When you’re saving up for a meal at a popular restaurant in a city far away from your own, philanthropy and sustainability are probably far from your mind. For a Barcelona-based chef who has just won a major culinary humanitarian award, this is a problem that needs to be solved.
Andres Torres is a former war correspondent who turned his battlefield experiences into a famous restaurant.
Located in the Catalan wine region of Penedès, where he works as head chef, Torres’s Casa Nova serves customers high-level cuisine while encouraging them to think about where their expensive food comes from.
Torres received the prestigious Basque Culinary World Award and its €100,000 bonus this year. The award recognizes a restaurant that provides broader social and economic benefit from its endeavors outside the kitchen.
The former war correspondent divides his time between Casa Nova and running Global Humanitaria, a non-profit organization that works mainly in poor and war-torn countries to provide food and clean water sources to local populations.
It may seem incomprehensible that one person can run a kitchen and an international humanitarian organization, but these projects have a surprising level of intersectionality.
Torres’ Michelin Green Star restaurant directs a portion of its profits to Golbal Humanitaria. The food is inspired by places where Torres has reported and carried out humanitarian activities, including Guatemala, Syria and Ukraine.
Torres said luck Through a translator, he learned how the conflict affected local food ecosystems while reporting on the ground. As a self-trained chef, he decided the best way to portray this to the public was not through the press, but through cooking at Casa Nova.
Amid the existential questions surrounding the ills of tourism, Torres Restaurant is an example of a concept that can create more conscious travelers.
Conscious tourism
Barcelona residents have been among the most concerned about the resurgence of tourism across Europe, fueled by a “revenge travel” craze in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Besides the weather and the architectural wonders of the famous architect Gaudí, food tourism is a big draw for visitors to Catalonia.
The latter prompted locals to spray dining tourists with water pistols in July as they greeted them with chants of “go home” as they walked down Las Ramblas.
Reducing tourism to levels acceptable to local residents is unrealistic for many reasons, not least the employment of millions of people and relatively open borders that invite curious travelers from all over the world.
However, the ills of overtourism persist, affecting locals’ quality of life and disposable income as an increasing share of accommodation in major cities goes towards short-term rentals to serve travellers.
Barcelona is planning a ban Airbnb for short term rental from 2029 to free up housing supply for local residents, although it is uncertain what impact this will have on traveler numbers.
But in the dilemma between economic growth and appeasing frustrated locals, some cities are trying to find a middle ground between dazzled tourists and frustrated locals.
While Barcelona residents used the stick approach to curb excessive tourism, the Danish capital, Copenhagen, chose the carrot.
In July, Copenhagen introduced the “CopenPay” program, which rewards willing tourists with free museum trips, lunches and even kayak tours if they do community service. luck She stated that the surf school would provide free lessons to surfers if they helped clean the beaches for 30 minutes.
Within the complex autonomous region of Catalonia, Restaurant Torres is at the heart of this growing demand for conscious capitalism.
Torres has become popular with Generation Z visitors who have discovered his intestinal humanitarian activities, he said luckeven if they can’t always eat there.
However, the real target is high net worth individuals who are able to put their money where their mouth is. Many traveling foodies will come to Torres thanks to the positive reviews, but often engage in conversation with the chef about the origin of their meals.
Torres says a wealthy diner, who he does not name, donated to allow Torres to build a bunker for school children in Ukraine, to take shelter from the seemingly endless bombings from the Russian military operation.
He says many other philanthropists will use the dinner to decide whether to support Torres’ humanitarian projects.
He also recounted a recent experience where a table of Russian citizens and a separate table of Ukrainians could discuss the ramifications of the conflict over dinner.
Torres believes that more restaurants in Europe need to focus on sustainability, explaining where their food comes from and giving tourists an idea of not only the local ecosystem, but the global ecosystem as well.
If this becomes the norm, hungry tourists may leave with full stomachs.