Millions of Meals Better for People and the Planet
Hyde Park, NY – The 5th Annual Leadership Summit
opened on June 20 by reflecting back on all that the initiative has
accomplished to date. This includes calling on the culinary profession and
foodservice industry to use menu and recipe design as a main lever for
delivering healthier, more sustainable, and delicious food and to reconsider
the role of protein in favor of adopting plant-forward culinary strategies. The Culinary Institute of America and Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health are partners in Menus of Change,
which includes the annual conference that took place last week at the CIA’s New York campus.
Throughout its first five years, the Menus of Change
initiative has engaged thousands of leaders in the foodservice industry around
this vision. Involvement in Menus of Change has led to substantial changes in what
these foodservice operators choose to buy and serve to diners:
- Of foodservice operators who attended a Menus of Change
summit, more than 80 percent introduced new recipes or revised existing ones as
a result of participating
- Over half of these same attendees have changed their
sourcing practices
- From corporate dining to multi-unit restaurant groups,
operators across the country are adopting the Menus of Change platform and
principles as part of their strategic planning process
- Nearly 50 college and university foodservice operations—members
of the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative—are conducting and
sharing research and education in support of culinary-centric, evidence-based
food systems innovation within and beyond universities
But neither the leaders of Menus of Change nor the audience
members are resting on their laurels. For the rest of the conference, the 400
professional attendees—made up of executives, experts, investors, and
innovators in food, foodservice, health and nutrition, and sustainability—got
down to the business of addressing all that is still to be done. Key areas of
discussion this year included food transparency; increasing the use and
acceptance of plant-based proteins; and how culinary professionals can help
shift consumer choices, attitudes, and behaviors towards more plant-forward
options.
The initiative’s —comprised of leading
scientists, analysts, and foodservice business leaders from across the
country—provided executive briefings on the latest scientific findings and
business developments for the , which was released on June 20. The report also features
case studies and trend analysis, with highlights including: an investor
spotlight on Food System 6, a marketing spotlight on Green Monday, an emerging
chain spotlight on Modern Market, and a public-private partnership spotlight on
Aramark and American Heart Association. Most importantly, the report dashboard
rates the foodservice industry’s progress in addressing public health and
environmental imperatives year over year.
“The diets of Americans have steadily improved over the last
decade, and the near elimination of trans fat and a
substantial decline in sugary beverages are especially remarkable,” said Walter
Willett, MD, DrPH, chair of the Menus of Change
Scientific and Technical Advisory Council and professor and former chairman in
the Department of Nutrition at Harvard Chan School. “As we must deal with a
sick planet while also improving human health, a major goal for the foodservice
industry should be to move away from red meat on menus and to create additional
inspiring and delicious plant-forward meals.”
Highlights of the conference included a spotlight on the
recently released CIA-EAT list that reflects the critical role culinary insight plays in combating the
issues facing the global food system, while respecting consumer taste and
business profitability. Based in Norway, the EAT Foundation works globally to
link food, health, and sustainable development across science, business, and
policy with the goal of expanding knowledge, spurring innovation, and
facilitating policy development related to those areas. The list includes 50 chefs
from Paris to Peru, Mumbai to Madrid, and more than a dozen from the USA. Two
of them, John Fraser and Dan Kluger, were presenters
at the conference. Fraser spoke about flavor and menu strategies to help make
healthy, sustainable food craveable and Kluger demonstrated some of his signature recipes,
including wood-grilled asparagus with yogurt and chili oil.
“We are enthusiastic to be collaborating with the EAT
Foundation to bring greater visibility to this must-know group of 50 chefs from
around the world who are demonstrating just how delicious vegetables and other
plant-forward flavors can be,” said Greg Drescher, CIA vice
president of strategic initiatives and industry leadership. “It’s one thing to
understand the road map for change; it’s another to be able to see, smell, and
taste live business models moving these new directions forward.”
The “Make It Work” sessions are always an integral part of
the conference. In these, conference attendees present their own concepts or
challenges and get advice from a panel of experts on how best to address them.
The pitches center around new business strategies and
menu concepts that seek to follow the Menus of Change principles in ways that
will both please their clientele and improve the bottom line.
“Each year, the leadership summit provides our industry with
a host of new menu and recipe strategies both through innovation exchanges
among attendees during the ‘Make It Work’ sessions and those brought forward by
invited conference presenters,” said Arlin Wasserman,
chair of the Menus of Change Sustainable Business Leadership Council and the
founder and partner of Changing Tastes. “This year, we learned what kinds of
approaches in the foodservice industry are more effective in helping to change
how Americans eat, thanks in part to groundbreaking research from the Center
for a Livable Future at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.”
