Cristina Bowerman, from the Glass Hostaria* restaurant (Rome, Italy), cooks a traditional Roman recipe, "vignarola", while simultaneously emphasising the need to create a more sustainable life model, and for a visit to a restaurant to be a special occasion and not a daily practice, so that traditional culinary heritage is not lost. 

Chef Cristina Bowerman uses the FéminAs kitchen to make "vignarola", a traditional Italian dish with artichokes, peas, broad beans, onion, garlic and mint. “It doesn't have any meat, not because I'm a vegetarian, but because the traditional recipe doesn't have any", explains Cristina, adding "so we have to give it depth by using different textures". She uses a variety of pans for this. One to make up a cream with onion, garlic, peas, broad beans and a mint leaf put through the blender. Another to fry an artichoke without its stalk and the external leaves. And another to blanch the peas and beans. Final assembly brings together all the components - cream, artichoke and blanched beans - covered with a yuba leaf and a powder made from leftovers. “It's important for us to use everything. The leftover onion can be used to make a stock; we can use the artichoke leftovers to make an infusion that will help clean the liver, and the frying oil can be used to boost the flavour of another product. Another option is what I've done. I've dehydrated the leftovers, and made them into a powder as a dressing", said Bowerman. 

As she was making up the recipe, the chef gave us some cooking tips, and an outline of her culinary philosophy.

The tips: the intense green of the foodstuffs - which gives us freshness and the sensation of healthy food - can be maintained by putting them into iced water after they have been blanched. The water used to boil the artichoke can be drunk as a healthy beverage. It is better to cook garlic in its skin to make it softer. Vegetables can be kept for longer by vacuum-cooking at 85º. And in Italy, the beans and peas are peeled.

She also found time to make a stand on certain issues. Bowerman told congress-goers that she had eliminated plastic from her kitchen, which is no easy task. “I replaced the plastic vacuum-cooking bags or the plastic we use on a continuous basis for cooking with another compost-friendly material. The thing is that one method cost me 19 € a metre, and the other 85 €. It's unsustainable for a restaurant. The Government should do something about this. It's great that they're giving out Covid subsidies, but they also ought to bring in measures or aid to create more sustainable business models”. 

Another issue she touched on, surprisingly, was the fact that restaurants should bring back the concept of a special occasion. “I know this goes against my business, but young people can't cook like we do because we cooked alongside our parents. Going to a restaurant should be reserved for a special occasion, and not to go there every day. A restaurant can't be a substitute for our home. Otherwise we'll lose our culinary culture", claimed the chef. Cristina believes that eating is not only feeding ourselves, but is also a social event, an occasion to share, to create a relationship with family. “And if we create that relationship, it will develop, and the tradition will spread. Families aren't what they used to be because we're losing traditional cuisine", she said.