What makes us tick sometimes.

I've been telling motivational, funny and compelling stories for most of my life. The tools I use evolve as necessary, but the end-result remains the same - drive results and returns on investment for the brands and people I represent. Words I think best represent my style are creative, specific, humorous and strategic – my colleagues and clients describe me as passionate, dedicated, analytic and loyal. I enjoy warm sand and cool water, catching a big fish, and talking to a room. It is my love and understanding of food that allows me to see the world through my eyes as a chef. It is about creating an experience that people may never forget to let them tell their own version of the story that really makes me smile. Ultimately, I believe that every life experience - professional or personal - is predicated on having the great story to tell in the future.

Biomimicry Food Systems Challenge 2016

BioSystemic In(k). ~ Food-Systems Challenge

 

“And then ask yourself, how would nature do it?” ~ Jeanine Benyus the Founder of Biomimicry

Do you remember the first food you ever had? I don’t mean the kind when you were attached to your mother’s hip––I mean the first meal where you sat down at a table and ate with another human being?

For the last five years I’ve been following a new kind of scientific art called Biomimicry– “the design and production of materials, structures, and systems, that are modeled on biological entities and processes.” Founded by Jeanine Benyus, the Biomimicry movement asks us to use nature’s ways as the footprint for our designs. That’s a natural fit for food system design, because every single thing we eat comes from nature, beginning as something growing on the land or at sea.

 

This year, I was enlisted as a judge for the Global Biomimicry Food-Systems Design Challenge, sponsored by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. In 1973, Ray C. Anderson founded Interface, Inc., producing the first free-lay carpet floor tiles for American homes and offices. Today, Interface is the world’s leading producer of modular commercial floor coverings. With manufacturing locations on four continents, their products sell in 110 countries. Mr. Anderson fell in love with Biomimicry and sustainable business practices, and made radical changes to his company––which have spread throughout the industry. In 2011, however, Ray died of cancer. The following year, his family created the Ray C. Anderson Foundation to promote and develop sustainable and biologically-inspired economic systems for the future well-being of our planet. It is from the Foundation’s support that a Biomimicry Accelerator was created, culminating in the $100,000 Ray C. Anderson Foundation Ray of Hope Prize for the Food-Systems Challenge.

 

 

One of my earliest childhood memories is of a food system challenge that our neighbor created.  It was a Fourth of July weekend when Juanita, our Cuban neighbor asked to cook for us. I was maybe five years old and usually played all Summer with her sons and daughters and grandchildren around our country home. At most homes in our neighborhood, the Fourth usually saw all the men poking burgers on the BBQ, but ours was a different kind of holiday. At our house, the women cooked, while the men hunted and foraged on the land and sea. The kids ran around throwing water-balloons at each other and jumpingthrough the lawn sprinklers. It was what I call a ‘Bio-Systemic’ kind of event. You see, BioSystemics isthe study of the relationships between organisms in respect to their evolutionary frameworks.

 

We lived across the street from Juanita, in our own Bio-Systemic Oasis. Our vegetable gardens were bursting with rows of corn, squash, green beans, and tomatoes, and fruit trees were scattered about. Grapes climbed on my jungle-gym, and wild native berries and honey-suckle trailed along every trellis and fence. And then there was the boat. 

 My father had recently gotten the bright idea to buy a few lobster traps, and he set them three days before. We pulled them up to find fresh Atlantic lobster and crab, and on the way home we drifted through Shinnecock Inlet to catch wild Striped-Bass with live bait caught from another fish trap. We raked clams from the Bay, and pulled mussels from the oyster beds with our bare hands. All of this came together, with environmental and social benefits––a feast of abundance and togetherness.

 

 

 

This horn of plenty, built on healthy eco-systems of the East End of Long Island, was a model of resilience. When the men were done hunting, and the kids were done picking, and the women were done chopping, we loaded an enormous paella pan, which took three grown men to carry. They brought it down to Juanita’s traditional brick fireplace, which her son had built for the feast. I remember the contentment and harmony rising from those picnic tables that day, as we ate around a fire as our ancient ancestors must have done––only now the music was Cuban and we were all dancing. This feast was a team creation––the result of community and a Biologically-Systemic collaboration. 

 

I bolded select words in this piece, because they are some of the parameters that we used to judge the student team entries for the Global Food-System Challenge. The students took their cues from naturally-built solutions, re-imagining them as our own, entering them into the Food-System Challenge with the hope of creating Bio-Inspired change for a better future on our planet.

 

Entrants to the Biomimicry Food Systems Challenge were asked to:

•   Identify and solve a specific problem within the food system.

•   Intentionally emulate one or more mechanisms, processes, patterns, or systems found in nature.

