Diego Silva Dos Santos: UNISG Alumnus and Educator at Gastromotiva
What brought you from Brazil to UNISG in 2014 to attend the undergraduate program? What was your path before it?
I’ve always liked cooking, but I was never a good student. In fact, I did not like school, so I did it purely out of obligation and started to work early on – at 14 years – to help support my family.
When I started to learn about cooking, something changed in my mind. But at that time, and even today, studying gastronomy is very expensive in most countries around the world. So, I was looking for a free course and, in 2009, I found Gastromotiva, which led me to the Slow Food Movement. I attended the Gastromotiva course and started to work as a vegetarian chef shortly after while also teaching eco gastronomy to low-income people. During this period, I was getting closer and closer to the Slow Food Movement and to the concept of changing society through food education. That is how I found out about UNISG and decided that one day I would study there. I failed twice until I finally got accepted and studied Gastronomic Sciences with the goal of replicating all I learned and bringing it back to Brazil.
What do you do at Gastromotiva, and what has Pollenzo taught you?
My work at Gastromotiva has changed a lot during this global pandemic. Before, I was a coordinator of free cooking courses, training entrepreneurs and cooks. But as the pandemic got worse, I started to coordinate solidarity kitchens that serve people in a state of social vulnerability. I coordinate a weekly distribution of eight thousand meals. At the same time, I continue to teach in other social projects such as Gastronomia Periferica, as I believe that only access to education can transform a society.
A society that is encouraged not to learn is easily controlled by the government. Only access to education can change that condition.
In Pollenzo, I was able to see the world. Not only that, but I also got to know people from all over the world, and learnt to understand different points of view, histories, cultures and ideas. That, by itself, was worth the experience, but Pollenzo taught me much more: I came back to Brazil with knowledge and learnings that could be replicated by me and whoever I decided to teach.
What advice would you give to someone seeking a career in gastronomy nowadays?
Gastronomy is not just about cooking, and our food system goes way beyond our plate.
To be a good gastronome, we need to know about history, geography, economics, law, public policies, the environment around us and, above all, agriculture and farmers. We must know that eating is a political act.
So, if you want to pursue a career in gastronomy today, you must seek to understand the ingredients and their production and understand that gastronomy is not just about cooking. The professional needs to be flexible and adapt to changes while also being a force of change.
