THE UNIVERSITY OF GASTRONOMIC SCIENCE

Scholarships, study trips and internships; helping students at the University since 2008, as coordinator Riccardo Sauvaigne explains:

The University of Gastronomic Sciences (UNISG), founded by Slow Food in 2004, is an international University located in the tiny Roman village called Pollenzo in the north west of Italy. Each year it attracts food-passionate students from over 60 countries worldwide to come to learn about the culture of food, the sciences and humanities behind it and about increasingly pressing issues such as sustainability and agroecology. Throughout the three years, students also travel to over 15 regions both in Italy and around the world on study trips to gain hands-on experience and meet important players in the food world such as farmers, chefs, companies, journalists and professors.

The Daylesford Foundation has always been a keen supporter of this University, each year hosting groups of our students for visits and lessons at the Daylesford Farm during the UK study trip.  We are especially grateful for the financial support that the Foundation has offered two of our finest students who, with the sponsorship of a full scholarship (worth 114,000€ altogether) were given the opportunity to carry out the 3-year undergraduate degree here.

The first, Rahul Antao, graduated in February 2012 and is continuing to work on his thesis project (The Positive Aspects of Globalisation Bridging Networks in the State of Meghalaya) in India in collaboration with various organizations such as Biodiversity International, Slow Food and Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity.

The second student, Ben Reade, 28-year-old chef from Edinburgh, also graduated from the UNISG in February 2012 with full marks (110 / 110) and is now working in Denmark for the award winning restaurant Noma as the Head of Culinary Research and Development for the Nordic Food Lab.