Planetary Health through Cooking

Planetary Health through Cooking: A Teaching Kitchen for Healthy and Sustainable Diets 

What does Planetary Health look like on our plates? 

This question was at the heart of the “Planetary Health through Cooking” Teaching Kitchen, offered for the first time at the University of Bayreuth. The course brought together students from different disciplines and countries for four days of learning, cooking and exchange, held on 28, 29 and 30 September and 1 October 2026 at the Mönchshof Brewery in Kulmbach. 

The Teaching Kitchen combined a theoretical foundation with hands-on learning. Before entering the kitchen, students explored key concepts around healthy and sustainable diets, building the theoretical foundation needed for the kitchen. Students then transformed this knowledge into practice by preparing dishes in small groups and coming together to share, taste, and discuss the meals and the choices behind them.
 
The aim was to move from understanding to applying. Questions that can remain abstract in a classroom became real reflections in the kitchen. The result was much more than a cooking course. The kitchen became a shared learning environment where students could put knowledge into practice while learning from each other. 
One of the most rewarding aspects of the Teaching Kitchen was seeing how excited the participants were to discover the menu each day, but equally excited to see what their peers had prepared and to hear the stories behind the dishes. Students brought recipes connected to their homes, families and cultures, and adapted or created dishes inspired by what they learned.  

Through cooking, discussion, and shared meals, students could experience sustainable food choices rather than simply learn about them. The very positive feedback highlighted how special and different this approach felt compared with conventional university courses and reinforced the value of more experiential, participatory approaches to Planetary Health education that go outside of the classroom. 

The Teaching Kitchen was only made possible through the funding from Univerein and UBTGS Community Share, together with valuable contributions from EDEKA Seidl, dm, Denns BioMarkt, Hamsterbacke, Gärtner Schmidt & Blumenmädchen and the support of the team of the Planetary and Public Health Chair! 

Link to the video and post on LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/p/esqpMgmk