The close relationship between research and culinary innovation, between scientists and chefs, between educators, communicators and the food industry as a whole is a major challenge that Barcelona can capitalize on. The city is already a world-renowned brand and home to some of the world's top chefs working at the hobs and in research laboratories. According to Castells "unique brands always have an impact on tourism. A tourism that looks to Barcelona for the key players in culinary research and, of course, this creates high-quality tourism."
An enthusiast for teaching and raising awareness, he explains the benefits of Barcelona's status as a scientific and culinary capital thanks to its restaurants and carbon-neutral farmers and growers. "Every sector reaps the benefits and the businesses I refer to as gastronomic are created in places where research takes place and the produce used is, of course, grown locally". Indeed, sustainability will be the main topic of the third congress scheduled for 2021.
Pere Castells has just returned from a trip to Manaus, the capital of the Amazon state in Brazil, and also took part in workshops in Havana and Chile last September. In his opinion, there is a great deal of interest on a global scale to revive the beneficial relationship that got off to a strong start a few years ago with elements such as the spectacular use of liquid nitrogen and the so-called 'spherifications', made fashionable by Ferran Adrià, who was, in fact, one of the initiators of the dialogue between science and cooking. Ferran Adrià and Joan Roca, from Celler de Can Roca, played an active role in the first congress held at Barcelona University as part of the 3rd Catalan Cooking Congress. This first meeting resulted in a major manifesto that seeks to establish scientific gastronomy as a new academic discipline.
Castells was a chemistry teacher at the Molí de la Vila secondary school in Capellades, and joined the first research team at Ferran Adrià's legendary restaurant El Bulli in 2003. From 2004 to 2012 he was head of the science and cooking research department at the Fundació Alícia, and from 2010 to the present day he has worked on the science and cooking course at the prestigious Harvard University.
