Ivan Pažanin, one of the top Croatian chefs and a long-time lecturer of Aspira, held a culinary workshop with Aspira’s 1st-year-students of Gastronomy, so we asked him a few questions.
What did you teach the students today?
Today we focused on the basics of Mediterranean cuisine, foundations, soups and food combinations. The basics are the key so we can work on more demanding tasks later. We prepared angler with smoked seafood, black rice, tuna tartare and salsa.
How were the students?
Very good! I have to praise them, they are very motivated and eager to learn. I was glad to meet them because there is a serious potential among them. I think we have a beautiful future ahead of us in terms of gastronomy.
How satisfied are you with their food presentation?
Each plate is different and that is good, it will be interesting to follow their development until the end of this study. It is important that they improvise and fantasize. It took us professionals a long time until we built our path too.
Have you been Aspira’s partner since day one? How important is it nowadays to have educated people in the tourism industry?
I think one such study of Gastronomy is very important. I am glad that we have young people who are so interested in kitchen. We are aware that we live from tourism and gastronomy and proper education of staff in this direction is very important.
Apart from the lecturers, our students were satisfied as well.
We always learn a lot of new things at the workshops, and it is a special pleasure to cook with the guest lecturers.