Magazine

Keyword: food quality!

Good morning to you all, I am Gianni Aste, from Trentino, born in Rovereto where I still live in the short breaks that my work gives me. I am the head chef of Casa Raphael, the only center in Italy for anthroposophical medicine that at the same time "coexists" with a higher-level hotel reality. 

My daily challenge is to be able to find a way in which our guests discover the taste, authenticity and healthiness of dishes that are neither dull nor poor. To give our guests, who arrive for a period of care and rest, the opportunity to find a quality and variety in the dishes that makes their stay seem more like a holiday than a period of care. 

It is of fundamental importance to preserve the organoleptic qualities of the food we eat. "Quality" is a word that reveals a way of being, that is the True Nature of what it refers to.
 
How to reach this goal? Strictly following these basic principles of anthroposophical nutrition, diligently respected in the kitchen of the Casa Raphael. 

First, be careful about what you buy: 
• Better if the products come from organic and biodynamic agriculture; 
• Let us get out of the meshes of mass distribution! Prefer the production of small local companies that follow a solid code of ethics; 
• Better to buy flour and cereals of Italian origin and, when this is not possible, managed by fair trade networks. 

Refined or raw? The more a food has undergone modifications, the less it will give us its precious nutrients: 
• Replace classic wheat with spelt or grains of ancient variety; 
• Let's forget about white sugar and use only unrefined sugar; 
• Let us avoid the use of yeast; to make bread, we can use sourdough, while for desserts I prefer cremor tartaro. 

Eliminate! Not the pleasure of the table, do not be afraid. Eliminate the false friends of our daily kitchen, all those chemical ingredients or conservation practices that remove the food from its original flavor: 
• No to the nut, glutamate or any other preparation for the broth; 
• No to additives, dyes and preservatives of synthesized origins 
• No use of frozen or deep-frozen food 

Beware of cooking methods! These, too, can distort the true potential of what you are about to ingest: 
• No microwaves or pressure cookers; 
• No forced or induction cooking; 
• No use of fried or dipped food. 

As you can see, it is just a matter of making our cooking simpler. The fantastic thing is that it will become even better. And not only that, the digested food becomes part of us and then, if you think about it, we will become better! 

From the very moment we put a food in our mouths, it begins to be digested. It actually begins to be destroyed. When we eat, we introduce into our bodies a "thing" that is not part of us. So from the mouth, with the saliva, its destruction begins. Our organism attacks and manipulates the foods we introduce, breaks them down and humanizes them, making them ready so that our organism can extract what it needs for its sustenance. 

It is undeniable that each individual uniquely humanizes the foods he ingests, and from this process derive substances that are of fundamental importance for our sustenance. It goes without saying that eating healthy, high quality food means that it also gives rise to nutrients that are useful to us, healthy and of high quality. 

"Food is both organic and spiritual in our world" (Dr. V. Bertozzi) 

See you next time.