From land to table: culinary diplomacy exchange with chef Tiffany Derry, is the title of the project that involved Slow Food Berat Community led by Alma Spathara in the months of September and October 2022. In collaboration with the United States Embassy in Albania and the Center for Culinary Education, Slow Food Berat organized two training seminars with students from the hotel schools of Berat and Tirana. Chef Derry, well known and loved in Texas, brought her experience, the panache, the competence to share them with future Albanian chefs.

October is the month of olive harvesting and oil extraction, so the students of the Berat school, together with the chef, went to collect the olives and together they witnessed the production of the new oil. With that oil, and other fresh seasonal products, they then cooked traditional Texan and Albanian dishes in the cozy kitchen of Hotel Castle Park Berat , home to Slow Food Berat. The kitchen, as an element of union between peoples, has served to amalgamate flavors and important stories. Chef Derry's baked pumpkin settled next to the students' pumpkin byrek. And the chef's jerk lamb chops competed for primacy with tavë kosi with chef Musliaka's lamb. The experience was strong and uplifting for all present.

At the school in Tirana, chef Derry cooked with the students a recipe very dear to her, the Gumbo in her version of her mother. It is a slow, laborious preparation, requiring a good knowledge of culinary techniques and ingredients. There are many ingredients that bridge the two kitchens, first of all ocher, which gives it its name, but also peppers, prawns, chicken. Instead, the students prepared qumështor, this milk cake that is also present in a different form in the United States. It was a journey, an experience, an important and unforgettable culinary dialogue.

Here you can see a video of the actvitie: