MAD1

Vivre la Cuisine

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Michel Bras is one of the most iconic chefs that have ever lived.

He was born to a blacksmith–father and chef–mother in Gabriac in 1946. He schooled in a nearby town and from an early age started helping his mother tend her pots at the family’s hotel/restaurant, Lou Mazuc. Bras credits his mother with introducing him to the cuisine of Aubrac — the region of his birth and upbringing.

Michel never left the Lou Mazuc kitchen to train elsewhere, he studied culinary literature, philosophy and photography in his spare time and cooked from intuition – as he continues to do today. At thirty-three, he took over the inn from his parents and his innovative cooking led to Lou Mazuc winning two Michelin stars.

He continued here until 1992 when he opened the hotel/restaurant Michel Bras. It is an ultra-modern structure nearly all of glass with slate and granite, which sits on a plateau overlooking the landscape of Aubrac. In 1999, he was awarded three Michelin stars.

Michel has published several books under his name, including the seminal 2002 cookbook Essential Cuisine (which he took all the photos for himself). He also opened an eponymous restaurant in the Windsor Hotel Toya in Hokkaido, Japan in 2002.

The Power of Food

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Gastón Acurio is a Peruvian chef and ambassador of Peruvian cuisine. He is the owner of international restaurants and author of several books. In Peru he's also the host of his own television program and contributes to several magazines.

Gaston studied law (expecting to succeed his father in a political career) in Lima then Madrid, but dropped out to learn how to cook, enrolling at first an hotelier school in Spain then le Cordon Bleu in Paris.

In 1994, he returned to Peru and applied his new knowledge of international cuisine to Peruvian ingredients and recipes, opening his first restaurant, Astrid & Gastón. Today, together with his wife Astrid, he owns restaurants across the Latin world and in America.

How Will Future Food Systems Differ?

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Hans Herren was appointed president of the Millennium Institute in May 2005. Prior to this, he was director-general of the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Nairobi, Kenya. He also served as director of the Africa Biological Control Centre of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), in Benin.

At IITA, he conceived and implemented the highly successful biological control program that saved the African cassava crop and averted Africa’s worst-ever food crisis.

Over the years, Hans has moved his interests toward integrated sustainable development, in particular, linking environmental, plant, animal, and human health issues.

Hans earned his Ph.D. at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, and holds numerous awards that recognise his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research including election to the US National Academy of Sciences and the World Food Prize, the highest award given to an individual for advancing human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world.

Make Food Not War

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Kamal Mouzawak created the first farmers’ market in Beirut, Souk el-Tayeb, which preserves food traditions and the culture of sustainable agriculture in Lebanon. Kamal is working to protect the interests of local small farmers and producers in Lebanon, enabling them to sell their products directly at the market, thus ensuring a fair price for their goods.

Today, Souk el-Tayeb has grown to include regional festivals, school programmes, a newsletter, Dekenet Souk el Tayeb and a coop kitchen/restaurant where a different cook/producer prepares the daily lunch. Kamal has been recognised as an Ashoka Arab World Fellow for his work

Insects & Plants Together for Life

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Alex Atala began his career at 19 in Belgium, at the École Hôtelière de Namur. He went on to work at Jean-Pierre Bruneau’s 3-star Michelin restaurant there before moving to France and the Hotel de la Cote d'Or with Bernard Loiseau. Stints in Montpellier and Milan followed before returning to São Paulo in 1994.

His work at several restaurants around the city immediately attracted the attention of media and customers. By the end of 1999, he opened D.O.M.restaurant, where he was one of the first to use indigenous and Amazonian produce in a fine-dining setting.

Alex went on to publish Por uma Gastronomia Brasileira, a two-volume cookbook of recipes and documentary photographs featuring native Brazilian ingredients.

In April 2011, D.O.M. was rated the 7th best restaurant in the world in the S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best list whilst also winning the title of ‘Aqua Panna Best Restaurant In South America.’ In 2009, Alex opened his second restaurant, Dalva e Dito, to critical acclaim.

Coquina et Naturali Vinorum

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

The youngest of five children, Iñaki Aizpitarte was born in Besançon from Spanish relatives fleeing from the Franco dictatorship in Spain. After school, he held a string of odd jobs: stonemason, landscape painter and finally enology student. In 1999, he flew to Tel Aviv and worked as a dishwasher for a Serbian chef, where he learned the basics of cooking. Subsequently, he toured Latin America before arriving in Paris.
Iñaki worked his way through the city’s kitchens, first at Café des Délices then la Famille in Montmartre and Transversal in the Mac/Val museum before opening le Chateaubriand in Belleville with his friend, Frédéric Peneau, in 2006.
It was an instant hit and was declared le Fooding’s Best Restaurant in its first year. Within two years, le Chateaubriand had won the San Pellegrino Breakthrough Prize. Today, Iñaki is one of the most influential chefs cooking and le Chateaubriand was voted 9th best restaurant in the world in the S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best list in 2011.

About MAD:
MAD is a non-profit transforming our food system by giving chefs and restaurateurs the skills, community, time, and space to create real and sustainable change.