•   Enhance the sustainability of the food system, whether from an environmental, social, or economic perspective—or ideally all three—one with potential for impact and at a scope and scale that is feasible for the team.

Their entries were judged under these categories:

1. The Biomimicry Process

2. Context and Relevance

3. Feasibility

4. Social and Environmental Benefits

5. Creativity

6. Communication and Process

7. Teamwork

The three winning teams in the student category will receive cash prizes, while the seven winning teams in the open category will each receive $2,000 and an invitation to enter the 2016-17 Biomimicry Accelerator, which awards the $100,000 Ray C. Anderson Foundation Ray of Hope Prize.

 

Winners, Student Category

First place: Stillæ – Glenforest Secondary School, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada 

A team of six high school girls from Ontario, Canada developed Stillæ, a device designed to capture water in the air before it fully evaporates and then use that water to irrigate crops in both developed and developing countries.

Inspiration: The team looked to organisms that can survive in water-scarce regions for inspiration for their design, including the Socotra desert rose, lichen, and the fogstand beetle. Stillæ is covered in hexagonal-shaped solar panels, inspired by the honeycombs of bees.

 

Second place: Home Food Garbage Decomposer – Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan

 

The Home Food Garbage Decomposer is a device that aims to address the pollution and food safety issues associated with the way food waste is currently treated.

Inspiration: The team looked to cockroaches’ respiratory system, termites’ nest air circulation systems, and the structure of cocoons and honeycombs in order to create a highly efficient, aerobic decomposer for home use.

 

Third place: The EcoFruitainer – Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City, Mexico

 The EcoFruitainer is a bio-inspired, transportable container that not only keeps food fresh in sustainable ways, but enhances food access in rural or hard-to-reach areas.

Inspiration: The team looked to the cooling and storage functions of organisms such as the Nephila clavipes spider, prairie dog, tree bark, and the reflective properties of the green birdwing butterfly.

 

 

Participating in the challenge and getting the chance to see so many exciting groups of students––including kids, young adults, scientists, designers, and artists––and continue to learn the Biomimic Process was both a privilege and an honor. The contest applies Biomimicry––the lessons from natural ecosystems––to improve our organizational structures. Through it, I believe we can facilitate the next generation of thought and change leaders.

I have grown up working in food systems my entire life.  Even when it was not in one of my father’s restaurants it was in our garden, or fishing, or in the woods foraging berries and mushrooms. Then it carried through my culinary career to world-class kitchens, foodservice production and even slaughterhouses. Now I am digesting food production and produce management with a multi-generational Southern California company called Moceri Produce, and our farm Connelly Gardens.

Near the end of his career, Ray C. Anderson went on the speech circuit. He often began his presentations by asking the audience to close their eyes and imagine they were in the most beautiful and tranquil place they could think of. Then he’d ask for a show of hands––who’s imagination took them to a place outdoors in a natural setting? When Ray asked the audience to reopen their eyes, nearly everyone in every room had their hands up. It is in nature where Biomimicry begins, and it is through Biomimicry that I can write with a digital pen called BioSystemic In(k).

Green Feast 2016

“I wanted it to be incredibly beautiful, and full of colors.  I wanted everything to be delicious, really delicious.  Not just good, but really delicious.” ~ Alice Waters on her vision of the Edible Schoolyard

 

This past weekend I was privileged enough to be asked to cook at the Green Feast at San Juan Capistrano’s Ecology Center. The guest of honor was one of my hero’s and a mentor named Alice Waters. Alice has been recognized as the “mother of the farm-to-table movement,” and has been leading the sustainable food movement for decades. She pioneered the concept of eating seasonally and locally, created Chez Panisse, one of the most recognized restaurant brands in the world, and then created a national initiative ‘The Edible Schoolyard Project.’ Alice is an all-around Sustainability Renaissance woman.

 

Four decades ago, my family’s New York City restaurant owned by my French grandmother from Alsace-Lorraine was passed on to my father, aunt,and uncle. Some of my earliest child memories are of our backyard garden behind the kitchen and dining rooms. Keep in mind we were on Manhattan’s East 61st Street between Park and Madison Avenues. It was a “concrete jungle,” to be sure. But to this day I remember the herbs and vegetables that grew back there, ironically right next to the tubs of lard we used to make those perfectly folded French Omelettes. I played back there in that garden, and it was an Oasis to me from the bustle of the restaurant where everyone in my family seemed to always be working.

 

I tell that story for the same reasons Alice Waters breathes the delicious air that she does––I was a kid, and in that moment I thought every kid had that special place just like I did: a garden to watch things grow, nurture and love.  I had garden mentors: my father, aunt and uncle taught me how to plant, and reap, then sow. It was infinitely special and beautiful. Not good. Not delicious. But really, really delicious. It wasn’t until years later that I came to understand that not every child has that. And then I heard about Alice.