The study found that strategies which both encourage the
dining public to try something new and help educate them are most effective,
whether through menus featuring more plant-forward offerings or campaigns like
Meatless Monday that marry public education with small changes.
In addition to the professional attendees, CIA students observed
general sessions as part of their course work, and hundreds of people around the
world joined a live , now archived on the conference
website. Some sessions available for viewing:
- The review of the 2017
Menus of Change Annual Report by Arlin Wasserman
and Walter Willett
- A panel of journalists, including Corby Kummer (The Atlantic), Ellen Morrissey (Martha
Stewart Living), and Carolyn O’Neil, MS, RD (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) discussing what plant-forward themes
resonate most with their readers and how the trend is shaping the future of
American foodservice
- Russell Walker, PhD (Northwestern University), Dan Coudreau ’95 (McDonald’s), and Elizabeth Meltz (Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group) on how food transparency
affects business and what information, and how much, to share with customers.
Menus of Change advisory council members will meet throughout
the coming year to discuss continued progress and begin to plan the program for
the next Menus of Change, to be held June 19–21, 2018.
Photo Captions and Hi-Res Images:
Photo 1 (top): CIA
graduate Daniel Giusti was head chef at Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark when it was rated the world’s
best restaurant. He left that job to found Brigaid,
an organization dedicated to serving healthy, tasty meals in schools. Chef Giusti was among the presenters at the 5th annual Menus of
Change Leadership Summit at The Culinary Institute of America, June 20–22,
2017. (Photo credit: Dennis O’Clair/CIA)
Photo 2: CIA graduate Scott Uehlein, vice president of product
innovation and development for Sonic Drive-In, announces the chain’s first
mushroom and beef blended burger at the Menus of Change Leadership Summit at
The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY on June 20–22, 2017. (Photo credit: Dennis O’Clair/CIA)
Photo 3: Attendees at the 2017 Menus of Change Leadership Summit at The
Culinary Institute of America had a chance to sample a new mushroom and beef
blended burger from the quick-service chain Sonic Drive-in. The new menu item
was created by CIA graduate Scott Uehlein, Sonic’s
vice president of product innovation and development. (Photo credit: Dennis O’Clair/CIA)
Photo 4: Merlin Verrier (at table), culinary
director of Next Door, and Kimbal Musk, co-founder of
The Kitchen offer a demonstration at the 5th annual Menus of Change Leadership
Summit at The Culinary Institute of America, June 20–22, 2017. Verrier and Musk are two food business leaders at the
conference. (Photo credit: Dennis O’Clair/CIA)
Photo 5: Two of the leaders behind the success of the Menus of Change
initiative: Walter Willett (left) and Arlin Wasserman. Dr. Willett is a professor at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health
at Harvard University and chair of the Menus of Change Scientific and Technical
Advisory Council. Wasserman is chair of the Menus of Change Sustainable
Business Leadership Council. Both were presenters at the 5th annual Menus of
Change conference at The Culinary Institute of America, June 20–22, 2017. (Photo credit: Dennis O’Clair/CIA)
Media Contact:
Jeff Levine
Communications Manager
845-451-1372
jeff.levine@culinary.edu
About The Culinary Institute of America
Founded in 1946, The Culinary Institute of America is the world’s premier
culinary college. Dedicated to developing leaders in foodservice and
hospitality, the independent, not-for-profit CIA offers bachelor’s degree
majors in management, culinary science, and applied food studies; associate
degrees in culinary arts and baking and pastry arts; and executive education
through its Food Business School. The college also offers certificate programs
and courses for professionals and enthusiasts. Its conferences and consulting
services have made the CIA the think tank of the food industry and its
worldwide network of 49,000 alumni includes innovators in every area of the
food business. The CIA has locations in New York, California, Texas, and
Singapore.
About the Harvard T. H. Chan School of
Public Health
Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health brings together dedicated experts
from many disciplines to educate new generations of global health leaders and
produce powerful ideas that improve the lives and health of people everywhere.
As a community of leading scientists, educators, and students from around the
world, we work together to take innovative ideas from the laboratory to
people’s lives—not only making scientific breakthroughs, but also working to
change individual behaviors, public policies, and health care practices to
create a healthier world. For more information, visit .
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