Cooking Class No Waste: When Recovered Food Becomes a Gift

There's a moment at the end of every kitchen service when you look around and take stock of what remains. Bread that never made it to the table. Vegetables carefully prepared but left in the drawer. Dishes waiting for their moment, but that moment never came.

These aren't 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?

A Project Born from a Vision

Cooking Class No Waste is our way of answering this question. It's not just an initiative against food waste – that would be reductive. It's a project born from Casa Costa Foundation ETS new strategy, which we've called Soil, Soul and Society, and it represents how we want to look at the future of our work in the territory.

Soil – the earth, environmental responsibility, circular economy. Reducing waste isn't a symbolic gesture: it's recognizing the value of every ingredient, the effort behind its production, the natural resources that were necessary to bring it to us.

Soul – spirit, culture, training. Each cooking class is a moment of collective learning, where chef Simone Cantafio shares with the entire Casa Costa 1956 staff not only anti-waste cooking techniques, but a different way of looking at food. It's personal and professional growth together.

Society – community, social impact, connection with those who live beside us. Everything we prepare during the sessions is donated to the Badia Food Bank "Bancarela dl Mangé," reaching families and people in our territory who need it.

How It Works (Concretely)

During the 2025-2026 winter season, we're organizing 4 afternoon cooking classes at Stüa de Michil. Each session lasts about 2 hours and takes place the day before distribution to the local Food Bank, every second Wednesday of the month.

Chef Simone guides participants – anyone from the staff who wants to be there, from any department – in transforming the restaurant's food surplus. Bread that becomes the base for canederli. Vegetables that transform into rich, nourishing soups. Dishes that find new life in traditional recipes revisited with creativity.

At the end of each session, everything is packaged and delivered to Bancarela dl Mangé. Nothing remains. Everything becomes a gift.

Why Start with Stüa de Michil

We chose to begin with Stüa for good reason. It's the most representative restaurant of Casa Costa 1956, the place where territorial identity and culinary innovation meet every day. But above all, we found in Simone Cantafio not only a chef of extraordinary talent, but a person who immediately grasped the educational and formative potential of this initiative.

When we proposed the project to him, his response was immediate: "Let's do it." No grand speeches needed. There was the same vision, the same desire to do something that made sense beyond the kitchen.

What We'll Measure (Because Numbers Matter)

We'll be precise in monitoring results. We want to know:

• How many kilograms of surplus we recovered
• How many people participated in the cooking classes
• How many equivalent meals we donated to Bancarela
• How much we reduced food waste at Stüa

But numbers alone aren't enough. We'll also collect qualitative feedback: what participants learned, how they felt during the sessions, what the Food Bank thinks of the preparations it receives, what impact all this had on Casa Costa 1956's organizational culture.

Because yes, we believe this project can help strengthen that sense of belonging and those shared values that make a company not only efficient, but also human.

A Pilot Looking Ahead

We call this project a "pilot" not because it's small or temporary, but because we want to learn. We want to understand what works, where we can improve, how to make the model even more effective.

If the experience at Stüa de Michil teaches us what we hope, the next step will be to extend the project to other dining venues at Casa Costa 1956. Create an integrated system for recovering and valorizing surplus. Perhaps also involve local suppliers. Develop a broader training program on food sustainability.

But before looking ahead, we want to do this first step well.

Who Works with Us

This project exists because different people and organizations chose to work together:

• Casa Costa Foundation ETS coordinates the initiative and holds everything together
• Stüa de Michil by Simone Cantafio is the operational heart, where everything takes shape
• Casa Costa 1956 provides spaces, skills, and above all its people
• Elide Mussner Pizzinini, Sustainability Manager at Casa Costa 1956, ensures that impact is measured and aligned with the company's environmental and social objectives
• Badia Food Bank "Bancarela dl Mangé" is the social partner that makes territorial impact possible

Each with their responsibility, each with their essential contribution.

More Than a Project Against Waste

We could say that Cooking Class No Waste is a food recovery initiative. And it is. But it would be limiting to stop there.

It's a way to demonstrate that environmental responsibility, people's growth, and solidarity toward the community aren't three separate objectives to pursue one at a time. They can walk together, reinforce each other, generate value that goes beyond the sum of parts.

It's an opportunity for Casa Costa 1956 staff to challenge themselves differently, learn something new, feel part of something that makes sense even outside the walls of their daily work.

It's a concrete gesture toward families in the territory going through difficult times, made not of words but of food prepared with care and skill.

It's, finally, a way for us at Casa Costa Foundation ETS to translate the Soil, Soul and Society strategy into tangible, measurable, tellable actions.

The first appointment is Wednesday, December 17, 2025. Simone will be there, with his hands that know the kitchen and his enthusiasm for this new adventure. Casa Costa 1956 staff will be there, ready to learn and share. Stüa's surplus will be there, waiting to become something new.

And we'll be there to observe, work, document, learn.

Because every great change always begins with a concrete first step.