Urban Food Systems

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Thomas Harttung is an organic farmer and forester at Barritskov Farm in Denmark, since 1984. In 1996, he founded Barritskov Vegetable Garden, which in 1999 was converted to Aarstiderne in collaboration with Soren Ejlersen.

This company, which delivers organic fruit, vegetables and grocery products directly to homes and businesses in Denmark, Sweden and Germany revolutionised the way people buy organic produce.

In 2005, Thomas also founded BlackCarbon and GreenCarbon in order to address the complex interface between environmental sustainability, food security and climate change.

Time Magazine named him one of the Heroes of the Environment in 2009.

Copenhagen is Buzzing: Bees, Cities & Our Common Future

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Jacqueline McGlade is a leading marine biologist and environmental informatics professor. Her research focuses on the spatial and nonlinear dynamics of ecosystems, climate change and scenario development.

Jacqueline became Executive Director of the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen, Denmark on 01 June 2003 and has held that post since. Following this appointment, she took leave from her post as Professor of Environmental Informatics in the Department of Mathematics at University College London where her main areas of research included environmental technologies and the international politics of the environment and natural resources.

Jacqueline has worked extensively in North America, south-east Asia and west Africa; she has published more than 100 research papers, written popular articles, presented and appeared in many radio and television programmes, including her own BBC series the Ocean Planet and Learning from Nature.

Fäviken: How We Do Things

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Magnus Nilsson is the chef of Fäviken Magasinet in northern Sweden and one of the world’s most exciting young chefs.

Raised not far from the restaurant, the young Magnus loved marine biology and cooking. Eventually choosing to pursue the latter, he attended a local cooking school before joining Pontus in the Greenhouse as a pastry chef. At twenty however, he left Sweden for France and an internship at the then-new l’Astrance. After this, he spent a short time at l’Arpege before returning to Sweden. By Christmas 2003, he was in Paris again and back at l’Astrance, where he went on to spend three years.

Once back in Stockholm, he had begun to lose interest in cooking and enrolled in an oenology course. In 2006, Magnus actually arrived at Fäviken, aged twenty-four, not having cooked in two years and intending to be the restaurant’s sommelier.

When the incumbent chef left in 2008, Magnus was left the sole employee and therefore decided to run both kitchen and front of house. He hasn’t looked back since.

Natural & Cultural Ecosystems

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Andoni Aduriz was born in Donostia and began his career in the kitchen of a pizzeria, where he worked during school holidays and at weekends.

After completing his studies at San Sebastian School of Cuisine, he went on to learn under many of the local chefs including Ramón Roteta, Hilario Arbelaitz, Jean Louis Neichel, Juan Mari Arzak, Fermín Arrambide and Pedro Subijana before spending the 1993-4 season at elBulli under Ferran Adriá. In 1996, he became head chef under Martín Berasategui at his eponymous restaurant back in San Sebastian.

Two years later, in 1998, he opened his own restaurant, Mugaritz, atop a hillside thirty minutes from the city, in the Basque countryside.

In 2002, Andoni was awarded the National Prize for Gastronomy and the Spanish guide lo Mejor de la Gastronomía named him both ‘Chef of the Year’ and ‘Patissier of the year.’ Since 2005 the Michelin guide have awarded him a two stars and he ranked 2nd best restaurant in the world in the S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best list in 2011.

The Flavours of Plants

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Harold McGee is a world-renowned authority on the chemistry of foods and cooking. He has written two seminal books on kitchen science: On Food and Cooking: the Science and Lore of the Kitchen and the Curious Cook.

He currently writes a regular column for the New York Times, which examines – and often debunks – conventional kitchen wisdom. He also teaches at The French Culinary Institute in New York City.

Before becoming a writer, Harold was a literature and writing instructor at Yale University.

How Good Food Can Save Our Planet | Dr. Molly Jahn

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Molly Jahn is the dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to this, she was a professor in the departments of Plant Breeding & Genetics and Plant Biology at Cornell University. She has worked extensively overseas to link crop breeding with improved human nutrition and human welfare.

Molly has served as the U.S. Commissioner for Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, USAID Scientific Liaison Officer and member of the board of The World Vegetable Centre, Director of the Public Seed Initiative and the Organic Seed Partnership, Member of the Editorial Board and Executive Committee of The Plant Cell and is currently a member of the National Academies of Science Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Wild Plants & Culinary Creativity

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

François Couplan is an ethnobotanist and French writer, specialising in traditional uses of wild and cultivated plants, which he has studied on five continents.

A graduate of the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, knight of the Ordre du Mérite Agricole and holder of a doctorate of the Muséum National d'histoire Naturelle of Paris, he has given workshops on the study of wildlife since the seventies in first the United States then Europe. It was his work with French chef Marc Veyrat that inspired him to work more closely with edible plants.

Francois has gone on to author over fifty published books on plants and nature including two encyclopaedias on edible flora plus some 600 articles in various magazines. He has also created l'Institut de Recherches sur les Propriétés de la Flore (France and Switzerland).

