EAT - Culinary Residency at Gagel Farm, Netherlands

For the first time, Gagel Farm will open her ecosystem to facilitate cooks and culinary professionals in residence who want to help us in answering the question: how do we bring our European places and communities back to life in the 21st century through the act of eating?

In the Netherlands, and many other countries from the Global North, we no longer engage in growing our own food, and do not eat with a plant-based focus. As a society we have become extremely reliant on global food chains and extractive agriculture for our food supply, without realizing that we are dependent on these systems. Furthermore, we tend not to question how our current food systems effect the well-being of the ecosystems that truly facilitate all life on earth.
Through regenerative agriculture, we can grow locally beautiful, nutritious, flavorful and seasonal ingredients. But somehow, even those who have access to such deliciousness choose convenience above all other possibilities. For many, locally and seasonally cultivated food are simply inaccessible due to socio-economic and socio-geographic inequality. Everyone frequents supermarkets and restaurants who do our food shopping for us, utilizing ingredients that are ordered conveniently through industry-sized wholesalers.

Cooks and culinary professionals are at the frontline of changing food culture. They are artisan, producer, creative and practically engaged in nourishing. This residency invites the professional cook into the garden where they can feed themselves and others with the magic and skills that come from cookery and regenerative farming. We need cooks to inspire a new food culture where we eat with the seasons, where we dine our landscapes once again into healthy and resilient habitats.

The Gagel Farm residency is suited to those with a culinary education or a strong professional background in the culinary industry. We invite cooks and culinary professionals who are eager to learn to engage in research that inspires a transition towards regenerative food systems and cultures. The residents who take part in this program question the current system and understand the power of food in changing the world.