September 2021
The MAD Academy (MAD meaning ‘food’ in Danish) in Copenhagen is a school that aims to support the hospitality and food industry with tools and knowledge for making positive change. The school is run by the people behind NOMA restaurant and a selection of chefs and individuals who work in the food industry.
I had the pleasure to attend the academy’s Environment & Sustainability program which studies the current food systems and gives you the information to make sustainable choices at every level, as well as teaches you how to identify and execute ecologically-minded improvements in the workplace.
During the week we attended lectures from acclaimed chefs running zero waste restaurants, visited sustainable farms and vegetable producers, a company cultivating seaweed, went foraging in the countryside outside Copenhagen, met biologists who observe and predict climate change by studying ice cores drilled in Antartica and Greenland and had a series of exercises implementing practical solutions for sustainable and waste free restaurants.