Questlove

He's a late-night TV mainstay, an Oscar-winning director, and a musical trailblazer. But what gets him excited these days is more than just entertainment, it's the future of how we eat and he's positioning a new generation to take starring roles in the revolution.

-  RUTH REICHL

Ahmir Khalib Thompson is determined not to waste a moment of his time. Questlove, as he's known to the world, is a founding member of the Roots, the house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. That would be enough for most people, but not this Renaissance man. He's a filmmaker whose movie Summer of Soul won an Academy Award for best documentary feature. He's an author who has written six books. He acts. He teaches at NYU and produces records, including the cast album for Hamilton.

But these days Questlove is focused on food. Anthony Bourdain called him a "fully made member of the chef mafia," and he once helmed a fried chicken stand in New York's Chelsea Market, but now he has turned his attention to saving both the people and the planet through plant-based eating. He's on the board of the Food Education Fund, and he recently spearheaded the Future of Food Entrepreneurship Program, which pairs underrepresented public high school culinary arts seniors with emerging and established food tech companies. "I think I might get more excited," he says, "about these things than music or filmmaking.

There are very few people who really get the way that food is more than something to eat. How did you become interested in food as a way of changing the world?