The first banquet Into the 2020s: New Year Menu Launch

The 2019 New Year menu was co-created by seven top domestic chefs and revolved around the design concept of “New and Alive”—— "New" meaning “New Year”, “New Ideas”, “New Challenges”, “New Opportunities”, whereas "Alive" referring to “life”, “lifestyle”, “growth”, "healthy", "organic".

To meet the standard of "New and Alive", requirements of this menu are quite "sophisticated"——

• Follow the principle of “85% plants and 15% high animal welfare foods" ;

• Try to follow the principle of “local and in-season” and “low carbon emission”.

With the understanding and pledges made by the seven chefs, they then selected the “good food” standard dishes from the past. Together, presenting a table of sustainable New Year feasts carrying Chinese traditions.

"85"% is also the proportion of plant dishes in all of the school canteens at Yale University. 85% plant-forward diet is a big challenge for mainstream chefs who are used to cooking meaty dishes. And with the remaining "15% of the animal protein", this is meant to keep in the menu and give us a window of dialogue, that is, even if we consume animal protein, we can still do better.

Sustainable diet has become the future direction. Old-fashioned or western-translated vocabulary such as “素 (translated from "vegetarian")”, “蔬食 （translated from "vegetables"）", “弹性肉食（translated from "flexitarian"）”, “蛋奶素（translated from "Ovo-Lacto Vegetarian"）” and “植物基 （translated from "plant based"）. These have all come in company with religion, class, culture, and other limitations, which has become a barrier to diet and a dilemma of expression. In order to create a healthier future through diet, we hope to find a more accurate and open character/vocab from 100,000 ancient Chinese characters and  culture. From a global perspective, we hope that this Chinese character/vocab can describe and define sustainable diet, so that there is no more ambiguity with the wording. It will be the new guideline to a healthier future!

After rounds of online selection, Summit on-site selection and expert evaluation, the vocabs/characters that best express the current diet and future dietary expectations have stood out from the millions. What is it or what are they? Let's stay tuned!

Healthy China Action Plan 2019-2030 points out that a reasonable diet is the foundation of health. The results show that dietary risk factors accounted for 15.9%  of diseases. This has become the main risk factors affecting health of the population. There is no doubt that a healthy diet and a sustainable lifestyle are the important means to promote the construction of “healthy China” and achieve the health of the whole population.

So whose mission is this? Who is guarding our health in our daily lives?

It is the chef in every family, the chef who works in each kitchen.

Chefs in white are like our “white angels (doctors)" – they have a sacred duty for the health and sustainable future of mankind. They are artists, magicians, creators of good life, teachers and evangelists in the kitchen, and engineers who can improve our health and reduce the climate crisis.

In China, the chef's economic and environmental impact seems to be seriously underestimated. In fact, chefs play a pivotal role in the global food system. The chef, including the members responsible for cooking in each family, can influence what farmers grow, what we put on the family plate. They are indeed bridges between farms and the tables; Chefs can affect how we think and talk about the effects of food. With no exaggeration, chef is the core of the global food system.

On 2nd February, 2019, the founder of the Good Food Fund, Jian Yi, and the Executive Vice President of the China Cuisine Association, Li Yaguang, and seven good food chefs - Zhang Yuming, Nie Jingjun, Zhang Shaogang, Li Qun, Wang Feng, Ren Jinsuo, Huang Haoyu, brought a New Year menu, with their visit the United States. They created a Spring Festival dinner with five top universities, including Yale, Harvard, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and American Culinary Institute, and visited Google's New York headquarters to promote a dialogue on sustainable international diet. This is the first time in history that the Chinese chefs have toured the world's top universities.

In dealing with food waste and sustainable procurement, if chefs take the lead in addressing sustainability issues, and plan a new global food conversation, diners, farmers, businesses, and even governments will follow. Most notably, chefs can translate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into practical actions that are accessible daily in the kitchen, at school, and in the community.

In order to achieve the national "healthy China 2030" strategy, we must face and advocate the leadership role of the chef in the whole social diet as soon as possible. It is also necessary to pass healthy and sustainable dietary concepts and lifestyles to the “chef” of thousands of households in a more effective and influential way.

It is extremely urgent to establish China's first healthy and sustainable chef alliance.

group photo of Good Food Chefs, 2019.8 Good Food Summit