Chefs All Over The World Join The Cook Up A Better Future Challenge
In the frame of the UN Climate Change Conference 2017 (COP23) currently taking place in Bonn (Germany), Slow Food underlines its commitment to fighting climate change through daily food choices: chefs all over the world from the Slow Food Chefs' Alliance and beyond are drawing attention to the relationship between food and climate change in Cook up a Better Future , the second part of the Slow Food Menu for Change campaign.
Chefs have the power to lead the shift in the way people eat and can change the world: this is the reason why Chefs’ Alliance members all over the world are taking up the challenge, fighting climate change in their kitchen and with several other activities.
- In Albania, chef Altin Prenga is organizing activities in his restaurant for the whole month of November in order to explain what climate change is to young people. Albanian Chefs’ Alliance members are also organizing an Olive Festival and an event on Freshwater Fish, a product which is forgotten by the majority of the population but that is important in traditional cuisine.
- In Belgium, Chefs’ Alliance members gathered in Brussels on November 6, in order to cook a climate friendly menu. Each dish was a more sustainable reinterpretation of a traditional Belgian plate.
- In Brazil, Chefs’ Alliance members joined an event in Florianopolis on November 6, with the presence of Carlo Petrini, president and founder of Slow Food International, in which they prepared several dishes using Brazilian Presidia products.
- In Canada, Chefs’ Alliance members will gather on November 26 in Montreal in order to cook a local and seasonal menu.
- In Kenya, Chefs’ Alliance members launched an event on November 5 to promote the campaign "Eat Kenyan" with a local menu.
- In the UK, Chefs’ Alliance members joined the Slow Food local #50milemeal challenge, in which they had to cook a meal using local ingredients produced within 50 miles at least once a week.
- In the US, more than 100 Chefs’ Alliance members created a signature meatless dish made from a distinctive food facing extinction: Sea Island White Flint Corn Grits, a product on the Slow Food Ark of Taste.
- In Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Uganda and Russia, Chefs’ Alliance members are joining the challenge in their own restaurants with eco-friendly menus.
The Slow Food Chefs' Alliance brings together more than 800 chefs from 20 different countries: Albania, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Russia, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and the US. The Alliance is made up of chefs who have agreed a pact with Slow Food Presidia and Ark of Taste producers and all local producers who cultivate with respect for the concepts of good, clean and fair. The chefs are committed to adding the names of the producers they buy from to their menus, giving added importance and visibility to their work. The goal is to stimulate the creation of a circuit in the local economy, which helps find a market for these authentic products that are often ignored by large retailers.
* Last October Slow Food launched the Menu For Change campaign worldwide, which highlights the relationship between food and climate change: starting from food, we can and must make a difference. Slow Food networks worldwide support and promote solutions for producing food while mitigating its impact on the climate by working to protect biodiversity, encourage food and environmental education, raise awareness among all actors and to try to influence politics at all levels.
The first challenge Eat Local , launched on October, has collected more than 4000 contacts all over the world. Slow Food wants to directly involve people in their daily choices, which can have a major effect on the fight against climate change: choosing good, clean and fair ingredients, drastically reducing the consumption of meat, rejecting any meat that has been raised by intensive farming and fruit and vegetables that have been shipped across continents.
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Slow Food is a global grassroots organization that envisions a world in which all people can access and enjoy food that is good for them, good for those who grow it and good for the planet. Slow Food involves over a million activists, chefs, experts, youth, farmers, fishers and academics in over 160 countries. Among them, a network of around 100,000 Slow Food members are linked to 1,500 local chapters worldwide, contributing through their membership fee, as well as the events and campaigns they organize. As part of the network, more than 2,400 Terra Madre food communities practice small-scale and sustainable production of quality food around the world.