Events

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.

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.

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/

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.

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.

Learn more and apply here now!

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

Professional cookery – the missing ingredient for food systems transformation

Our current food systems are heavily commodified and cause many problems including environmental degradation, household food insecurity, diet-related illnesses, inequalities and excessive food waste. The food sector in the UK employs more than 13% of the country’s workforce, illustrating our reliance on an army of workers from farmers and fishermen through to food technicians and chefs to keep us nourished. Yet the sector is facing record staff shortages, leaving our food systems even more vulnerable to unexpected shocks and long-term problems.

Professional cooks or chefs are vital food systems actors, responsible for feeding people across schools, hospitals, care homes and prisons, and in restaurants, cafes and takeaways. They also manufacture and design our everyday foods. But professional cooks are undervalued and have been overlooked by policymakers and others as key players in food systems transformation.

There is a distinct lack of clarity in the variety of career pathways for professional cooks across public food service and food manufacturing as well as hospitality. Cookery careers receive a low profile in school curriculums and by careers advisers further hindering future workforce capacity. Current professional cookery curriculum requirements cover the essential topics of food safety and hygiene, menu planning and managerial skills. But they are also well placed to incorporate food systems subject areas such as nutrition, environmental sustainability, supply chain disruptions, and food waste. Leveraging this opportunity could broaden the skills of a significant number of actors in our everyday settings to address systemic food system problems, increase capabilities to manage food supply shocks by being agile with ingredients and reorientate our society to value freshly cooked, healthy, sustainable meals and snacks.

The 2025 City St George’s Food Policy Symposium will invite collective debate on this novel food systems topic and explore how professional cookery can be prioritised and reimagined through food policy. We will identify the practical needs and policy opportunities for a food systems approach to professional cookery and consider terminology. Discussions and workshops will reflect on how professional cookery pathways can be integrated with existing and future food policies to meaningfully contribute to a culture which values professional cooks as respected societal roles alongside farmers, doctors, nurses and teachers.

During this event we will:

• Examine the existing patchwork of professional cookery pathways in the UK
• Identify opportunities for policymakers to streamline professional cookery pathways and integrate food systems-based curriculum which moves beyond food safety and food preparation
• Understand the public and private sector needs and opportunities for food systems-based professional cookery, including leveraging the apprenticeship levy and incoming local procurement policy
• Share best practice examples of food systems-based professional cookery approaches and courses from within and beyond the UK
• Harness the momentum for the knowledge and skills of professional cookery to be valued in our society and reimagined to prioritise human and planetary health and foster local and regional economic benefits

The City St George’s Food Policy Symposium is hosted by the Centre for Food Policy and is generously supported by the Worshipful Company of Cooks.

The SDG2 Advocacy Hub, Zero Hunger Coalition, GAIN, Shamba Centre for Food and Climate and the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement will host the Road to Kampala, bringing together experts and stakeholders through a series of three subject-specific webinars, each tackling critical issues that align with the priorities of the new African agricultural framework. This first webinar will focus on the intersection of agriculture and nutrition, emphasising the need to strengthen food systems to deliver healthy diets and ensure better nutrition outcomes across the continent, with cross-cutting themes of gender and financing.