The advanced training course promoted by the Barilla Foundation which opens the doors of catering to young people under 30 who are motivated and with the desire to change their lives. Here’s how it works
From the classroom to the kitchen: it is the professional integration path for young people from the Barilla Foundation. The teaching phase of the fourth edition of the program has concluded, offering training and employment opportunities to young people under 30 in conditions of social or economic vulnerability. The doors of paid internships in restaurants, bistros and large-scale retail trade companies are now opening for this year’s ten participants. This brings the number of young people trained from 2023 to today to 53 through this path, which combines the technical skills of catering with specific attention to the environmental impact and equity of the food system.
What does the Barilla Foundation project involve?
The project includes the training courses are completely free. The students, identified through the Italian Red Cross and a network of over one hundred associations operating in the tertiary sector, do not bear any costs: on the contrary, they are accompanied and supported throughout all the steps.
The start of the internship represents the final step of a model that accompanies participants from selection to entry into the world of work. A path made possible also thanks to the collaboration with partners such as Esselunga and Megamark, who over the years have contributed to creating concrete professional opportunities for students.
«The Barilla Foundation School was born from the belief that talent and motivation can emerge in any context, if accompanied by quality training opportunities», he explains Matteo Pauri, Director of the Barilla Foundation «The concept of “chefs of the future” also fits into this vision: the Foundation trains a new generation of aware cooking professionals, capable of combining technical skills and attention to environmental and social impact: true cultural ambassadors. Through their experience in the kitchens of restaurants and delicatessens throughout Italy, they will be able to spread responsible practices, helping to “plant seeds” of awareness along the entire gastronomic supply chain. A multiplier effect that aims to transform the sector from within.”
What you study at cooking school and practical experiences
The project’s study plan, since its inception, has been developed with the scientific and strategic contribution of the professor Riccardo Valentini, professor of ecologyUniversity of Tuscia, Nobel Peace Prize winner with IPCC, member ofadvisory board of the Barilla Foundation, which contributed to integrating solid attention to environmental issues and responsibility along the entire food supply chain into the process.
Coordinated by chef Alberto Gipponi (one of the chefs who is redesigning the paradigms of contemporary Italian cuisine), they also participated in masterclasses with professionals coming from all over Italy and to teaching experiences at some of the sector’s top companies, including the Milanese ice cream laboratory of Ciacco and the trattoria, a reference point for the Emilian tradition, I Due Platani in Parma, directly dealing with different approaches, techniques and professional models.
«In these eight weeks, students have experienced a training course organized in a campus model, which includes room and board, in Parma, with lessons on technique, food culture and field experiences», adds the chef Alberto Gipponi, educational director of the School. «Theoretical lessons, combined with field experiences to work on understanding food systems, environmental impact and the link between cuisine and territory. The masterclasses, educational visits and discussions with professionals from all over Italy allowed the boys and girls to broaden their perspective on the profession. Today, the internship represents the moment in which all this wealth of knowledge is compared with the reality of work.”
