WFF Ireland Youth Chapter celebrates Sustainable Gastronomy Week by exploring Irish food heritage

From 16 to 24 June, the Youth Food Forum (YFF), the Ireland Youth Chapter of the World Food Forum (WFF), engaged three young Irish chefs to celebrate Sustainable Gastronomy Week, promoting sustainable food practices and exploring how they experience Irish food heritage into their work. The Chapter also highlighted the revival of Irish heritage grains, reflecting growing interest in traditional crops within the country's agrifood sector. The week's activities encouraged reflection on Irish food culture and heritage in the context of Ireland's history, including the lasting legacy of An Gorta Mór (The Great Famine).

Given the geographical distribution of participants, the activities were held online. Throughout the week, the Chapter ran a short social media campaign featuring questions for the three participating chefs. Through written, audio and video interviews, the chefs shared their perspectives on sustainable gastronomy, food heritage and Irish culinary traditions.

The campaign generated strong engagement across social media, with support from the Irish Chef Network and other organizations and professionals working to promote Irish food heritage. Overall, the campaign reached approximately 10 000 views across 4 000 unique accounts.

The most significant take away from the week was that Ireland’s food culture is being shaped by an exciting energy; a youth movement of young chefs and producers exploring Ireland’s food heritage. The Irish food sector is now being driven towards a more sustainable, locally grounded system, with young people leading the way.

Sustainable Gastronomy Week provided the Chapter with an opportunity to engage more closely with the culinary sector, complementing its existing focus on agriculture while creating new opportunities to promote dialogue on sustainability, food heritage and culture. By celebrating local ingredients and traditional knowledge, the initiative also demonstrated how young people are contributing to more sustainable and culturally grounded agrifood systems.