Food Revolution in Romania

The “Food Revolution movement initiated by the English chef Jamie Oliver has earned a great deal of supporters in Romania.

România Internațional, 29.05.2013, 12:37

In recent years Romanians have been increasingly drawn to the ultra-processed food known as “junk food”. An opposite phenomenon has nevertheless been gaining ground. The “Food Revolution” movement initiated by the English chef Jamie Oliver has earned a great deal of supporters in Romania. This year, on May 17, Bucharest joined large European cities in celebrating the second anniversary of this movement by means of cooking contests and talks with famous chefs, held in a retail center in the capital city Bucharest. Romania even has its own “Food Revolution” ambassadors. One of them is Miruna Meirosu from the Public Relations Department of Curtea Veche Publishers, which owns Jamie Oliver’s copyright in Romania. She told us more about the main principles underlying the “food revolution”:

“This movement fosters the return to cooked food, because it is a healthy habit. It militates for providing children and anyone who does not have healthy eating habits with a minimum food education. Obesity has become one of the main causes of death worldwide. This phenomenon can be stopped through small-scale, daily activities”.

Although the number of adults and particularly children affected by obesity has started to increase significantly in Romania of late, ‘Food Revolution’ ambassadors believe their campaign to promote cooked and fresh food will appeal to Romanians. Here is Miruna Meirosu.

“We, Food Revolution ambassadors, feel that we are here to attend to a real need. Shortly after the debut of our campaign in Romania we received lots and lots of messages of support and many have encouraged us to keep up the good work. Last year we had only two ambassadors trying to work some programmes aimed at helping kids to learn more about healthy food, but now we have five ambassadors so we can double our efforts and mount even larger-scale events.”

Matei Martin, producer of ‘literary programmes’ with the Culture Channel of Radio Romania and moderator of the ‘Pork with Pepper’, an event staged daily at the Bastille Bookshop in Bucharest, has a slightly different opinion.

“It’s a positive sign that steps have been taken in that direction in Romania too, although the traditional local cuisine is not entirely based on healthy recipes. Romanian staple dishes mainly rely on pork and lard and after a century-old tradition of eating grilled minced meat rolls, it’s very difficult to make a salad revolution. However, such a revolution could catch on, because we live in a Westernized culture, where emphasis is laid on good looking bodies and the idea of healthy food has become popular almost everywhere.”

Long before learning about the ‘Food Revolution’, Florentina Tzene used to cook dishes for her children at home. And because she likes what she does, she has honed her skill to perfection and got the first prize in a cooking contests staged on that occasion. In the following minutes she will tell us what healthy food means to her.

“Eating as many salads as possible; I also stay out of sweets as much as I can and if I cannot entirely avoid them, at least I eat only homemade sweets. I have always avoided eating out and tried to prepare homemade dishes as much as possible. I’m not very much into eating out, you know.”

Florentina has reaped the first prize for a season dish, fresh and healthy.

: “I made a salad of everything, all sorts of vegetables, and I added some grapes and corn. It didn’t look very well, but I mainly went for the taste and not for the look. For me it’s important that the food is tasty and healthy.”

Nutritionist Mihaela Bilic too is campaigning for homemade and diversified food.

“Healthy food means diversified dishes catering for individual needs. Not all that comes from the food industry is unhealthy, but large quantities and improper cooking can turn food into an enemy. Romanians have passed through a period of experimenting and excessive shopping. And maybe it’s the right time we got back to a normal relation with food. We are living at extremes now. It’s either we believe everything is bad and unhealthy or we deny traditional dishes and are willing to experiment with food. For instance we seem to forget about forest fruit and blackcurrants, which grow in Romania, preferring goji berries instead. New food doesn’t necessarily mean good food.”

With or without ‘Food Revolution’ the habit of cooking fresh fruit and vegetables and even lean meat is not only healthy but could also be a pleasant, relaxing way of spending time with family.