . The initiative promotes sustainable and zero-waste cooking practices among future professionals in the sector, fostering environmental commitment and innovation in waste management.
Developed in collaboration with IES Isidor Macabich and TEKO colleges, the project has enabled teachers and students to be trained in leftover cooking techniques with a focus on environmental sustainability, promoting real changes in culinary teaching and practice .
“Zero Waste Chefs EU promotes changes in habits, both in the very concept of cooking and in the preparation of dishes, but above all, in work processes. More and more restaurants worldwide are embracing this zero-waste approach and local produce as a model based on the circular economy and environmental sustainability. This is the path we must follow,” insisted Itziar Arratibel, Director of Programmes at IbizaPreservation, who also took the opportunity to thank the two colleges for their commitment to the project. “We are very pleased to see how changes and improvements have been implemented in both product management and educational activities: transformations that, when driven by teachers and schools, can contribute meaningfully to advancing circular economy models,” she emphasised.
