Science Kitchen

“The way to a man’s and woman’s heart goes through his stomach”, so the saying goes. The physical and intellectual food served in the science kitchen stands as a proposal of how to integrate joy, empathy and sensory pleasure with scientific urgency and knowledge in the field of sustainability transformation.

Eating is a core experience in community building. It is a sensory moment, which is accompanied by social interactions, gathering and debate. The Science Kitchen seeks to build on this momentum by convening thinkers and doers into one thematic sphere of rethinking the relationship between people and nature. By cooking and eating together we are invited to ingest and digest possibilities of transformation, network and prototype.

Photo: The dinner round in Bern with invited guests working in the algae sector at Wyss Academy for Nature in Bern.

The Science Kitchen

The idea of the science kitchen is to convene and share. On the occasion of the UN Food Summit in 2021 we convened locally and across the digital sphere, inviting partners in Rwanda, Israel and Rome to hold parallel dinners according to their local taste.

The core topic was Algae and its cultural heritage and potential for the bioeconomy?

Algae provide a good example of how growing food touches far more than just our plates and stomach.

Algae are a healthy and sustainabile source of protein, they store CO2, they grow in sweet and salt water, they generate 60% of worldwide oxygen. Algae can further be used to produce cosmetics, biofuels, organic fertilizer, building materials and bio plastics.

On the other hand, extensive algae growth are also an indicator for ecosystems out of a balance with damaging effects for people and nature. How can we thus balance their costs and benefits?

Photo: Live exchange between the parallel dinners in Rome, Israel, Rwanda and Berne.

The Science Kitchen was organised by Sonja Schenkel at the Wyss Academy for Nature as part of “Habitat” – Chapter 3 on Ancestral Futures, in collaboration with Tatjana von Steiger/Wyss Academy for Nature and Goodwill

The Science Kitchen in Rwanda took place at a Korean Restaurant since their is no local connection to algae as a culinary ingredient.

Pink seaweed (algae), being dried hanging on a rope on the beach on Pemba Island, Tanzania. Close-up macro view.

A preliminary Algae-Apéro and Live Chat with Dr. Flower Msuya a few weeks before the Science Kitchen helped to onboard collaborators within the Wyss Academy so that a guest list could be compiled. Dr. Msuya also explained the role of growing algae for women empowerment in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Following her presentation, artist Maya Minder, offered a performative apéro around algae.

The dinner round in Israel organised a pot luck, everyone contributing an algae dish