Stuttgart - Kitchen talks have the aura of the unfiltered, of candid discussion in a relaxed atmosphere. The Volkshochschule (VHS) Stuttgart is taking up this format in the new semester and inviting celebrities to kitchen talks with Diana Hörger from SWR. This heralds the focus of the educational spring: nutrition, enjoyment, sustainability.
Frank Nopper at the kitchen talk
The Mayor of Stuttgart, Frank Nopper, will start on February 18th. He will be followed in March by Stuttgart restaurateur Mario Ohno, in May by professional soccer player Timo Hildebrand and ballet mistress Sonia Santiago. The TV chef Simon Tress is also cooking together with a fan with Down syndrome and most recently the Swabian Federal Minister for Nutrition, Cem Özdemir. The live stream is available online.
Like a noble mold through cheese, the main topic permeates the entire range of subjects of the VHS, for example literature and ethnology. A culinary journey leads through literature, another once around the world, in cooperation with consulates based in Stuttgart. Several courses are dedicated to health education, including a cooking club for children during the Easter holidays.
Experts also contribute to the topic in the Future Dialogue. Among others, Niko Paech will come, author and one of the most prominent critics of growth, announces Barbara Brodt-Geiger, head of the program development and digital learning division. The Ökostation on the Wartberg organizes a market day on the subject of sustainability, instructs children in natural gardening and invites them to take a walk through Stuttgart and the world of (fair) coffee.
Cook Peruvian and learn Spanish at the same time
You can also learn foreign languages while cooking. The Adult Education Center is planning various events in its language area in the spring, at which speakers will instruct the participants in their mother tongue. One of them is Néstor Hugo, a Peruvian chef, with whom the participants can test and improve their Spanish skills.
"It is very important that we start with people's lifestyles," says VHS director Dagmar Mikasch-Köthner. The topic of nutrition obviously hits the mark: "Our teaching kitchen is one of the most frequented specialist rooms."
A total of 3000 events from all subject areas are planned in spring, for example the press café on the night of the riot and the question of what holds the city together, where the EU stands in terms of security and foreign policy, where Putin is heading, what China is reaching for and why the trade has to worry about.
VHS has a digital advantage
Vocational training should meet the great need for further training, among other things by teaching basic digital skills, with educational offers in accordance with the quality guidelines of the employment office and IHK and with the school for adults.
Wherever the pandemic is leading: "We are well prepared," says the director. 70 percent of the offers ran online in 2021, a number of participants found this advantageous. "The participants have remained loyal to us," says Barbara Brodt-Geiger. Its digital lead has made the VHS Stuttgart a pilot school. In cooperation with other adult education centers, it develops concepts and model courses for digital and hybrid courses on behalf of the state. "Completely in the spirit of UNESCO and their goal of making lifelong learning accessible to everyone," says the director.
