Can Food Save the World? This 3 Michelin Star Chef Believes it Can.

This article originally appeared in the Spring/Summer 2023 print issue of Quench Magazine.

How did you start?

We did not have a plan. We acted with hope and leaned into our community of friends to support the causes we believed in. Food for Soul began as an idea, a vision for a better future. Step by step, its founding ideas around environmental sustainability, social inclusivity, and no food waste have become a global movement. Sometimes it begins with an intention, no real plan, but a call to action. We have learned to trust this instinct and jump in. That’s how change happens.

Is using fame and food to drive systemic change possible, or is it just a band-aid because the issue is too big to fix?

Fame, celebrity, and success are tools that open opportunities to create social change. The food we make in our restaurants conveys our thoughts and emotions. By the time one leaves, we have delivered an experience, a message, sometimes subtle and sometimes boldly. With each experience, we have reached new people and a unique opportunity to share perspectives and invite people into our world. Fame offers the same opportunity. If used for goodwill, it has an audience to share [with] and invite into the future we see as possible. It can feel that the change is too massive to try, but this, too, is only a perspective. More of us working to share within our network will grow into something huge that can tackle massive challenges. It’s like the ingredients of a recipe, and the sum of them creates something much different and even more profound.

What role, if any, should our leaders—political, social, cultural—play concerning being food advocates?

We all have a relationship with food; from an early age, we understand we need to eat to survive. But [for] each of us, … where we live, the traditions we grow up with, and how much money we have influences our relationship with food and our understanding of its value and relationship to the planet, economy, and health. While it has taken years of research and activism, these relationships and our food system are better understood. Social and environmental science has given us a roadmap and ways in which we can all engage. More and more companies, governments, and associations are joining the conversation to help make food a priority. Food education is found in more schools around the world. Cooking with the family, and growing one’s food, has had a resurgence, and at the same time, we all can feel the effects of a broken food system. Because of leaders at every level, in all professions, we are in a better place today than 10 years ago. More collaboration, accountability, and more of us tackling climate, inequity, and inclusivity—all connected to food.

So, yes—leaders are responsible for using their voice for good, showing us the best way forward. But as I said, everyone is in a constant flow of learning their relationship to food. We have to make room for mistakes and failures and show our support at every level of society by sharing knowledge, doing our part, and being advocates in our communities. Those who have strong relationships with food can help drive change and use our skills and networks to bring people together. Food is a connector and is one of the most natural ways to bridge the existing gap.

How do we get our political leaders to make issues surrounding food an essential part of their platform and understand that they affect so many other aspects of our economy, social constructs, poverty, racism, and so on?

We have to work at a grass-roots level. Political leaders are motivated for all different reasons. If we want our food system to be centerstage and part of political agendas, we must understand what that means and begin prioritizing it in our daily lives, at home, and in the workplace. When you ask how we can move government leaders to prioritize food issues, we must first understand the shift and the outcome that will occur.

Are we asking for policy changes that affect how we grow and distribute food? Are we changing agricultural subsidies? Are we challenging how companies produce? Is our aim to reduce emissions?

Each of these has outcomes that will affect our choice and lifestyle. We have to be willing to accept and adopt the change that will come. I was born into a culture deeply connected to food. I am from a region where we wait days, months, or years for something magical to happen, such as balsamic vinegar. Emilia-Romagna is the land of slow food and fast cars. Innovation comes by giving value to tradition and not losing sight of what history has taught us. We break cycles to reinvent them, to improve them.

We can think of our policies in the same way. Our food system today is a product of yesterday. If we want a different future, we must have the will to do it. Political will is the will of the people, and I believe the people’s will is more aligned today than ever before. More of us want a future in which all people can live well. We must act as global citizens, use our voice, and vote for the future—then policies, and political leaders, will change.

Poor neighbourhoods are less likely to eat healthily and have access to healthy food—insufficient availability and affordability. How do we break the cycle of poverty and hunger, and what role can our leaders play?

Understanding a community’s social vulnerability helps us understand the type and depth of needs and solutions that can break the poverty cycle. When we look at these vulnerabilities, we see that more people are in need than many think. We tend to judge poverty, that those on the street, in food pantry lines, are the only food insecure.

