Cooking Class No Waste

Where the idea comes from

There's a moment, at the end of every service in the kitchen, when you look around and take stock of what remains. Bread that didn't make it to the table. Vegetables prepared with care but left in the drawer. Preparations waiting for their moment, but that moment never came.

They're not scraps. They're quality ingredients, often the result of hours of work, that tell the same story of excellence as everything that was served. Yet too often, they end up being considered "leftovers." What if they were an opportunity instead?

From this question comes Cooking Class No Waste, a project we've built together with Chef Simone Cantafio from Michelin-starred restaurant La Stüa de Michil and that represents the way Casa Costa Foundation ETS wants to work alongside Casa Costa 1956: combining environmental responsibility, people's growth, and solidarity toward the community and territory.

How it works concretely

During winter season, we organize four special afternoons, every second Wednesday of the month. Chef Simone opens his kitchen - not to guests, but to all Casa Costa 1956 staff. Anyone who wants to join can participate: those who work in the kitchen and those at reception, those who serve in the dining room and those who handle administration.

Together we take the restaurant's surplus and transform it into traditional recipes: canederli with leftover bread, rich soups with remaining vegetables, baked goods that give new life to ingredients that would otherwise be lost.

The most important part comes after: everything we prepare - absolutely everything - is packaged and the next day delivered to Badia Food Bank, the Bancarela dl Mangé, which distributes food to local families in need every second Thursday of the month.

Nothing remains. Everything becomes a gift.

Why we do it: Soil, Soul and Society

This project stems from the strategy we've called Soil, Soul and Society - three words that represent the three areas we work on as a Foundation.

Soil - the earth, the environment. Every ingredient we recover is a small gesture of respect toward natural resources. Behind that bread are months of work from the land, the sun, the water. Behind those vegetables are farmers, transport, energy. Wasting food doesn't just mean throwing away a product: it means wasting everything it took to get it to us.

Soul - culture, spirit. The cooking classes are moments of learning and sharing. We learn anti-waste cooking techniques, discover traditional recipes, but above all, we look each other in the eyes while kneading together. Here it doesn't matter if you're a chef or manager - everyone learns together, gets their hands dirty together, builds relationships that might never form at the check-in desk.

Society - community. At the end of each afternoon, those canederli and soups go to people living in Val Badia, who are part of our community. Not distant beneficiaries, but neighbors. Some we might pass at the supermarket without knowing. It's our way of giving back something to the territory that nourishes us every day.

Why start at La Stüa de Michil

We chose to start at La Stüa for a reason. It's the most representative restaurant of Casa Costa 1956, the place where territorial identity and culinary innovation meet every day. But especially because when we proposed the project to Chef Simone Cantafio, his response was immediate: "Let's do it." No long speeches needed. There was the same vision, the same desire to do something meaningful beyond cooking.