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When Gloria Lucchesi, a musician and teacher of boundless creativity, founded the Community Cooperative Filo&Fibra together with determined women from the small Tuscan village of San Casciano dei Bagni, she could never have imagined the incredible goals that F&F would achieve in just a few years.
The Cooperative was established in 2018 with the main intent of bringing work back to an area where, especially female workers, had suffered job cuts. The project was characterized by a strong vocation for sustainability and respect for the environment. Another ambitious goal was to preserve professional and craft skills of ancient tradition while simultaneously allowing space for creativity, enhancing the community and the territory.
The cooperative has started producing the first handcrafted items made from vintage and fine fabrics, using materials sourced from old fabric warehouses.
Bags, clothing, and home items have started to see the light thanks to the workshop in San Casciano dei Bagni, equipped with furnishings made from recycled materials and sewing machines recovered from abandoned factories. The cooperative's activity has evolved into the field of reusing ordinary 'sucida' wool, which is the wool that is not used because it is of low quality, considered special waste, constituting a problem for sheep breeders as its disposal is costly and complicated. However, this special waste can find new life if used, for example, to produce felt or insulating material. The cooperative has collected wool production from local breeders and transformed it into high-quality material.
During the same period, Gloria Lucchesi accidentally discovered, in a drawer of a piece of furniture that belonged to her grandmother, an old, small book almost entirely dedicated to the cooking box. By combining her acquired skills in wool, a formidable insulating material, with the ideas contained in the book, she had the idea to bring a 2.0 version of the cooking box back into use. But what is a cooking box?
The box is a container, the shape of which is now designed by Filo&Fibra with the innovative design of Vanessa Chioccini, which uses thermal inertia for slow cooking of foods.
Thanks to the insulation provided by wool, the food, after boiling on the stove, is placed inside the box, where cooking continues without further use of energy (gas or electricity) and with considerable water savings as well. In Grandma's book, it was described how this object of ancient origins was widely used during World War I and World War II, and important information was also given about its performance and how it could be made using exclusively recycled materials.
The Cooperative has thus reinvented the cooking box, giving it a new life.
The box, for almost six years now, has been produced by the Filo&Fibra Community Cooperative of San Casciano dei Bagni, and over time it has progressively established itself as a natural slow cooker.
The cooking box allows for a 65% reduction in energy consumption, a 70% reduction in water usage, produces zero emissions, and saves a lot of time compared to traditional cooking.
Cooking food in a modular cooking container enhances the flavors of the ingredients and best preserves their nutritional values. Research conducted by SEAcoop STP in Turin, led by senior researcher Benedetto Rugani (CNR-IRET Porano) and validated by Professor Valentina Castellani and engineer Guido Saccabarozzi on the quality of food cooked in a modular container has yielded surprising results: using the container 10 times a month could last twenty years, granting free time (the equivalent of 400 days of vacation!), and reducing carbon emissions by up to 38.2 kg CO2. If 1 million people used the container, the emission of 38,178 tons of CO2 could be avoided. In terms of water resources, with 120 meals a year, it could achieve a savings of up to 70% for the preparation of each dish; if 1 million people used the cooking container, the water footprint avoided would be about 362,578 cubic meters.
Also in light of what has emerged from various scientific studies dedicated to the cooking box, chefs have also begun to take an interest in food cooked in the box, first of all Tiziana Tacchi, from the Chefs of the Slow Food Alliance and the 2023 Slow Food Hostess of Italy, who owns the Osteria di Chiusi Chianciano "Il Grillo è buon cantore" and has made cooking in the box her strong point. Today, Tiziana Tacchi trains chefs who are increasingly approaching this ancient yet innovative cooking method. Already 5 Chefs of the Slow Food Tuscany Alliance regularly cook in the box.
In 2022, the Slow Food Community of the Cooking Basket of San Casciano dei Bagni was born; this slow cooker indeed possesses the three qualities that Slow Food considers essential: good, clean, and fair.
The Slow Food Cooking Box Community originates from a deep desire: to transform our way of cooking into an act of love for the planet.
We are a group of people united by a passion for culinary tradition, reinterpreted in a modern and sustainable way. What makes us unique is our commitment to preserving an ancient art, that of the cooking box, capable of slowing down the frantic rhythms of daily life, bringing authentic and environmentally respectful flavors back to the table while saving water, energy, and emissions. We value small producers and the treasures of the territory, firmly believing in the power of conscious and responsible eating.
The Slow Food Cooking Box Community is a meeting place, a space for exchange and growth, where we share a passion for good, clean, and fair food.
We participate in the Earth Markets to support local producers, offer Taste Workshops to unveil the secrets of the cooking box, and promote themed events to engage both young and old in a unique sensory and cultural experience.
The Filo&Fibra Community Cooperative and the Slow Food Cooking Box Community of San Casciano Bagni pursue shared goals in unison, with the common mission of raising awareness among new generations about the importance of conscious eating, educating respect for the land and culinary traditions throughout the national territory… and beyond.