There is a hidden poverty that exists everywhere. Those individuals and families that sit just above the poverty line, someone who loses a job suddenly, gets sick, becomes isolated, flees from conflict or natural disasters—all of these contribute to poverty. Unfortunately, it’s also generational, passed down and further exacerbated by hate and racism. Leaders can help by recognizing the different circumstances that lead to poverty, and creating diverse coalitions driven by action and willingness to share goals and outcomes. For example, a city’s environmental goals should not be separate from its public health goals. We must work together. Governments, mayors, and civic leaders who open their doors to all people and all ideas, and who believe in education can help model the type of collaboration necessary to solve the complexity of poverty.

Food security may be an obvious answer as the main priority, but what does that mean?

At Food for Soul, we ask ourselves what the definition of food security is all the time—both to help us adapt to the existing conditions of need and to ensure we are creating an impact that sustains the Refettorio communities we serve [ed. Refettorio was originally a place where monks gathered together to share their daily meal. In the context of Food for Soul, they are “physical spaces designed as community hubs to inspire and empower human potential”]. This is different from hunger relief. Providing one meal to someone helps their immediate hunger, but it doesn’t mean that person is food secure. Food security includes accessibility, affordability, choice, cultural appropriateness, consistency, and quality. When you look at what it means to be food safe, you see how food is connected to livelihood and well-being. Does this individual have shelter, health care, education, or a job?

Food can be a pathway to understanding a person’s overall needs and the future they dream of. Refettorio projects allow for that conversation to unfold—around the table, people feel connected and have the room to express themselves in ways that otherwise may not. It’s a place to be vulnerable.

How do we get the systems to change?

I am still asking that question and discovering the answer. What our teams know for sure is that asking the question repetitiously is essential. As humans, we are constantly evolving. Our solutions today may not be relevant tomorrow, but by asking the question repeatedly, we allow room for growth, adaptation, and change. Maybe this is why progress can be so slow. Change is often perceived as failure—you know the saying, “stay the course”—when real change is what will move us forward.

Is it more important to change the way people think to address the root causes rather than address the symptoms of the issue?

We learn how to tackle the root cause by addressing the symptoms. It’s not possible to be successful in approaching only one. At Food for Soul, we have learned we need the doers, the dreamers, the sceptics, the critics—everyone at the table to create change. We need those who are on the emergency line and those who stay behind to rebuild. It’s all the same, and we cannot abandon one another.

How can we do more? What can we change?

Change can feel overwhelming. Significant challenges like climate change or fixing the food system can seem out of reach. So why try? The truth is the opposite. Changing our behaviours has a more significant impact than we think. Small individual acts hold significant meaning. Look at what you are buying, cooking, and eating. Can you point to one thing helping to improve the planet’s health, something good for nature? Maybe it’s buying from a local farmer, eating in season, using less water, or using a reusable bag at the store—whichever the small act may be—it is the first step to taking bigger action.

How vital is gastrodiplomacy? How can we better understand the concept and the various cultures and communities worldwide using food as the vehicle?

There can be no better vehicle for togetherness and diplomacy than food. It provides a window to see, learn, and understand the culture. The art of eating and sharing food, traditions, recipes, craft, and techniques all tell a story about who we are. How we treat our food system and the people who cultivate it tells a story about how we value one another and nature—whether the act is gastrodiplomacy or something else, food, cooking, and joining others around the table—seeds the conversation into understanding, acceptance, inclusion, and love.

Talking to Bottura fills you with energy and hope and makes you want to stand up and shout, “Yes, we can!” and maybe that is what a true leader is all about. Making you feel the importance of your personal choices, making you want to become a better person, small steps at a time to create something bigger, together with others.

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Åsa Johansson came to Italy from Sweden in 2001 because she loved Italian films from the ‘50s and ‘60s and wanted to learn Italian. It was love at first sight. Following a degree in political science and journalism at the University of Florence, she now writes about wine, food, and travel for Swedish, Norwegian, Italian and Canadian publications. Åsa travels back to Sweden on a regular basis to hold courses and seminars on Italian wines. Since 2019 she produces her own extra virgin olive oil, La Collina Blu, from the olive trees on the Tuscan hills where she lives with her husband Stefano and two children. Her latest project is Sweden’s first podcast about Italian wine.