Luigi Pomata, chef at the restaurant of the same name in Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy), known locally as 'the red tuna chef', regaled Meeting of the Seas with the essence of cookery based "on tradition and respect for culture, because without this there can be no sustainability". Pomata uses the island's popular recipes to create a new kind of cuisine: “we take an old recipe from our mothers or grandmothers, and we recreate it with a sustainable perspective".

Sustainability which can also be witnessed in the Italian chef's philosophy of zero wastage, and he puts this into practice by using each and every part of the tuna, his fetish foodstuff. “For us, tuna is like pig - we use all parts of it", said Luigi.

Luigi Pomata adds conservation to this maxim too, in order to make the fish available all year round. “One day I found a tin of prime tuna, I opened it, ate it, and it was delicious. Later I noticed that the tin was 10 years old", said the chef, in order to illustrate why he decided to work on maturing these preserves. Subsequently, in association with the University of Cagliari (Sardinia), he produced a study on the conservation of these tins, which he now sells with a minimum maturing period of ten years.

As he opened one of the tins, 25 years old, Pomata's talk finished up by demonstrating that a product must be appraised, known and studied, never losing sight of where it comes from, because "if you aren't familiar with the produce and the tradition, you can't be a good chef".