The forties in Spain were years marked by scarcity and hunger that the post-war period brought. Foods considered basic such as eggs, cheese, meat or milk disappeared from the menus of Spaniards. The popular classes had to change the ingredients in their recipes, mostly for legumes, fruits and cereals of little value, manage to create new mixtures and, of course, learn to take advantage of every last scrap.
From that dark time, as a result of necessity, what we today call exploitation cuisine was born. Classic recipes deeply rooted in our history and gastronomy, such as breadcrumbs, torrijas, garlic soups or croquettes, appeared back then and with the same purpose: not to waste anything that could be put in the mouth. This form of cooking, far from being a whim, has returned to rescue us again. The conflict is another but equally or more terrifying: the greatest climate crisis in history. And, to combat it, the anti-food waste activism movement is resurfacing, which already has thousands of followers. The same thing that our grandparents practiced - out of hardship and not out of climate awareness -, the most powerful weapon we have to fight this new threat from our kitchens.
Fight to reverse the numbers. And the data cannot be hidden and shows the amount of garbage we generate. 25.31 kilos/liters of food. It is the average volume that each Spaniard threw in the trash last year, according to the Food Waste Report in Spain 2022, prepared each year by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. However, on the other side of the scale is the number of households that do not waste food. These also grew from the 26% recorded in 2021 to 30%, while, outside the home, according to the study, more than half of consumers no longer throw anything away. An improvement that fills us with hope, although for Roberto it is not enough. This gastronomic sustainability activist, better known as Chef Bosquet, takes advantage of everything. He is one of the hallmarks and thanks in part to this, he was awarded Best Foodie in 2018.
The blame for the fact that he is today one of the most followed chefs on Instagram and some of his recipes become viral shortly after being published lies with the fire department. Or, rather, the oppositions. Thanks to them he changed his relationship with food. “I had to study a lot and train and I ate very fast. To perform better, he could only change one thing: his diet. “I was eliminating ultra-processed foods, sugars and flours.” And the only thing that could happen happened. He performed more and better.
Thanks to that click, he passed his exams and saw that through food he could change many things. She got to it, combining firefighter duty with the creation of recipes. Although back in 2010 the world was nothing short of incipient. He wasn't a cook either. In fact, he himself confesses that when he started out because he didn't know, he didn't even know how to peel a kiwi. But he did feel that with food he could help many people. “I started making recipes and sharing them on social media, to help, and everyone started making them, surprisingly. It was the goal, but I didn't expect it,” he admits. He read, researched, tried, and through trial and error, success came.
In his recipes, Chef Bosquet pours everything he has learned. He learned to eat, he learned to integrate healthy foods into his cooking, he learned that his body appreciated it. And he saw that all that, in addition to being good, could be very rich. “You can eat ultra-processed foods indefinitely and be hungrier after a while. But if you eat good quality proteins or fats, for several hours you will not be hungry anymore,” he insists. From recipes to books, such as The Pleasure of Eating Without Regrets: My Most Brutal Recipes, in which he dynamites old moral dilemmas that many drag with food, as if it were a reward or a punishment.
Food waste is one of his obsessions. In fact, as a contributor to the sixth edition of MasterChef, he dedicated himself to answering questions about efficient cooking. Something very basic, which has been done all our lives, although the figures from recent years indicate that we had forgotten. “I am often asked what I do with the rest of the ingredients that I don't use in recipes, and there are many things that can be done. In the books I explain very well what can be done with what we don't use. If we make a pesto pasta, I know one thing for sure: I will have leftover pesto. Well, I put it in an ice tray and freeze it for other occasions. Creativity must be promoted,” explains the chef, born in Villareal in 1985. A capacity that he trained well during confinement. He went out to buy “more than necessary in quarantine”, although he had an explanation: he did not stop working and did about two shows a day. His objective was to adapt to people, so that they could make the recipes, even if they did not have exactly the same ingredients: “If you don't have this, put this. And if you don't have this ingredient, use this other one. So that no one could be left out.”
This flexibility is also a legacy from our grandparents, which today Bosquet applies in its recipes by default. To do this, when he thinks of a recipe, the first thing he does is identify seasonal foods, and from there he draws the shopping list: “I look at the labels to know where a product comes from or I go to the market, to ensure which is kilometer zero.” Proximity is a sine qua non. “At least it doesn't come from the other side of the planet. Not being sustainable is a very big mistake: because it is cheaper and of better quality.” Something that applies in its Naked restaurants
Seasonal products on the one hand and useful cuisine on the other. Two complementary ways to apply sustainability to the kitchen. All under the same maxim: less is more. A motto that companies like Naturgy also follow, applying it globally in all their areas of activity. Less emissions, less water, more reuse of resources. All with a clear objective, to achieve change. And the change also begins in each of our homes with use. As Bosquet promulgates: “I squeeze each ingredient to the maximum, using it in all possible recipes until I finish it completely and don't have to throw anything away.” Because we owe it to that post-war generation and because “if we all do our bit, we will be able to change the world.”
The company not only compensates for its direct impact on the environment, but also for its communication actions. He has been doing it since 2022 through his project
A key action in this compensation plan is the Naturgy Foundation Forest, a seven-hectare space in the Community of Madrid, recovered by the Foundation after a forest fire in 2019, which today has more than 7,000 types of native species. With a development and maintenance period of fifty years, this project results in the absorption of 2,220 tons of CO2 to offset the carbon footprint of both Naturgy and its clients.