 

Twenty years ago, Alice Waters was quoted in a local newspaper, saying that the school she passed every day looked like no one cared about it. Neil Smith, the principal of Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School at the time, contacted her. He had an acre of tortured land on the school grounds, and he believed she could find a way to help. Even then Alice had a mission: she wanted to build a garden and a teaching kitchen that could become tools for enriching the curriculum and life of the school community. From this land, these two created a place that;

 

“Involves students in all aspects of farming the garden and preparing, serving, and eating food as a means of awakening their senses and encouraging awareness and appreciation of the transformative values of nourishment, community, and stewardship of the land.

This became The Edible Schoolyard, which “encompasses garden and kitchen classroom settings and provides a hands-on environment for students in which to apply skills learned in traditional math, science, and the humanities.”

 

Today, the King Middle School garden serves as the model for other Edible Schoolyard affiliates around the country: in New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Greensboro, and my own hometown of Brooklyn.

 

The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano is an eco-educational non-profit center founded by Evan Marks. It’s a magical place that engages individuals, families, and students in hands-on activities that teach practical, environmental solutions on a realistic community level. This educational farm is an “oasis” in Southern California, and it has grown in leaps and bounds. It’s the kind of place that can change a child–– or an adult’s––view of their world. It’s a place that brings all members of the community together to inspire and create a healthy and abundant future for all of Southern California.

 

Evan, and the Ecology Center’s chef, Kerri Cacciata, initiated The Community Table Accord, highlighted at this event. Along with a team of Rock-Star chefs, it focuses on building a community and supporting its growth through ten simple principles:

1) Buy Local and Seasonal


2) Choose Organic


3) Eat Fresh


4) Celebrate Diversity


5) Promote Polycultures


6) Grow Your Own


7) Respect Animals


8) Nourish All Children


9) Educate for Change


10) Celebrate the Harvest

This menu for the Green Feast 2016 read like a local horn of plenty:  Local Yellowtail, California King Salmon and the first White Sea Bass of the season all from Superior Seafood’s, artisan charcuterie from Michael Puglisi at Electric City Butcher, garden lettuces from Palmquist Elementary School’s garden, apricots, citrus, fig leaves and avocados we picked from the trees of the Ecology Center, Chino Family Farms strawberries sent from heaven, organic vegetables from Bob Harrington at Specialty Produce…..and on, and on.  

“In the Community Table Accord are the principles that drive us, day in and day out. These are not only words, but our way of life,” explained Marks. “As the next generation carrying on Alice's rich legacy, it is the greatest compliment to have her join us at The Ecology Center to give us her blessing on this agreement that sets the standards for the sustainable table.”

 

One of the things that struck home to me this weekend was a comment she made when talking about The Edible Garden. They hold an Iron-Chef competition with the kids each year, and of course EVERY kid wants to be the Iron-Chef. One of the most important criteria for judging the kids is "how well they collaborate to make it happen.” I touch on this because the jewel for our event was a ‘farm-to-table’ feast, that was fit for the gods, with this stunning farm as the backdrop––all put together by a group of adult Iron-Chefs, who collaborated flawlessly for two days to produce this sustainable feast.

A special thanks to Kerri Cacciata (Chef of The Ecology Center), Jennifer Sherman (Chez Panisse), and Silvy (Chez Panisse). These women absolutely killed it, and collaborated their butts off to make this a perfect night for everybody. Chef Paddy Glennon of Superior Seafood’s (an absolute sustainability savant and fishmonger extraordinaire) Chef Jason McLeod (Ironsides Fish), Rob Wilson (The Montage), Paul Buchanon(Primal Alchemy), Greg Daniels(Provisions Market/Haven Gastropub), Pascal Olhats, Cathy McKnight(modelmeals.com) and many more.

 

There is so much more I could say, but honestly I hope I’ve at least gotten your ears and hearts to believe in some of the principles this group of collaborators live out every day. If you’re ever passing through San Juan Capistrano, take a half-hour and stop at The Ecology Center. They can also be available to host the most amazing special event you might ever need.  Visit and support these chefs’ restaurants––where they source everything they can from local farms and boats. Make yourself part of this movement, because together, we can make a change right here and right now.

 

One last thing Alice said that really clicked with me: 

 

“I am not sure where we start today. Whether it is on a local level or a state level, one by one. But we do know our government needs to buy in and fund this. And why don’t we just do it with a tax on soda.” 

And then let's plow it back into gardens for the communities where health has been so devastated by that subsidized sugar and junk in the first place.