2020 Visionaries 2020 Visionaries

2020 rocked us all. The Corona pandemic and subsequent lockdowns forced restaurants, bars and hotels to close across the world.

In many cases, food businesses closed before they were mandated, put- ting people ahead of proft. At the same time, many threw themselves into social initiatives, political campaigns, and the process of devising entirely new concepts and business models in search of revenue.

The innovation, resilience, social purpose and community spirit on display across hospitality was a testament to the determination and desire to serve that drives the most passionate industry in the world.

It has been a year to refect, to debate, to question and to innovate, and with this in mind, we decided to highlight just a handful of the people whose amazing ideas, initiatives and pivots have answered the year with a visionary response.

Ryan King, Editor in Chief, www.fnefninglovers.com Valeria Raimondi, Editor in Chief, www.fnedininglovers.it/fr/es USA Italy Jesse Lara Gilmore, Ziff Cool Massimo, The veteran Bay Area restaurateur Jesse Charlie Cool eliminated tipping and shifted to what she calls a Heart of House (no front and Alexa or back of house) service charge system during the pandemic. Employees help Botura out in the kitchen and dining room, and all partake of the service charge pool. The Bottura family opened up their kitchen After decades of championing sustainable to the world with their Instagram series agriculture and cuisine, Cool proves she Kitchen Quarantine. The family’s nightly remains as innovative as ever. cooking demonstrations, orchestrated by Massimo’s daughter Alexa behind the camera, and co-presented by wife Lara and son Charlie, helped thousands of people through the darkest hours of the pandemic and won a Webby. USA Roshara USA Sanders Meals Chef Roshara Sanders - Culinary Institute On Heels of America graduate, Chopped champion, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, and all- Giving the gift of drag in difcult times, round inspiration - pivoted from working the performers of OASIS - San Francisco’s as chef de partie at New York’s Oceana to internationally-acclaimed drag show become the Institute’s frst black female nightclub / cabaret - delivered meals, instructor. She has big plans there to drinks and a kerbside performance change restaurant culture from the inside, throughout the city, spreading joy and and with such determination and talent, humour, while providing an important it’s only a matter of time. service to restaurants and diners. Chile USA Rafael Teague Rincón Moriarty Comida Para Todos Sons & Daughters

Rafael Rincón, president of Chile’s Social Flipping the restaurant business model on Gastronomy Foundation, set up Comida its head, chef Moriarty used the pandemic to Para Todos (Food for All) in the midst of the create a more inclusive, equitable business pandemic. It’s a solidarity platform that for all staf. Taking a risk with his Michelin- works to eradicate hunger and reactivate star restaurant, he increased wages, and the gastronomy sector. Comida Para provided healthcare and paid vacations for Todos empowers restaurants to prepare staf, giving them more of a stake in the nutritious and delicious dishes that are business while reducing his own. A future delivered to those in need across soup vision of a more cooperative kitchen model. kitchens. In just seven months, the network served over 190,000 solidarity lunches, UK created work for 77 people, supported 800 families and worked with 35 diferent local producers. Douglas McMaster India Silo - Zero Waste Cooking Vikas Khanna School

Feed India Initiative The team behind the London restaurant at the vanguard of the fght against The New York-based Indian chef, food waste brought their unparalleled TV personality, writer, director and knowledge to the masses with the Zero humanitarian mobilised a huge movement Waste Cooking School - a series of classes to feed millions of hungry Indians during on sustainable cooking practices taught the pandemic. Over 20 million meals through social media. A pandemic have been served so far in 2020 by the shouldn’t shorten our vision for a more Michelin-star chef’s initiative. sustainable future. Nigeria USA Michael Nick Elégbèdé Kokonas and ÌTÀN Restaurant and Grant Achatz Test Kitchen Tock To Go, Alinea Chef Elégbèdé, who left Nigeria to pursue his culinary dream in some of the United At Alinea, Grant Achatz showed the world States’ top restaurants, returned to his how pivoting to takeout and delivery could native country with a determination to keep the light on in restaurants. Kokonas’ change the food-ystem. He developed the Tock restaurant reservation platform Abori Network, an online marketplace for branched out as Tock To Go, enabling Nigerian suppliers to reach customers, restaurants to manage their pivots to flling a missing link in the country’s food takeout as efciently as possible. system. Thinking globally, but acting locally, Elégbèdé is a visionary chef who is building a network of suppliers and empowering an entire food chain.

