This year’s TTM Conference and its Innovation Culinary Workshops revolved around six themes reflecting the interdisciplinary focus of our TMC work:

1. As research on the optimal, traditional Mediterranean diet continues, we heard 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, the Mediterranean diet, cardiovascular and brain health, cancer, microbiota, prevention of inflammation and other chronic diseases, and emerging areas of translational research.
2. At a time when everyone is talking about health, sustainability, and food, what do these terms really mean and how do they translate in different parts of the world? What do these diets—developed out of traditional food systems and food cultures— have in common and how can their respective cultures learn from each other?
3. While cooking with olive oil is a given to chefs and cooks in the Mediterranean and other parts of the world, we shared early insights from a new study working the reveal the distinctive health and culinary fingerprint of extra-virgin olive oil in comparison to olive oil, considered from varying nutritional, sensory, and gastronomic points of view.