Ancient Grain, Modern Flair—Free Cooking Demonstration with Seed Savers Exchange and chef Lauren Chandler
Amaranth’s feathery, jewel-like flower heads and tiny, nutritious seeds give it a natural flair, earning it the nickname “glamaranth” from Chef Educator Lauren Chandler. Valued for thousands of years by ancient civilizations in Central and South America and enjoyed worldwide for its nutrition and versatility, amaranth seeds can be cooked like a grain, though many people aren’t sure how to use them. In this virtual cooking demonstration, Lauren will showcase their culinary flexibility and share tips, tricks, and ideas for bringing them into everyday cooking.
Host: Sydney Weldon, Seed Savers Exchange, evaluation and trials manager.
About ADAPT: In the Community Science ADAPT program, participants trial varieties from the seed bank in their own gardens and send us feedback on their performance. This information helps us better understand the adaptability of these varieties to different environments and guides our selection process for new introductions into the Seed Savers Exchange catalog.
About Seed Savers Exchange: Seed Savers Exchange stewards America’s culturally diverse and endangered garden and food crop legacy for present and future generations. We educate and connect people through collecting, regenerating, and sharing heirloom seeds, plants, and stories.
About Lauren Chandler: Lauren Chandler is a plant-forward chef educator and recipe developer who’s been teaching people to cook and eat well for more than two decades. She partners with businesses and organizations to lead in-person and online classes that center on deliciousness and support human and planetary health.
Community Kitchens Action Hub
Community Kitchens Action Hub | 28 October 2025 | OmVed Gardens, London
Strengthening Chefs, Strengthening Kitchens, Strengthening Communities
Community kitchens are integral right around the world, for bringing together community members, creating connections, and sharing over meals. The Community Kitchens Action Hub brings together the Chefs’ Manifesto community, OmVed Gardens, and The Good Kitchen for a full-day of collaboration and action. Participants will exchange ideas, share a collective meal, and hear directly from young chefs shaping the future of food. Together, we will spotlight the vital role of community kitchens and co-create strategies to sustain and strengthen these spaces for the years ahead.
Keen to be involved? Register your interest for the 28 October Community Kitchens Action Hub!
Connect with chefs, young leaders, community organisers, educators, and change-makers working towards resilient community kitchens and stronger food systems to share, learn, and be inspired to collaborate towards a stronger future for community kitchens.
Photo: Will Hearle
Driving Change with Policy, Narratives and #BeansOnTheMenu
Beans, alongside other pulses, peas and lentils, offer a simple, scalable and culturally resonant solution, advancing almost all the Sustainable Development Goals. Rich in protein, fibre and essential micronutrients, they are climate-resilient, affordable, and embedded in diets around the world. Yet despite their promise, beans remain undervalued in policy frameworks, underrepresented in public procurement, and not adopted enough as a key solution for nutritious diets.
This event by the Beans is How Campaign builds on new evidence and global momentum to explore how beans can be positioned more powerfully in both behaviour change strategies and structural policy frameworks. Featuring actors from across food policy, food service and the culinary world, it will demonstrate and inspire action to drive food systems and consumer behaviour change using beans, peas and lentils.
Speakers:
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Asma Lateef Chief of Policy and Advocacy at SDG2 Advocacy Hub
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Bill Telepan Executive Chef, Wellness in the Schools
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Gesina Beckert Director of Programs at Food for Climate League
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Grace Ramirez Chef, TV Personality, Author and Activist
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Paul Newnham CEO at SDG 2 Advocacy Hub
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Rachel Atcheson Executive Director at Food Policy Pathways
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Dr. Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg Africa Managing Director for the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.
Regen Gathering 2025
A free two-day food and farming festival. If you care about the future of food, farming & health – this is for you!
Jersey, world renowned for its famous produce and rich agricultural heritage is showcasing the best of the island at a free 2 day festival exploring the future of food and farming.
Held in the picturesque Jersey countryside at Le Tacheron, a family farm inTrinity on 5–6 September, the event will bring together over 30 speakers from the UK and Jersey.
Representatives from the worlds of agriculture, hospitality, health, and food policy will be sharing ideas about how to produce good food whilst caring for the land and strengthening local communities.
The festival will include workshops, screenings, demonstrations and hedgerow safaris as well covering pressing topics including:
Chefs Stirring Change – Learning Top Tips from the Kitchen
Chefs Stirring Change – Learning Top Tips from the Kitchen | 30 September 2025 | The Mills Fabrica
This collaborative event brings together the Chefs’ Manifesto community and The Mills Fabrica network of agrifood innovators, investors, retailers, home cooks, and others for an evening of conversation, connection, and networking. Local chefs will bring their top tips for driving food systems transformation, so that guests can walk away and be part of the solution from their kitchens – be it at home or commercially – the next day!
Hungry for change? Register your interest for the 30 September Chefs Stirring Change!
