The Science of Delicious: How GOe Tech Center is Shaping What We Eat Tomorrow
Behind the copper-toned façade of GOe in San Sebastián, a quiet revolution is underway. In laboratories filled with fermentation vessels, sensory analysis booths, and experimental kitchens, researchers are asking fundamental questions about the future of food: How can we make alternative proteins taste better? What role do microorganisms play in creating functional foods? How do we design eating experiences that support both health and sustainability?
This is the work of GOe Tech Center, the research and innovation heart of the Gastronomy Open Ecosystem. Opened in October 2025 as part of the Basque Culinary Center's expansion, the Tech Center represents a distinctive approach to food science: one that refuses to separate sensory pleasure from nutritional value, or culinary tradition from cutting-edge biotechnology.
What distinguishes GOe Tech Center from traditional food research facilities is its integration of culinary expertise with scientific rigor. The research team includes chefs alongside biochemists, food technologists working with sensory scientists, nutritionists collaborating with fermentation specialists. This interdisciplinary model recognizes that the future of food won't be determined solely by what's technically possible but by what people actually want to eat.
The Tech Center focuses on five interconnected research areas: alternative protein development, healthy food formulations, sensory innovation, sustainability solutions, and digital transformation. Within each area, the approach is consumer-centered, incorporating preferences and cultural contexts through co-design methodologies rather than imposing top-down solutions.
One of the most active research streams at GOe involves fermentation, both as a preservation technique and as a tool for creating entirely new foods. The BIZI-DRINKS project, for example, develops functional fermented beverages aligned with trends toward healthy and sustainable eating. Researchers explore how different microorganisms and enzymatic processes can create novel flavors, improve nutritional profiles, and extend shelf life without artificial additives.
This work has immediate applications. Fermented beverages with low or no alcohol (the Low&No category) represent a growing market. Probiotic and prebiotic formulations support gut health. Fermentation can transform plant-based ingredients, improving their taste and texture in ways that make them more appealing alternatives to animal products.
The Tech Center's Master's Degree in Food Fermentation, the first globally to approach fermentation from a gastronomic sciences perspective, trains a new generation of professionals who understand both the microbiology and the cultural significance of fermented foods. Students learn to apply scientific tools and culinary techniques to merge disciplines and analyze the impact of fermentation at sensory, nutritional, and social levels.
Perhaps no area of food research matters more for planetary sustainability than alternative proteins. GOe Tech Center works on plant-based formulations, novel ingredients derived from biomass, and new proteins from microorganism metabolism. But the team knows that sustainability alone won't drive adoption. These foods must deliver on taste, texture, and culinary versatility.
Chefs in the Tech Center explore and transform innovative ingredients, integrating them into developments for the food industry with high culinary value. This chef-scientist collaboration ensures that alternative proteins move beyond niche products to become genuinely appealing options for mainstream consumers. The focus on "clean label" ingredients, using bioactive compounds and functional ingredients without artificial additives, reflects consumer demand for transparency.
Understanding how people experience food requires sophisticated sensory analysis. GOe Tech Center's Sensory Analysis and Consumer Science department, led by experts like Laura Vázquez-Araújo, employs methodologies that bridge laboratory precision with real-world contexts.
Researchers use both controlled sensory testing rooms and real restaurant environments, including LABe Restaurant, to evaluate foods. Home Use Tests (HUT) allow them to understand how products perform in everyday contexts. This dual approach captures both the isolated sensory properties of foods and the complex factors (ambiance, social setting, expectations) that shape eating experiences.
The instrumental and sensory analysis capabilities support innovation across all research areas. Whether developing new textures for patients who have difficulty swallowing, optimizing the flavor profile of a fermented beverage, or understanding cultural preferences for specific taste combinations, sensory science provides the empirical foundation.
The Tech Center's health-focused research line addresses a profound challenge: how to create foods that support wellbeing without sacrificing the pleasure of eating. This includes developing culinary and nutritional solutions for patients, exploring new textures and formulations with a sensory and organoleptic approach.
Functional and fortified beverages designed to prevent or improve the progression of various diseases represent one direction. Ingredients that support longevity, cognitive function, or metabolic health represent another. But the guiding principle remains consistent: health-promoting foods must taste good, or they won't be eaten consistently enough to make a difference.
The Tech Center approaches sustainability not as a single attribute but as system-level thinking about food production, distribution, and consumption. Research on adding value to agro-industrial by-products creates bioactive, healthy ingredients within a sustainable food model. Work on circular economy principles explores how waste from one food process can become input for another.
Projects like the Atlantic Gastronomy Project investigate the gastronomic potential of specific regions (Spain, France, Ireland, Portugal), fostering innovation rooted in local products and traditions. This regional focus recognizes that sustainability must be place-based, working with existing food cultures rather than against them.
GOe Tech Center also explores how digital tools and artificial intelligence are transforming gastronomy. This includes technologies for restaurant management, supply chain optimization, and even the creative process of developing new dishes. Workshops on AI applications in restaurants, held during GOe's inaugural events, signal the Tech Center's commitment to helping the industry navigate technological change.
The Digital Gastronomy Lab (LABe), a 1,400-square-meter living lab within the GOe ecosystem, provides space for co-creating, prototyping, and testing technologies, products, and services that drive digital transformation. Startups and established companies can use the experimental kitchen, 360-degree immersive dining room, and real restaurant context to develop and validate innovations with actual consumers.
What makes GOe Tech Center distinctive is its connection to industry and entrepreneurs. The center doesn't just publish papers; it develops solutions that companies can implement. Through collaborations with food producers, restaurant groups, and startups, research findings move rapidly from laboratory to market.
The economic impact is already measurable. Between 2012 and 2022, the Basque Culinary Center generated €228 million in economic impact, with a GDP contribution of nearly €125 million. GOe amplifies this impact by providing infrastructure for more research projects, more startup acceleration, and more industry partnerships.
Underlying all the Tech Center's work is a commitment to what Basque Culinary Center calls "a delicious future". This phrase captures an essential insight: the future of food must be appealing, not just nutritious or sustainable. People won't embrace alternatives out of guilt alone. They need foods that deliver joy, that connect to cultural traditions, that make eating a pleasure rather than a calculation.
By bringing together chefs and scientists, tradition and innovation, rigorous research and culinary creativity, GOe Tech Center models a new approach to food research: one where deliciousness is a requirement, not an afterthought, and where the goal is not just to feed the future but to nourish it in every sense of the word.
