Chefs with Issues is a platform for chefs and farmers we love, fired up for causes about which they're passionate. Chef John Ash serves on the Board of Advisors of Seafood Watch, an educational initiative for sustainable seafood by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He recently hosted a panel discussion about seafood sustainability as a practice. Among the participants were Chef Bun Lai, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Sustainability Leader of the Year, and Yousef Ghalaini, executive chef of New York’s sustainable seafood restaurant Imperial No. Nine.

Recently, nearly 30 thought leaders in the seafood, restaurant and sustainability worlds came together to have a conversation about how chefs can embrace seafood sustainability in a greater, more mainstream way.

“Thought for Food: A Discussion on Sustainable Seafood” was facilitated by James Beard award-winning chef and author John Ash, widely respected as a sustainability pioneer. Participants came from a variety of backgrounds: chefs, NGO leaders, journalists and other members of the food industry vanguard.
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Chefs with Issues is a platform for chefs and farmers we love, fired up for causes about which they're passionate. Hugh Acheson is the chef/partner of Five & Ten and The National in Athens, Georgia and Empire State South in Atlanta, Georgia as well as a judge on the current season on Top Chef, and author of "A New Turn in the South: Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen." He has a very famous unibrow.

If you search "Paula Deen" on the Google, these are some of the search suggestions that appear: riding things, recipes, furniture, cookware, meatloaf, and diabetes. I strongly recommend researching the first and last on that list because both point to the decline of Western civilization.

Let me preface this with the wish that this piece not be about maligning a personality or calling out specific dishes in a repertoire. Hopefully it is about furthering a constructive discussion to rejoice in a better Southern food.

Southern food did not make the South unhealthy, rather a broken arrow of cookery did, one that is ultra-processed, trans fat laden, lard fried, and massively caloric. That’s not how I eat and I eat Southern food pretty much every day of my life.
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Drew Robinson is the pitmaster at Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q. He previously wrote about why barbecue matters.

My friend John Egerton told me once that sometimes when people have lost a loved one or are in despair all you can do is take them a bowl of potato salad and tell them you’re sorry.

He went on to say, emphatically, that there is great power in that sort of action. John spoke specifically about Southern foodways at that moment, but there was a universal truth in his message. I know from personal experience on the receiving end that is true and it is even more powerful when that compassion is delivered in numbers.
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While the United Nations convenes for a two day high-level meeting to discuss ways to curb the death toll from non-communicable diseases a celebrity chef is asking the General Assembly to focus their attentions on one issue in particular: obesity.

In an open letter to the U.N.'s Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, celebrity chef, television personality and healthy food activist Jamie Oliver pleads with the group to recognize the global impact of the obesity epidemic and take concrete measures to educate the public about healthier cooking and eating.
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Food says so much about where you’ve come from, where you’ve decided to go, and the lessons you’ve learned. It’s geography, politics, tradition, belief and so much more. World-renowned chef, author and Emmy winning television personality Anthony Bourdain visits Los Angeles' Koreatown in the next episode of "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown," airing Sunday, April 21, at 9 p.m. ET. Follow the show on Twitter and Facebook. This story ran in 2011, and we're sharing it again as Bourdain explores the role of food in Asian-American identity.

Eddie Huang is the chef of Baohaus in New York City and is working on a memoir which will be published by Random House. Follow him on Twitter @MrEddieHuang

Sundays are for Dim Sum. While the rest of America goes to church, Sunday School, or NFL games, you can find Chinese people eating Cantonese food. As a kid, there were a lot of Chinese traditions I couldn’t get into, but Dim Sum and Johnnie Walker were okay in my book. We’d wake up, put on our hand-me-down Polo shirts, and as Dad did his best Bee Gees on the Karaoke machine, we got ready for Dim Sum.
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Live from the Aspen Food & Wine Festival - chef and activist founder Michel Nischan speaks about how his own family's health crisis spurred him to take action toward a healthier food system and work toward getting affordable, fresh food to the people who need it most.

Learn more about Nischan's work with Wholesome Wave and Mariners Match

Chefs with Issues is a platform for chefs and farmers we love, fired up for causes about which they're passionate. David Kinch is the chef and proprietor of the two- Michelin star Manresa Restaurant in Los Gatos, California. He is also a partner with Cynthia Sandberg in the biodynamic and organic Love Apple Farm - the exclusive kitchen-garden for Manresa.

With the terrible, heartbreaking tragedy and aftermath that has hit Japan, it is easy to overlook the country’s restaurant and hospitality industry and the devastating hit it has taken.

But the road to recovery will also include a resumption of travel and tourism and a return of a new sense of normalcy for the Japanese people as they get back to their lives, food and restaurant culture.

And, what a culinary culture it is.

Japan has always seemed a bit of a mystery, a final frontier to many who travel the world looking for great restaurants and cuisine. For Western cooks, it has always been a tough nut to crack.
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Last month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the 847 friends on his private Facebook page that he had "just killed a pig and a goat" - to eat.

Horrifying? Why? asks Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of the farm-to-table restaurant Blue Hill in New York City and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York. That Zuckerberg, the 27-year-old Internet billionaire, has made killing any meat he eats this year's personal goal is "an incontestably moral act," Barber says. He's slaughtered animals for meat himself. "I do think it's important for anyone who wants to be conscious of their food and where it comes from," he says.
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Chefs with Issues is a platform for chefs we love, fired up for causes about which they're passionate. Caroline Jann Dunbar is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Le Cordon Bleu. She currently works as a chef in Austin, Texas.

Let's just pretend for a second that you haven't grown an inch since seventh grade, can French-braid your hair while driving and have a higher pitched voice than some small children. The guy standing next to you? Well, he’s your age, graduated high school around the same time and has been cooking nearly as long. On paper, a fair opponent for the “Mystery Basket Test” which will determine who will earn the new line cook position. Oh, did I mention he’s about 6’5’’, probably twice your weight and his face is the only area of skin without a koi fish motif?

The Executive Chef lifts an eyebrow signaling that you and the other applicant can start. You and Bigfoot grab your knives and begin furiously preparing your mise en place. Moments later, you are speeding between all the stations trying to justify your technique and experience to the observing kitchen staff. Time’s up! Chef tastes, nods, tilts his head and declares that you did a “pretty good job.” Your competitor’s chicken, on the other hand, may technically be cooked, but squishes down too much at a light touch for anyone to risk a sample.

The line position has to be yours. Easy choice. Your dish was well executed and won’t give anyone stomach cramps later. Unfortunately, your food is not the only thing being judged.
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