This is the backdrop against which Young Talent in Gastronomy was born, an initiative which aims to support and recognise professionals who are making a difference within the value chain of gastronomy. In this podcast, Miguel Herrero, Managing Director of the Food Industry of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Food, and Joxe Mari Aizega, Managing Director of the Basque Culinary Center, talk about the project, developed by the Ministry and the institution, and analyse the future of a world that young people are cooking up.

Joxe Mari Aizega: ‘If we look at gastronomy from a 360-degree perspective we can see that in each one of its sectors and sub-sectors there are opportunities to innovate’

In the kitchen and in any other environment, launching a project implies navigating around the obstacles that get in the way, as Herrero points out, to ‘transform an idea into a business’. Being aware of consumer needs, embracing digitalisation, and having a value chain which reinforces pleasure, health, and also sustainability, are some of the challenges faced by new generations. 

However, for Aizega, more and more doors are opening within the sector, which he sees as a large value chain. ‘If we look at gastronomy from a 360-degree perspective we can see that in each one of its sectors and sub-sectors there are opportunities to innovate: in products, in services, and in new businesses. There is a powerful force of youth, moved by passion, that sees the future as an opportunity and has the strength to want to step forward and take a risk’, Aizega argues, speaking about an entrepreneurial spirit which seems, more and more, to want to move into the rural world. He adds, ‘throughout the development of the initiative, we have seen many young farmers and shepherds who are keen to launch projects into a world in desperate need of generational change’. 

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