Seasonal ingredients, local producers, zero-waste from peels and stems. For years, the storytelling around sustainability in haute cuisine was frozen in the idyllic image of chefs in white jackets sniffing herbs as they wandered through gardens—strictly their own—before heading to the stove.

At first, the debate focused on raw ingredients; then, in recent years, attention turned to labor rights, more humane working hours, finances, and economic hardship. In Italy, ecological, economic, and human sustainability have taken turns as the dominant narratives in the food industry—first concerned with ideals, shifting to the struggle to stay afloat, and only then daring to imagine a future beyond the present generation.