Slovenia USA Greg Ana Roš Baxtrom Hiša Franko When the Slovenian chef was forced to close Maison Yaki her restaurant she took to the mountains with her 32 members of staf. Together The chef opened up his Brooklyn restaurant they worked on sourcing high-altitude Maison Yaki for the Black Entrepreneur ingredients and developing innovative food Series and showed how a diverse products for supermarket shelves. Pivoting community-based gastronomy initiative to new business, Roš helped protect the could elevate diners’ experience, and how local food-system while creating new shared opportunities can elevate society. revenue streams. USA USA Dan Barber Nidal Barake Kitchen Farming Project Glutonomy

The chef, innovator and farm-to-table guru The food entrepreneur reminded us that turned to the land during the pandemic. there is opportunity in crisis, urging His Kitchen Farming Project worked to restaurateurs to rethink their business regrow and nurture the mycelium of the models. Barake was the brain behind connected food chain, and save small Restore.biz, an online platform designed to farmers from the disappearance of their create alternative, supplementary revenue restaurant customers. The initiative streams for restaurants and chefs. mobilised thousands of people around the world to plant during the pandemic.

Germany Spain Kreuzberger Sasha Correa Himmel The Basque Culinary Center’s Sasha Correa - food journalist, innovator and Be an Angel ghost-thinker - applied her creativity to asking the broader questions about how What started as a Berlin restaurant team the pandemic might shape restaurants, welcoming refugees into their homes, the industry and society. Correa was the became a project that brought together driving force behind Reto Coronavirus, diverse individuals, initiatives, companies a major project by the BCC to provide and the media, all in an efort to make a a platform for hospitality in Spain and positive impact on the lives of people feeing Latin America to share and monitor danger in their home countries. More than important developments during the 500 refugees have been through their doors, Covid-19 pandemic. The initiative was also and thanks to the work of Be an Angel, they responsible for a series of debates and managed to avoid homelessness or living in discussions challenging the status quo of refugee camps. the industry. USA USA Ed Lee Camilla When Louisville chef Edward Lee closed Marcus his restaurants due to the pandemic, his small non-proft Te Lee Initiative ROAR - launched the Restaurant Workers Relief Relief Opportunities Program, serving over a million meals to for All Restaurants hungry hospitality workers. The group has worked tirelessly to provide food to those Camilla Marcus is a chef, restaurateur, in the industry hit hardest by lockdowns entrepreneur and pioneer for positive and subsequent closures. social and environmental change within the industry. She was a founding member of ROAR, a coalition of NYC-based independent restaurateurs and chefs formed to fght for governmental relief for independent restaurants. She is also a founding member of lobbying group Te Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC), USA an organisation dedicated to advocating for the rights of independent restaurants Brian Canlis through national legislative action. Canlis Restaurant Indonesia

Canlis, the historical fne-dining restaurant Nidiya in Seattle, was behind one of the earliest pivots to takeout, burger shacks, drive-ins Kusmaya and even TV dinners, all delivered with inventive online accompaniments, from Textile Artist piano music to cook-along bingo. The team also launched a community college with By extracting colours from the food she eats 6000 people enrolling into classes that saw every day, and by applying them to textiles, Brian Canlis and his brother, Mark, launch Kusmaya shows how the food chain can bleed an educational TV show for children. Their into fashion. She also uses carbohydrates and work showed that a restaurant can be so protein-based food waste as growth mediums much more than a place to eat. for colour-producing microorganisms. Tank You