International Conference | Tomorrow Tastes Mediterranean

November 27 – 28, 2023

Barcelona, On-Site & Online

Simultaneous translation English – Spanish

ABOUT

Tomorrow Tastes Mediterranean is an industry leadership conference organized by the Torribera Mediterranean Center (TMC)

Tomorrow Tastes Mediterranean aims to help the restaurant, foodservice industry and affiliated sectors better understand and transfer the healthful, sustainable, and cultural principles of the Mediterranean Diet into menus and products suited to the demands of 21st century consumers.

The Mediterranean Diet is unquestionably one of the world’s healthiest, not to mention delicious, ways to eat. Its benefits to our physical and mental health are settled science, as leading researchers from all over the globe, from Harvard to the University of Barcelona, have been proving for decades.

TORRIBERA MEDITERRANEAN CENTER

The Torribera Mediterranean Center is a joint project of the University of Barcelona and The Culinary Institute of America, located at the UB’s Food and Nutrition Torribera Campus in Santa Coloma de Gramenet.

It is the first center in the world to take the Mediterranean Diet as starting point to connect leading-edge food and nutrition research with culinary, agricultural, and business innovation.

TMC is open to Mediterranean, European, and other international partners.

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PROGRAM

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This year’s TTM Conference will revolve around five themes reflecting the interdisciplinary focus of our TMC work: As research on the optimal, traditional Mediterranean diet continues, we’ll hear an overview of results of the latest studies as well as what’s on the research agenda of leading nutrition scientists in areas including lifestyle, wellness, Mediterranean diet, cardiovascular and brain health, cancer, microbiota, prevention of inflammation and other chronic diseases, and emerging areas of translational research.

We’ll discover how innovators are crafting a larger role for irresistible vegetables and other plant-sourced dishes on their menus.

While cooking with olive oil is second nature to chefs and cooks in the Mediterranean, we’ll consider the art and science of applying low and high heat to olive oil and extra- virgin olive oil—looking at results from a nutritional, sensory and gastronomic point of view.

We’ll explore what the plant-forward Mediterranean diet means today in food cultures and restaurant menus of the traditional olive growing regions of North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.

Finally, we look at the challenge of educating the public about the optimal, traditional Mediterranean diet—specifically in mass media, caterings, restaurants, healthcare and school settings—and what can be done to deepen general understanding of this healthy, climate-smart dietary pattern beyond sound bites and social media posts.

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

(All schedule times are in Central European Time (CET)

08:30. Registration and Coffee.
Check-in at University of Barcelona Historic Building.

09:00. Welcome and Opening Remarks.

Introduction: Adelaida Ferrer Torrens.
Speakers: Mercè Segarra Rubí (Vice Rector of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Transfer; Barcelona, Spain), Michael Sperling, Greg Drescher.

09:20. Session 1: The Mediterranean Diet—Latest Findings and Emerging Research to Support Personal and Planetary Health.

Moderator: Michael Sperling.
Presenters: Ramón Estruch, François Chartier, Helena Martín, Amelia Sarroca.

10:20. Session 2: Fermenting Change: Chefs, Plant-Forward Restaurants and Sustainability.

Moderator: Anne McBride.
Presenters: Oriol Castro / Eduard Xatruch / Mateu Casañes, Daniele Rossi, Clara Abarca Rivas.

11:10. Break.

11:35. Session 3: Of Food, Health and Culture: A Sustainable Heritage of the Mediterranean Diet in North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean?

Moderator: Anne McBride.
Presenters: Ebru Baybara Demir, Tara Stevens, Hafida Ben Rejeb Latta.

12:35. Session 4: Pulses of Change: “Beans Is How” We Can Fix the Future.

Moderator: Greg Drescher.
Presenters: Conor Spacey, Ali Honour, María Izquierdo.

13:25. Lunch

14:25. Session 5: Powering a Global Trend around Irresistible Vegetables.

Moderator: Santi Mas de Xaxàs Faus.
Presenters: Gregoria Koutsoukou, Mounir El Arem.