Connect with chefs, restauranteurs, farmers, food producers, educators, academics, and policy makers and shapers working towards a better food future to share, learn and be inspired to build it together.
Register Now: Chicago Action Hub
Chicago Action Hub | 15 September 2025 | The Hatchery
For the first time, Chicago will host a Chefs’ Manifesto Action Hub. The one-day chef-centric event will take place at The Hatchery and bring together chefs, change-makers, and thought leaders in food systems to connect, share and drive action toward a more sustainable and equitable food future.
Connect with your local community of food champions and policy shapers and help grow the movement for Good Food for All in Chicago.
Hungry for change? Register now for the 15 September Chicago Action Hub!
The programme runs from 9am-5pm. Come and enjoy some coffee and breakfast bites. Lunch will also be provided to guests. We’re collaborating with The Hatchery food entrepreneurs including Trini’s Tasty Pastries, Mother Prepper, and Loquacious Culinary Events!
PROGRAMME TOPICS
Morning Session
An industry-focused deep dive on local-to-global food systems, culinary education, and systems change, to empower chefs to drive action towards Good Food for All.
Afternoon Session
Hands-on knowledge exchange and discussions around how chefs can influence behavior change, build strong relationships with and support local producers, and make diverse diets more delicious, accessible and affordable for communities.
PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS
- Digesting Food Systems: Challenges and Opportunities in Food Systems Transformation | Keynote with Ambassador Ertharin Cousin
- The State of Good Food in Chicago | Panel ft. Erika Allen (Urban Growers Collective), Ruby Ferguson (Chicago’s Food Equity Policy Lead), Natalie Shmulik (Business Incubation & Emerging Brands Specialist), Chef Sarah Stegner (Prairie Grass Cafe)
- Next-Gen Culinary Education | Demo & Dialogue on empowering young chefs to be food champions ft. Chef Chris Williams (CTE-Culinary Instructor), Chef Danny Espinoza (Industry Mentor) & Chef Matt Miller (Impact Culinary Training)
- Behavior Change & the Power of Food Culture | Keynote with Eve Turow-Paul
- Beans on the Menu | Demo & Dialogue with Chef Jeannine Wise (Good Food is Good Medicine), Lili Rudis/Tully McLoughlin (Moonbeans) & Jenny Yang (Phoenix Bean)
- Values-Based Procurement: Good Food in our Institutions | Panel ft. Eliana Pinilla (Chicago Food Policy Council), LaToyia Huggins (The Common Market) & Alexandra DeSorbo-Quinn (Pilot Light)
- Farm-to-Table, Chicago Style | Panel ft. Greg Gunthorp (Gunthorp Farms) & Chef Joe Frillman (Daisies)
- Deep Dish on Dietary Diversity | Demo & Dialogue with Chef Rick Bayless and local farmers Marty Travis (Spence Farm) & Beatrice Kamau (Multipleharvest)
Hope to see you there! Come with friends and join the movement for Good Food for All.
Regenerative-Inspired EAT Culinary Residency at Gagel Farm
OPEN CALL
A culinary project collaborating with Gagel (Regenerative) Farm, in the Netherlands this coming fall connecting culinary professionals, farmers and artists in a regenerative setting! You will find details on the open call for residency and the mission of the Gagel Farm below.
LAUNCHING SOMETHING NEW
An interdisciplinary gathering connecting culinary professionals to regenerative farmers and artistic ideas has been launched for the first time at the inspiring Gagel (regenerative) Farm in Lochem, the Netherlands. Under the appropriate Dutch word “ERF” which translates as “yard” from Dutch, three coinciding residencies will take place in 2025.
THE EAT RESIDENCY IN FOCUS
The first EAT residency coincides with the FARM residency, and will take place from mid-September through mid-November for a period of 8 weeks in 2025. Late in the summer harvest season, two inspired cooks will meet two farmers in the Gagel Farm regenerative gardens, located in the Dutch “Achterhoek” countryside.
WHAT IS EAT FOR?
Invited residents will be encouraged to engage in the processes of cultivating edible ingredients for the good of all forms of life, and to collaborate culinarily by transforming raw ingredients into nourishing (renewed) foods. However, we imagine the farm eco-system will set the scene for future communities focused on change with EAT and FARM residents!
PHILOSOPHY
Cooks and culinary professionals are at the frontline of changing food culture. They are artisan, creative, and practically engaged in nourishing others with their culinary practices. The EAT residency opens the path for professional cooks to the garden, where they can feed themselves and others with the magic and skills that come from cookery and regenerative farming.
PURPOSE
Gagel Farm grows locally, beautiful, nutritious, flavorful and seasonal ingredients with regenerative agriculture. The mission of the EAT residency is to inspire culinary professionals to take part in research that drives transition towards regenerative food systems and cultures. Why, you might ask? Because we need culinary professionals to inspire new food systems where we eat with the seasons, where we dine our landscapes into healthy and resilient habitats.
