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Danko Perkovic

Danko Perkovic | Mel de Terr Barcelona, Spain

Biography

Danko Perkovic is a chef and founder of MEL DE TERR, with more than 20 years of international experience in fine-dining restaurants and five-star luxury hotels.
Throughout his career, he has led the kitchens of Casa Amalia 1950 Mercat, The Strawberry Tree (Ireland), Informal by Marc Gascons and Hotel Serras, and was part of the elBulli team from 2010 to 2011.
Since 2022, he has focused part of his professional activity on gastronomic research and innovation, exploring new ways to make use of underutilised food resources and transform them into ingredients with new culinary possibilities.
He currently leads MEL DE TERR, an R&D project focused on circular gastronomy, the full use of food resources and the development of new ingredients, bringing together creativity, sustainability and innovation in the kitchen.

Sessions

13:00h

Showcooking | .

There’s More Than One Thing Inside a Pumpkin

Danko Perkovic Mel de Terr Chef Speaker

2026-11-04 13:00 2026-11-04 14:00 Europe/Madrid 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. Aula Alimentació Sostenible Barcelona

Wed 4

13:00h - 14:00h Aula Alimentació Sostenible Barcelona Free access