Slow Food Chefs' Alliance Comes To The USA

The United States is joining Slow Food’s extensive worldwide network of chefs committed to cooking and promoting products from the Presidia, Ark of Taste and other communities of local producers.

The Slow Food Chefs' Alliance project already has hundreds of members in 19 countries (Albania, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Uganda, the United Kingdom and Russia), making the USA the 20th country to join.

The US Slow Food Chefs' Alliance was officially launched during the international Slow Food Nations event (Denver, July 14-16). Already 31 chefs have joined.

“The Slow Food Chefs’ Alliance is a really good Slow Food project, especially because chefs are at the forefront of food and they decide what people are going to eat,” said Kevin Mitchell, the first African-American chef-instructor at the Culinary Institute of Charleston in South Carolina.

“Adopting the Slow Food philosophy of good, clean and fair in the kitchen is essential since food is related to so many things, such as the environment, health and education. The Slow Food Chefs’ Alliance is a great thing not only for Slow Food USA but also for Slow Food internationally because it’s a mutual exchange of knowledge among chefs all over the world. I am proud to be part of this.”

Chefs have a fundamental role to play in safeguarding the biological and cultural diversity of our food. They interpret the histories and ecosystems of their regions with skill and creativity, supporting local producers while awakening eaters to the role we all play as custodians of biodiversity.

The Slow Food Chefs' Alliance is a network uniting chefs around the world who are committed to defending and celebrating biodiversity, food traditions, local cultures and artisan food producers.

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.