FOOD LAB 2025
On the initiative of Laurenz Werner, the FoodLab is now being implemented for the third time. Soil to Soul and nutrition researcher Dominik Flammer are responsible for the project. This project aims to create a holistic experience space in which the topic of nutrition is viewed from new perspectives and made tangible. Together with talented graduates from vocational schools, we will spend four weeks developing recipes and ideas on how our diet can be influenced in a pleasurable way. We will be looking at existing products and ingredients that have either been forgotten or not yet discovered. These will then be made available to the public in various pop-ups and presented and tasted at themed dinners.
Dominik Flammer
What does the forest taste like?
This time the focus is on the forest; its flavors, its raw materials, its cultural significance. What happens when you grow mushrooms on ash wood? How does the taste of cheese or fermented vegetables change with different types of wood? What role does cambium play in the kitchen? And how can tree sap, resins or even barrel wood be used for culinary purposes?
Together with talented young chefs, experienced guest chefs and artisan experts, we will spend four weeks developing new ideas, dishes and methods - between research and fire pit, wilderness and workshop. Workshops, tastings and pop-up evenings will allow the public to experience FoodLab 2025. “Meat yes - animal less” remains our guiding principle: with great respect for living things, a love of craftsmanship and a desire to experiment, we want to show how enjoyment and sustainability do not contradict each other - but rather inspire each other.
Wood & resin
Wood and resin tell stories: Of deeply rooted trees, of slow growth, of the scent of the forest floor. In FoodLab 2025, we explore how these elements can taste in the kitchen - with smoked vegetables, fermented delicacies, wild tree juices, mushrooms grown on different types of wood and flavors that find their way to the plate via cambium, barrel wood or embers. Together with winemakers, master coopers, cheese refiners and smoke pioneers, we venture into the culinary alchemy between nature and craftsmanship. Wood and resin become flavor carriers, tools and sources of inspiration for a new, forest-based cuisine.
A cuisine that not only thinks sustainability, but tastes it.
Young. Wild. Committed.
At the heart of the FoodLab are young chefs who are breaking new ground with curiosity, talent and courage. They experiment with resources that grow right on our doorstep and transform them into surprising taste experiences. Supported by experienced guest chefs, they develop menus that bring the future of regional cuisine to life. Working in the FoodLab is more than just cooking - it's about researching, discarding and refining together. The participants learn how enjoyment and responsibility go together and how they themselves can act as creators of a new food culture.
Their results can be seen in six pop-up tavolatas - straight from the forest, right into the heart.