our mission
Educating healthy food&life practices.
We teach the art of preparing real, simple and healthy food “by intuition” and a sustainable and mindful lifestyle that connects heart, mind and body.
Pastamadre is a project aimed at reevaluating food as a dynamic force that is fundamentally and deeply linked to many different aspects of our lives: our bodies, our minds, our emotions, and our interactions with others.
In our work we focus not only on WHAT we eat, but also on HOW we eat. In our courses and workshops we raise awareness about the relationship between these two aspects, because the wonderful interaction between what we eat and how we eat is pure life energy!
How do I cook with simple, original ingredients? How do I use traditional techniques such as fermenting and preserving to preserve seasonal and local foods? What happens during these processes? We answer these and many other questions in our workshops in order to provide our participants with basic tools for integrating healthy eating and sustainability into their everyday lives in a fun and enjoyable way.
With us you will find a colorful mix of do-it-yourself, scientific background knowledge and the well-being of togetherness. Emancipation, intuitive cooking and the (re)discovery of our creativity are the cornerstones of our work as a cooking school.
Pastamadre is deeply rooted in the traditions of the Mediterranean region. For us, the Mediterranean diet is not a fashion, but a way of life! We love and live it and, above all, we want to bring it closer to you, with a critical and modern view that incorporates new nutritional findings.
our philosophy
With the frenzied pace of everyday life, most of us have lost a genuine connection to food. For many people instead of being a source of nourishment it has become an area of conflict and confusion, endless weight-loss dramas, eating disorders, cravings, addictions, body image obsessions, and never-ending searches for the best slimming diet.
Food has been reduced to a list of nutritional values and calories, schematized and rationalised, in order to meet the deemed generic requirements for all human bodies. Considering that we are not machines, we believe many of the food-related issues that plague us can be traced back to our lack of awareness of the relationship between body and spirit.
No matter how much we work on ourselves spiritually, our diet also plays a very significant role in how we feel. A heavy, chemical-laden diet can actually make even the lightest spirit feel heavy. On the other hand, certain other types of meals can rapidly boost someone's spirit, mind, and heart.
Food is a dynamic force that interacts with humans on several levels: biological, psychological, aesthetic, cultural, spiritual, and social. Every time we cook and eat we might consciously experience four different aspects/nourishments:
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Biological: Which ingredients and preparations can have a positive effect on our body? Which nutrients can be found where? How do we define a healthy body?
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Psychological: What is the effect of our food choices? What emotional states accompany us in the process? Are we aware of them?
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Social: How do my eating habits affect other people, nature and the environment?
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Spiritual: How can I reconcile my basic biological and psychological needs with social challenges and my inner states, values and visions?
We want to provide "food for thought" so that people question concepts such as health and sustainability and experience them as a constant learning process and daily practice.
We are aware that the complexity of our outer and inner world cannot be simplified with ready-made "recipes". We want to remain in a dynamic relationship with it by trusting our intuitions.
If we can provide you with effective tools for this: that makes us happy!
"you are what you eat"
This is a famous quote from the German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach. We would like to update this to a contemporary version:
Our food choices do not concern only our private lives anymore, but they also effect the local/global economy and the environment.
"you are what you consume"
Therefore, if we want to make the world a better place, it is worth changing how and what we consume, starting with what we eat! How to do it?
change your habits
Little by little you can make a big difference! Small changes are more easily accomplished and can have an effective impact on your life and other's, just by becoming part of your daily routine.
do it yourself
mindfulness
DIY provides you with a concrete opportunity to express your creativity by improving new skills. It is a good way to reduce waste and save money to decrease your environmental impact. Furthermore, being engaged in a manual activity helps to take your mind off things by having a fulfilling time: an easy "homemade" therapy with a lot of fun!
Be fully present (mind and body) on what you are doing and enjoy the wonderful little things of life, that make us so happy, such as cooking and eating with those dearest to you.
Learn the cyclic pace of the seasons from Nature.
Give your body the "right" to be sick and allow yourself time to get your strength back.