Food Microbiology: An Overlooked Frontier

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

David Chang is chef/owner of the Momofuku restaurant group, which includes Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, Má Pêche, Milk Bar, Momofuku Ko all in NYC and Momofuku Seiōbo in Sydney, Australia. Since 2009, Ko has held two Michelin stars.

After graduating from Trinity College, where he majored in religious studies, David pursued a variety of jobs, including teaching English in Japan, bussing tables and finance positions. He worked at Mercer Kitchen then at Tom Colicchio's Craft for two years before returning to Japan and a small soba shop, followed by a restaurant in Tokyo's Park Hyatt. Once back in America, he joined Café Boulud.

In 2004, he opened his first Momofuku restaurant, Noodle Bar, in the East Village and Momofuku has been growing ever since.

The Cycle of Love

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Ben Shewry is born and raised in humble and rural North Taranaki, New Zealand. He determined at age five that he would be a chef and worked in his first kitchen at age ten. He apprenticed at Wellington's Roxborough Bistro under Mark Limacher then Michael Lambie and Andrew McConnell in Melbourne and David Thompson at Nahm in London. This last experience also prompted a visit to Thailand, where he fell in love with the local cuisine, spending the next six years of his spare time developing his Thai cooking skills.

Returning to Melbourne, he opened Attica in Ripponlea. The restaurant has achieved terrific success. Ben was named ‘Best New Talent’ by Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine in 2008 and voted ‘Chef of the Year’ for the Age’s Good Food Guide 2010.

Today, Ben lives on the Bellarine Peninsula, by the sea, where he can forage himself ingredients every morning for that day’s menu.

Beyond the Animal Model

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Stefano Mancuso is a founder of the study of plant neurobiology, which explores signalling and communication at all levels of biological organization, from genetics to molecules, cells and ecological communities.

He is a professor of Plant, Soil & Environmental Science at the University of Florence, Italy and co-founder of the LINV (the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology).

The work of Stefano and his team continues to transform our view of plants from simple organisms to complex ecological structures and communities that can gather, process and share important information.

A Short History of the Beet

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Daniel Patterson is an American chef, restaurateur and food writer; he is also considered a leading proponent of California cuisine.

A self-taught chef, hee began working as a restaurant dishwasher at age fourteen and attended Duke University before dropping out. In 1989 he moved to Sonoma, California with his then-partner, with whom he opened Babette's, a French-inspired restaurant in 1994. It closed in 1999 when the lease expired. The pair then launched Elisabeth Daniel together in 2000, before he moved to become head chef at Frission.

In 2006, Daniel opened Coi and went on to win two Michelin stars two years later. Two more critically-acclaimed restaurants have followed, across the Bay: Plum and Haven.

Daniel is also an avid writer about food, contributing to New York Times Magazine, Food & Wine Magazine and San Francisco Magazine.

Wild Flavours of England

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Miles Irving makes his living out of foraging and supplies of wild food to the restaurant trade. He is one of Europe’s most respected professional foragers.

A psychology graduate and carpenter by trade, Miles has been foraging for almost ten years. He now runs a small, but energetic rural enterprise called Forager and is the author of the Forager Handbook.

All Food Has Been Alive

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Søren Wiuff is one of the most prominent and forward-thinking farmers in Denmark. Taking over the family farm at Brogård, in the southernmost Lammefjord, not long ago he made his living working an almost entirely monoculture farm of carrots. However, he always held a tiny plot of odd vegetables for himself and a few small restaurants on which to experiment with different crops.

Over the last several years, Søren has worked closely with René Redzepi of noma and other leading Copenhagen restaurants and, today, operates a polyculture producing renowned, organic asparagus, multiple varieties of cabbage, legumes and even better carrots.

An Introduction to the First MAD Symposium

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

René Redzepi has re-invented the Nordic kitchen through his restaurant noma and is currently one of the most influential and quoted persons on the gastronomic scene worldwide.

Born in Copenhagen into a Danish-Macedonian family, René started his culinary career after catering school at Pierre Andre. He left in 1998 to work at Jardin des Sens, a season at elBulli, Spain and the French Laundry, USA. He returned to Copenhagen in 2001 as sous chef at Kong Hans Kælder, where he spent two years before opening restaurant noma in 2005.

Noma currently holds two Michelin stars and in 2010 and 2011 was voted 1st at the S. Pellegrino 50 World's Best Restaurants Awards for two years in a row. René has also been appointed ambassador for the New Nordic Food – a programme run by the Nordic Council of Ministers.

From Wild to Tame and Back Again

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Tor Nørretranders is a Danish author of non-fiction and popular science His books and lectures have primarily been focused on science and its role in society, often with his own advice about how society should integrate new findings in science.

Tor has published twenty books and been translated into ten languages. His best-known books are on consciousness (the User Illusion, 1999) and creativity (the Generous Man, 2005), but he has dealt with many other issues such as network technology, the environment, quantum mechanics, joy and children’s questions about the world.

Tor holds a M.Sc. in environmental planning from Roskilde University and is honorary professor in the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy at Copenhagen Business School.