Can Celebrity Chefs Save the World?

The Roman historian Livy famously observed that the rise of celebrity chefs was a sign of his empire's fall into decadence. True to comparisons between the United States and the end of the Roman Empire, contemporary chefs share the same status as television personalities and Hollywood starlets. But, this doesn't mean that we should break out "the end is nigh" signs just yet--as a result of food-oriented non-profits like Slow Food, City Harvest and the Food Bank of New York, today's chefs are more likely to address issues like hunger and sustainability than lead us to the end of days.

At first, chefs seem unlikely partners in philanthropic movements. Gastronomy is so deeply bound to sensuality and, to use Livy's word, decadence that it often feels disconnected from morality. Watching the culinary community come up with increasingly arcane and expensive dishes in the face of poverty, food-crises and environmental disaster seems to confirm Livy's worst fears. Gold-dusted quail eggs under a rock sugar dome with bacon vapors to open your five hundred dollar-tasting menu? Somewhere, Marie-Antoinette is blushing.

Furthermore, the environmental implications of our most sought-after ingredients are difficult to ignore. These days, the New Zealand lamb chop on your plate looks remarkably like a carbon footprint and those perfect Hawaiian mangoes have notes of honey, vanilla, and wait, is that fossil fuel? Can chefs contribute to any movement concerned with the environment when the pursuit of flavor can so ruthlessly trump ethics?

Slow Food, the international non-profit championed by chefs around the world, addresses this question with a mealy, flavorless tomato. The organization argues that food culture has sustained serious blows. In many places, people barely know when broccoli is in season anymore. They point out how this gastronomical crisis results from an industrial food system that also damages our environment, disenfranchises its workers and jeopardizes the health of millions.

In order to continue drawing pleasure from our food, the organization urges us to slow down a system of food production that emphasizes efficiency at the expense of taste, health, and justice. In a brilliant combination of politics and gastronomy, the movement turns chefs into activists. Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini noted (with more than a little volatility) that "[a]ny gastronome who is not an environmentalist and who doesn't respect the person who produced the food is an idiot."

Once we recognize the ties between the quality of our food and the economic structures that govern its production, the kitchen becomes a very political place. Alice Waters of the legendary Berkeley restaurant, Chez Panisse, realized this long before the Slow Food movement existed. When Waters opened the restaurant in the seventies she was stunned by the absence of fresh, flavorful produce from the culinary scene. She also knew that Berkeley and its environs boasted an abundance of small farms. So, she did what any resourceful woman who had spent time in France might-- she started to source her ingredients from local producers.

Ultimately, her gastronomical decision played a major role in the growth of farmer's markets and the development of the local food movement. She currently heads the Chez Panisse foundation to underwrite educational programs like the Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley and collaborates with the local school system to create a more nutritious lunch plan. She is also an international governor for Slow Food.

In her wake, many prominent chefs have burst onto the scene, promoting their local farmers and pushing for agricultural policies that will benefit small producers. Unfortunately, sustainability is only one problem in a profoundly dysfunctional food system. Restaurant industry heavy-hitter, Mario Batali, has chosen to address another issue that occurs far too frequently: hunger.

A long time board member of the Food Bank of New York, Batali contributes to the organization in numerous ways. Most recently, he teamed up with the company, Shadetree Greetings, in order to produce a series of greeting cards, the proceeds of which will go to the organization. Every day, The Food Bank provides food for at least 250,000 free meals that are distributed by non-profits around the city. With Batali's help, the organization will continue to serve the over two million New Yorkers in danger of going hungry every day.

But, Mario Batali is not the only chef involved in the fight against hunger. Eric Ripert, of famed restaurant Le Bernadint, provides a remarkable amount of support to City Harvest, a revolutionary food rescue service based in New York. City Harvest is the world's first organization to collect surplus food from restaurants and distribute it to community food programs around the city.

After Ripert learned how badly the charity was stung by the Bernie Madoff scam, he pledged to donate $1 from every lunch and dinner at Le Bernadin. He also intends to donate the same amount from each copy of his new cookbook "On the Line" sold. If everything goes as planned, he will raise over $100,000 by the end of the year.

It is easy to forget (especially in a restaurant-obsessed city like New York) that greater issues than foie gras ethics circulate in the food world. Yet, through their conviction and dedication, these chefs remind us that our eating habits have implications that reach far beyond the dinner table. Hopefully, the example they set will make Livy eat his words.

— Written by Cecilia Estreich

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