Good practice:

From Brabant Grounds

Seven branches of Brabant culinary schools invented a program for their students to learn about farm products, their origins and the ways to apply them in the kitchen. There were several reasons for this project: 1) cooking students and restaurant owners need more knowledge of (the origin, traditions and aspects of) fresh ingredients from their own region 2) Because of that, guests can get more information about regional products and can be “educated” towards a more frequent use of regional products in their own daily cooking 3)regional products get more exposure and their use in restaurants will increase. This will lead to reduction of food miles and a better regional economy. In the project, culinary students learn about the growth, soils, the products and their origin in a new package of lessons. A major part of these lessons are field trips to farmers and growers, who educate about their products. With our support in 2018, the pilot year resulted also in a four-seasons recipe book titled “From Brabant Grounds”, developed by the students. The project has become a permanent part of the curriculum.
Students are acquainted with farmers and their products and learn the stories and traditions behind the growth. Getting this knowledge “in the field” makes it possible for these future cooks to compile their menus with a larger awareness and amount of rtell more stories around their menus, and thus raise the awareness among guests about a larger use of regional produce

The major resources are staff for the project team in every culinary school. Schools who had to invest a lot of time to build the pilot project in 2018. In 2019, less hours were need. The budget required for out of pocket costs, in the first year, was approx €50.000.

Participating students in pilot year: 110
Farmers/growers visited: 40
Book copies sold: 1500
The project lead to a new steady network of culinary schools and one of their deliverables is the second round in this project in 2019.
Students and farmers are enthusiastic about their meetings

Creating such a minor in the schools requires early planning because of the semester planning that every school has.


Hire an external partner to make the match between students and farmers. Slow Food Netherlands did the job in the pilot


Provide staff besides the teachers, as they lack

The practical combination of farm site visits and the application of the product knowledge afterwards in recipes and a cookbook makes that the new knowledge stays alive and is accessible for others.


Through this project, gastronomy businesses gain more knowledge about regional sourcing and can increase the percentage of regional products in their menu. This leads to a more sustainable food consumption, more regional sales in farm products and therefore a more resilient countryside. Another potential learning is that new combination between producers may arise, e.g. in logistics or sales.


Through the producers’ stories in the book, the product origins and stories are available for consumers as well. Province of Noord-Brabant used this book as a relations’ gift. This could lead to more consumption of regional products in households. Hamper could be the language barrier as the method and lessons are not available in English