IN SEARCH OF PASSION
We seek culinary professionals who ask how we can bring our European places and communities back to life through the act of eating. The suitable applicant to EAT questions the current food system, and understands the power of food in changing the world.
CULINARY SCHOOL FOR A SEASON
The EAT residency at Gagel Farm is a real-life culinary school for those who value food stories rooted in the soil. It is an uplifting place to expand culinary visions, where new food cultures will be designed in collaboration with dedicated artists, farmers and food innovators.
LEARNING FROM A REGENERATIVE APPROACH
EAT culinary residents will gain insights into how a regenerative farm works, learning first-hand who grows, hatches, blooms, sleeps, flies and dies in which season.
WHERE?
Gagel Farm is in Lochem, the Netherlands, which is located in the eastern region known as the “Achterhoek” (or back corner). Gagel Farm is a flourishing place, made up of 45-ha regenerating landscape of growing edible ingredients and buzzing habitat. It is a lovely place to stay! Keep in mind, a weekly stipend, as well as accommodations are offered to invited residents.
NEW FOOD DESIGN
This project is designed for the culinary-inspired, who long to explore seasonally diverse processes, techniques, recipes, and menus that can foster regenerative life in restaurants and other food-connected places.
The EAT residency at Gagel Farm is created for those who dream of collaborating with farmers, artists, culinary researchers, innovators and scientists in a bio-diverse habitat, filled with hope and inspiration.
A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT
I am honoured to fulfil the role of regenerative gastronomy-inspired mentor and cookery professional at the EAT residency, says Teri Salminem. However EAT and FARM (as well as RECONNECT) are collaboratively, curated efforts!
EAT and FARM residents will be supported by regenerative farming founder Anne van Leeuwen as well the entire Gagel Farm team. Furthermore, food foraging expert, entrepreneurial farmer and outdoor kitchen chef, Roos Burger will be the day-to-day guide on the farm, Terri Salminen will fulfill the role of culinary mentor, while co-developers Olaf Boswijk and Mirla Klijn from Valley of the Possible will fulfill the role of creative guides.
APPLY TO EAT
Are you seeking space, time and infrastructure to experiment and develop a personal, culinary style? Then we look forward to reading your open-call application! Follow this link for all the details! https://gagel.nl/residency/
Reclaiming Value: Sacred Valley Design Immersion
Experiential design firm Murmur Ring has partnered with the Institute of Design and Lima-based global consultancy Empathy to offer a four-day immersion in Peru’s Sacred Valley. Taking place in Peru’s Sacred Valley June 23-27, the Reclaiming Value: Sacred Valley Design Immersion offers global impact and design leaders a meaningful opportunity to deepen their network.
Through a series of site visits with local leaders in gastronomy and food systems infrastructures, participants will observe Peru’s culture of flexible, self-sustained systems firsthand. Facilitated workshops with fellow cohort members will utilise systems design thinking as a tool to synthesize and convert what we learn from our site partners into interventions that can be utilized in this rapidly changing region, as well as in the increasingly complex and under-funded food systems in participants’ own communities.
The intersection of private social impact endeavours at MIL, innovative food systems design of PUCA, and observations on citizen wellness at VIDAWASI will present tangible examples of how policies can help or harm the holistic realities of our global food systems.
A limited number of spaces remain available to join the immersion. Learn more about the program, local partners, and cohort participants here. Contact Murmur Ring at alexandra@murmur-ring.com with any questions about the program.
Sustainable Gastronomy Week
Are you a young chef between the ages of 18 and 39 with a passion for sustainable gastronomy?
Sustainable Gastronomy Day (SGD), celebrated annually on 18 June, was introduced by FAO and UNESCO in 2017. It aims to promote food security, sustainable agriculture, nutrition and biodiversity conservation through gastronomy.
The World Food Forum (WFF)’s Global Youth Action Initiative (Youth Initiative)’s Sustainable Gastronomy Week (SGW) invites young chefs from around the world to celebrate the day by showcasing the power of gastronomy to drive positive change in agrifood systems. Last year’s pilot launch featuring the theme “More Taste, Less Waste”, successfully engaged 21 young chefs in restaurants across nine countries who collectively sold thousands of dishes reducing and eliminating food waste.
In 2025, Sustainable Gastronomy Week (16-22 June) will bring together young chefs to once again craft custom menus to celebrate the week, featuring the theme “Local Seeds, Local Eats”. This year’s theme challenges young chefs worldwide to rethink what it truly means to eat locally and go further than simply sourcing ingredients from nearby farms.
Advocacy for Country-Led Nutrition Financing: A New Consensus
Closing the Nutrition Financing Gap through Country Specific Commitments and Accountability
Good Life Show Africa
Cape Town 30 May – June 1 2025 | Johannesburg 1 – 3 August 2025

Meet Bettina Campolucci Bordi at The Good Life Show!
Learn more about The Good Life Show here