COLTA aims to investigate the phenomenon of collective catering through an innovative interdisciplinary methodology that integrates semiotic, anthropological, aesthetic-philosophical, ecological, and service design perspectives.

The starting assumption is that collective catering offers a certain way of dining together, but also an idea of community and collectivity, constituted by a complex set of relationships linking subjects, objects, values, spaces, recipes, temporal rhythms, and forms of conviviality. Within this framework, issues related to sustainable development, political, communicative, hygienic-sanitary, educational, nutritional, technological, and gustatory aspects are intertwined, which the project aims to address.

Starting from the study of collective catering, COLTA aims to investigate much broader social dynamics. Essential will be an examination of the past: remote, through a historical-anthropological investigation of religiously themed rituals revolving around the sharing of meals, and proximate, focused on the emergence and development of the phenomenon of collective catering, linked to industrial society and the related changes in lifestyles. Moving on to an assessment of the present, heavily influenced by the recent pandemic, which, on one hand, has put the sector in crisis, but on the other hand, has introduced significant opportunities for change.

The investigation will be conducted on a dual track:

• Field - Discourses of collective catering

This step includes interviews with industry representatives, studies of business realities, and ethnographic investigations into concrete usage practices by users.

• Desk - Discourses on collective catering

Communication campaigns, programmatic documents, films, and blogs will be analyzed, all materials that construct an aesthetic-social-ecological discourse around the phenomenon of collective catering.

The goal is to address the future by defining trends and development scenarios, as well as useful guidelines to steer the current debate on collective catering involving administrators, chefs, and industry associations with renewed awareness.