A meal that nourishes the body, awakens consciousness and sows freedom
Tommaso Carmenati | Events and Communications Manager Autosufficienza
A meal that tells a vision
From the morning onwards, amidst the aroma of bread baked the previous evening and the birdsong mingling with the sound of spring water, the moment is being prepared that for many of our guests will be a true revelation.
A simple meal, yet capable of igniting something profound.
At Autosufficienza, food is much more than nourishment. It is a universal language through which we tell a vision of the world, a bridge between matter and spirit, between caring for the Earth and caring for Humanity.
Food becomes a metaphor, a powerful means to sow awareness.
And when I speak of sowing, I’m not only referring to seeds in the vegetable garden, but to those that take root deep within the people who come here.
Reversing the imagination
In the society we live in, “eating healthily” is often synonymous with sacrifice.
We are taught that to take care of our health we must sacrifice taste, give up pleasure.
‘Eating well’ has become, in the collective imagination, overcooked wholemeal pasta and unseasoned tomato sauce.
And yet, right here in this place, day after day, we are rewriting that paradigm. Here every dish is prepared with an almost ritual attention: organic ingredients grown in our vegetable gardens, ancient grain flours stone-ground, vegetables harvested just a few hours before, local aromatic herbs, spring water.
Every gesture in the kitchen is an act of care, every flavour a testimony to beauty.
And when people sit down at the table and discover that this “ethical” food can also be delicious, that beauty and goodness can coexist with health and respect for ecosystems, something changes.
Taste, beauty, revolution
I see it in the eyes of those who taste our zero-metre pizza for the first time: ancient grains, sourdough, wood from our forests. Or in the smiles after the Romagna lunches prepared by our ‘zdora Franca, who has reinterpreted authentic Romagna peasant tradition in a vegetarian way.
Something subtle yet revolutionary happens: the imagination expands.
Those who thought that eating healthily meant giving things up discover that there are infinite possibilities for creating food that is good, beautiful and right.
This is the true subversive power of food. Because when an individual discovers that they can nourish themselves whilst respecting their own health and that of the planet, without giving up pleasure, they become freer.
And freedom is contagious. A new imagination is ignited, and with it the desire to live differently. This is how a simple meal can generate cultural change.
A personal anecdote
I remember when I first arrived here in 2020.
I came from a “normal” background, where the word cereals evoked in me a range of possibilities amongst fusilli, penne, tagliatelle and so on.
Discovering millet, buckwheat and sorghum was like opening a window onto new horizons.
I understood that every time we expand our knowledge, we conquer a fragment of freedom.
Choosing what to eat thus becomes a political act, a daily gesture that gives us back power and responsibility.
Food as an act of love
Food is never just food.
It is a form of love, a declaration of peace, a choice of care towards oneself and towards the Earth.
In every dish served here at Autosufficienza there lies a message: one can live in harmony, create beauty and goodness, without destroying anything.
One can be happy without consuming, one can be satisfied by nourishing the soul as well.
And when a person, after months, writes to us saying that at home they have started cooking differently, that they look at food with new eyes, we know that seed has germinated. Perhaps slowly, but inexorably.
The seed of change
Change sometimes begins with a dish, with a scent, with a mouthful that awakens the memory of what we are: interconnected beings, part of the same Earth that nourishes us.
This article was featured in rivista Vivi Consapevole 83 (december 2025/february 2026).
