Food made Good

The ground between a better meal and a better world can no longer afford to be a conflict zone. Here is why the clarion call for sustainable dining is an urgent one, more so now than ever before.

- SUVIR SARAN

Michelin-starred chef-dom in Manhattan of the early 2000’s and bestselling cookbooks made me a popular speaker and guest chef at food and wine events and public health forums. For twenty-plus years I’ve been teaching at the Culinary Institute of America and at thought leadership summits hosted by the Harvard School of Public Health. It wasn’t my good looks that brought me this honour, it was my visceral understanding of living and working sustainably. It was my living in a heritage farmstead in a bucolic hamlet in North Country, New York. It was those years at the farm, seeing firsthand the challenges that come with living connected to the land that made me appreciate how much farther we still need to travel to make the world greener and fairer for all .

OUTPACING THE PANDEMIC

The pandemic has brought front and centre the need for a sustainably thoughtful mindfulness to permeate our consciousness. Consumption of healthier, fresher, natural, less processed, local, seasonal, regional food has become the call of the hour. The voices calling for sustainability can no longer go unheard. We are grounded in a new century, and it is incumbent upon us chefs and diners, in NYC, New Delhi, or anywhere else in the world, to demand and deliver quality while ensuring the health and security of a shared planet. What we started in the US in 2000 is still a work in process, but has acquired a renewed momentum with the pandemic.