Etxekooking: food in Bizkaia: a year cooking the futures from BBK Kuna
In 2025, from BBK Kuna, the social innovation space of Bizkaia, we focused on food as one of the major axes to build a more sustainable, healthy and cohesive Bizkaia. Not only because eating is a daily act, but because health, climate, local economy, culture and identity issues cross paths around food.
Throughout the year we listened, tested, discussed and co-created. We have looked at the habits of citizens, we have worked with young people, seniors, kitchen professionals and agents in the agri-food sector, and we have transformed this reflection into concrete projects.
Now we close the circle of this shared journey, highlighting three pieces that summarize well what was lived and learned in this process about the future of food in Bizkaia:
- The voice of citizens through the Inhabitants of the Future survey.
- The Etxekooking intergenerational audio-visual recipe book.
- The youth Manifesto a result of the Future Game project on the food of tomorrow.
More than a closure, it is a pause to continue activating inspiring futures for Bizkaia from food.
1. A year to think about how we want to eat in Bizkaia
Food as a strategic axis in BBK Kuna.
Food is not just an individual decision or a matter of taste. It affects how we produce in the territory, the type of employment that we generate, people’s health and the environmental impact of our lifestyle. That is why, in 2025, we will make food a strategic work axis at BBK Kuna.
From social innovation, we understand food as a system: what happens in the countryside, in local commerce, in professional kitchens, in homes, in school canteens or in social networks is connected. And only if we think about it and transform it among us all – citizens, businesses, institutions, academia and the primary sector- will we be able to move towards a more responsible and resilient food model.
From reflection to action
This year’s journey combined diagnosis, listening and experimentation. Through projects such as Inhabitants of the Future and The Future Game we collected perceptions, wishes and fears about tomorrow’s food. From there on, we launched co-creation experiences that turned these ideas into tangible proposals.
Two of the clearest results of this process are the Etxekooking audio-visual recipe book and the Youth Manifesto on the food of the future. Both answer the same question: how can we take care of our culinary identity and, at the same time, adapt to current and future challenges?
2. What the survey tells us: desire to cook, little time and fear of losing the legacy
Cuisine as identity… and as a challenge
The Inhabitants of the Future survey has allowed us to gauge how the citizens of Bizkaia imagine their food of tomorrow.
One of the clearest conclusions is the importance given to cuisine as a part of its identity: cooking at home, sharing a table, keeping life-long recipes alive.
At the same time, there are a number of obstacles: lack of time, faster lives, traditional recipes perceived as complex, loss of culinary skills and less transmission between generations. Many people express something similar: “I want to cook more, but I just can’t make it; I want to keep making my mother’s or my grandfather’s cooking, but I don’t know how to do it in my day-to-day life”.
This desire to continue cooking -but in a different way- is one of the threads that we have collected and worked on throughout 2025.
3. Etxekooking: an audiovisual recipe book to update tradition
A meeting between generations and cuisines
In response to these concerns, from BBK and BBK Kuna we promoted a very concrete process: bringing together young people, seniors and chefs at the Bilbao Catering School to reinterpret traditional Bizkaia recipes.
The result is Etxekooking, an audiovisual recipe book created in intergenerational workshops where memories, tips, questions and new ways of cooking have been shared. Social innovation, in this case, involves something as simple and powerful as sitting different generations down around a recipe and letting them talk.
7 life-long recipes + 2 repurpose recipes
In these meetings 7 “lifelong” recipes were selected for their cultural and emotional value, and work was done on how to adapt them to current life: simplifying processes, adjusting times, incorporating utensils and household technologies (such as the airfryer), proposing alternatives of accessible ingredients and focusing on repurpose cooking.
The recipe book also includes 2 recipes designed specifically to reduce food waste, reminding us that cooking well also means taking care of the planet.
All this material is presented in an audiovisual format, with clear and short videos showing things step-by-step and recording the voices of those who participated. The aim is twofold: to encourage more people to cook at home and to demonstrate that tradition and innovation can go hand in hand.
4. The Future Game: a youth manifesto for the food of tomorrow
A youth laboratory to imagine food futures
At the same time, The Future Game has functioned as a youth laboratory for thinking and prototyping food futures. Through participatory dynamics, groups of young people explored questions such as: What does it mean to eat well in the future? What role should technology and innovation play in the food system? How do we ensure that food is a right and not a privilege?
The Youth Manifesto is born from this collective work, a text that captures their critical perspectives and aspirations.
A future that is cooked in community
The manifesto questions the idea of abundance without awareness and speed being synonymous with progress. It proposes to understand food as something more than calories: a space for connecting, justice and shared pleasure. It calls for food systems that respect the rhythms of the earth, that value those who produce food and use technology for connecting, not for uprooting.
The young people who participated dream of live markets, shared tables and a gastronomy that combines local identity and global responsibility. Their message is clear: the future of food is not written. It is cooked between us all.
5. Close the circle: lessons and next steps
The journey of 2025 leaves us several key lessons:
- The citizens of Bizkaia want to continue cooking and recognize the kitchen as part of their identity, but they need tools and formats adapted to the current pace of life.
- The connection between generations is a powerful source of social innovation: giving rise to new ways to keep the culinary legacy alive.
- Youth not only consumes the future. They also design it. Their view on food is demanding with sustainability, social justice and mutual care.
Closing the circle of this year means capturing these voices, sharing the materials generated -the audiovisual recipe book Etxekooking, the Youth Manifesto and the magazine summary of the process- and opening a new phase of work.
From BBK Kuna we will continue to promote projects that connect food, territory and social innovation. The invitation is open: to cook, debate, devise and participate in building a food model that makes Bizkaia a more sustainable, healthy and inspiring place for all.