There’s More Than One Thing Inside a Pumpkin

A pumpkin is much more than the part that usually reaches our plate. Its skin, seeds, fibres and other parts that are often discarded hold gastronomic possibilities capable of transforming what we once considered waste into a new ingredient.
In this showcooking, Danko Perkovic, chef and founder of MEL DE TERR, will demonstrate how the principles of circular gastronomy can be applied using an everyday ingredient such as pumpkin. A practical demonstration exploring how using food in its entirety can open up new possibilities in the kitchen, create different flavours and textures and, at the same time, help reduce food waste.
Through a series of preparations, Perkovic will introduce the working method behind MEL DE TERR, a research and development project specialising in transforming underused food resources into new ingredients. One of its main areas of research is the production of vegetable, fruit and cereal molasses, exploring the gastronomic potential of products and parts of food that would normally fall outside the consumption chain.
Pumpkin will provide the common thread to demonstrate that every part of an ingredient can be given a new life. From the flesh to the seeds, skin and fibres, the showcooking will explore different techniques and possibilities for making full use of ingredients in professional kitchens.
A proposal combining creativity, sustainability and gastronomic innovation, while encouraging a new way of looking at ingredients: making better use of available resources, highlighting the value of local produce and understanding that what we discard can sometimes become the starting point for a new culinary creation.
Because there really is more than one thing inside a pumpkin.