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Science in the kitchen: Taste 1973 visits the Canary Islands Oceanographic Centre (IEO-CSIC)

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Diego Schattenhofer, wearing the Taste 1973 cap with his arms crossed, listens alongside three other visitors in front of columns of yellow and green microalgae cultures hanging from the laboratory ceiling

A day in the laboratory, not in the kitchen

Canary Islands Oceanographic Centre (IEO-CSIC), Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 15 July 2025.

There are days that leave no new dish on the à la carte menu and still change the way you look at produce. On 15 July 2025 we told the story of one of them on our accounts: the Taste 1973 team visited the Canary Islands Oceanographic Centre (IEO-CSIC), in the Dársena Pesquera of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with the centre’s director opening the doors for us and guiding us throughout the tour.

It is worth being clear about where all this comes from, because in this house we prefer to say so. The only account of the visit is the reel we published that day: there was no press release or media coverage. What is confirmed by official sources is the framework — the centre, its headquarters and who runs it — and that is what we’ve added to the story.

Four people stand in a light-walled laboratory listening attentively; among them, a man in a dark 1973 cap and white T-shirt with his sunglasses hanging from his neck

The team, listening in one of the centre's rooms. Still from the visit reel. Foto: Instagram @diegoschatten

Who opened the door for us

Our host was “Chechu Arrieta” — that is, Jesús María Arrieta López de Uralde — who appears as director in the CSIC’s institutional record for the Canary Islands Oceanographic Centre. That same record places the centre’s headquarters at La Farola del Mar 22, Dársena Pesquera 1, Parcela 8, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, right in the Dársena Pesquera.

This wasn’t a first meeting. Arrieta and Diego have long been working together on various projects, and in 2024 they shared a stage at the VI Encuentro de los Mares with a presentation on the marine enzymatic process; his speaker profile at that congress presents him as “Tenured Scientist at the Canary Islands Oceanographic Centre, IEO-CSIC”. What changed on 15 July was the setting: from the table of a congress to the workbench of his laboratory.

Two hands hold a transparent glass measuring cylinder with a small amount of liquid, beneath a manometer and next to a precision balance and several ceramic crucibles on a white cloth

The centre's instruments on the workbench, during one of the explanations. Still from the visit reel. Foto: Instagram @diegoschatten

Four topics in one day

We summed up the tour like this on Instagram: “We had the chance to get up close with the morphology of different fish species, to better understand reproduction processes, to get to know the world of marine algae better, and to observe the behaviour of water.”

Four topics that, seen from a kitchen, are not popular-science curiosities. The morphology of each species explains why a muscle holds up the way it does and why fish maturation works one way in one specimen and another way in the one next to it. Reproduction processes mark the seasons and the condition of the animal when it reaches the crate. Algae are a larder, and they are also the first link in everything else. And the behaviour of water — its temperature, its movement, its load — governs the three before it. Leaving the kitchen to understand this is, for us, part of the craft.

A computer screen on a laboratory bench showing a gallery of microscopic images of small marine organisms, surrounded by flasks, pipettes and boxes of equipment

The microscopic images analysed at the centre, on the laboratory screen. Still from the visit reel. Foto: Instagram @diegoschatten

The University of La Laguna, also in the room

Three names from the University of La Laguna joined the visit: Pedro Pascual, Enrique Lozano and Elicio Xumet, whom we thanked in the post because their “company and contributions made the experience even more enriching”. Of the three, the ULL’s Portal Ciencia identifies Enrique Lozano Bilbao as an assistant lecturer in the Department of Animal Biology, Edaphology and Geology.

That crossing of institutions is no coincidence. The visit was possible, as we wrote at the time, thanks “to our multidisciplinary team @gastrosinapsis and Move&Health Lab”. Gastrosinapsis, which Diego co-founded, is exactly that: a multidisciplinary research team that brings together science and gastronomy, with the institutional support of the Cabildo de Tenerife, the Ayuntamiento de Arona, the IPNA-CSIC of Tenerife, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography and the ICIA. The Oceanographic Centre was, therefore, no unfamiliar door: the relationship with the IEO goes back a long way, to that visit to the Spanish Institute of Oceanography in Santa Cruz, in 2020.

Two elongated fish swim near the surface of a transparent water tank, against a backdrop carpeted with green seaweed lit by sunlight

Fish in one of the centre's tanks, against a backdrop of seaweed. Still from the visit reel. Foto: Instagram @diegoschatten

What we took away

Back in the kitchen, what remained was the usual thing after a day like this: new questions and a list of things to try. Diego put it in writing at the close of the post, and we sign up to it entirely: the day served “to keep driving spaces of connection between science, health and sustainability”.

We’re also left with the thanks, which was the point of the video: “We’ve had the chance to visit the Canary Islands Oceanographic Centre and we want to thank its great director, Chechu Arrieta, for opening the doors to us and guiding us on a visit that has been truly inspiring”. And to the centre’s human team, who, in the words of that day, “shared all their knowledge and passion with us”.

Everything about the VI Encuentro de los Mares in Tenerife: ocean and health

Visit to the Spanish Institute of Oceanography in Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Frequently asked questions

What is the Canary Islands Oceanographic Centre and where is it?
It is the centre of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography integrated into the CSIC (IEO-CSIC) that researches the marine environment across the archipelago. According to the CSIC's institutional record, it is based at La Farola del Mar 22, Dársena Pesquera 1, Parcela 8, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Who guided the Taste 1973 visit?
The centre's own director, Jesús María Arrieta López de Uralde — "Chechu Arrieta" day to day — who appears on the CSIC website as director of the Canary Islands Oceanographic Centre. He had already been collaborating with Diego Schattenhofer on various projects, and in 2024 they shared a presentation on the marine enzymatic process at the VI Encuentro de los Mares.
What was seen during the tour?
As we told on Instagram that same day, the tour paused on the morphology of different fish species, on reproduction processes, on the world of marine algae, and on the behaviour of water.
Who took part on behalf of the University of La Laguna?
In the post we thank Pedro Pascual, Enrique Lozano and Elicio Xumet, from the University of La Laguna. Of the three, the ULL's Portal Ciencia identifies Enrique Lozano Bilbao as an assistant lecturer in the Department of Animal Biology, Edaphology and Geology.

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