Up to a thousand guests at Life Sciences birthday

It was its 153rd birthday, and the Faculty of Life Sciences hosted a massive breakfast party for students.

World famous chef and honorary associate professor Claus Meyer was there to give advice on Nordic cooking. He is the co-founder of Noma, the Copenhagen restaurant recently voted the best in the world.

Meyer is known as an agitator for ‘The New Nordic Cuisine Movement’, which aims to minimize the use of non-local agricultural produce, hereby promoting environment-friendly food consumption.

See our photos from the feast here.

1,500 life science students to be fed breakfast

Tuesday 8 March has the Faculty of Life Sciences turning 153. At the birthday party, a world-renowned chef Claus Meyer will open the students’ eyes – and mouths – to the best of culinary Denmark.

Claus Meyer is not only an honorary associate professor at the Department of Gastronomy and Health but also the co-founder of Noma, the Copenhagen restaurant recently voted the best in the world.

He is known as an agitator for ‘The New Nordic Cuisine Movement’, which aims to minimize the use of non-local agricultural produce, hereby promoting environment-friendly food consumption.

Two-day Life Sciences party this weekend

Smediefesten is an annual two-day party at UCPH, former Faculty of Life Sciences (now Science). Always held in May, the party honors an old smithy (in Danish: smedie), demolished in 1977 against the will of the students.

Volunteer students use a whole week to set up scenes, bars, party tents and prepare savoury foods for the huge get-together. Any profits will go to students in the form of travel grants.

A cooking lesson for a broke student

TV chef Claus Angelo has hit the University of Copenhagen lecture halls this fall.

In a series of two evenings, he tells new students about the basics of taste and refined spice-mixing for those on a budget. And even though the lectures are in Danish, taste pyramids and food samples speak their own universal language.

The sample plates were laden with small edible tidbits and strange-smelling concoctions.

Flavour, or just 'irritation'

Grand reopening of student café

While some of us slept, a team of 10 students and 2 architects busied themselves preparing the Faculty of Life Sciences’ student-owned and run »Café Væksthuset« (Danish for »Café Greenhouse«) for its spring opening on Monday, 28 March.

The final preparations are in addition to a complete renovation of the four year old café. The work party built, painted and modified new and old furniture, giving a new face to the ever-popular gastronomic institution.

Eat-in event drew a carrot-loving crowd

Eating is not just eating. This is certainly according to the organisers of Terra Madre, an annual celebration of local and sustainable food production created by the Slow Food movement.

On December 10, activist students at the Faculty of Life Science held a feast to celebrate it.

The Eat-in was arranged by two German Erasmus students, Manuel Hilscher and Dusha Manoharan, at the Faculty of Life Sciences.

See our photo story from the event here.

Important to reconnect

Plant is too good for its own good

Drought, frost, and salt tolerant, quinoa (pronounced ‘key-noo-ah’…ed) isn’t your average crop. It has been cultivated by Andean farmers for thousands of years. And it can grow up to 4000 metres altitude. It is also known for its high plant protein content.

In 1985 Sven-Erik Jacobsen fell in love with it.

After finishing his Master’s degree he was hired by a company interested in bringing new crops to Denmark. His job was to field test quinoa under Danish conditions, and show the demonstration plots to farmers.

Spreaded the quinoa gospel

Activists to protest bad food canteens

The 1960s was a time of non-violent political protest and events known as ‘sit-ins.’ This Friday, 10 December two German Erasmus students, Manuel Hilscher and Dusha Manoharan will stage another type of protest at the Faculty of Life Sciences.

The ‘Eat-in’. Manoharan and Hilscher, along with other international students, hope to change the way students look at their food, by making the eating of each others food an event in itself.