Right now, you are building the pantry you’ll pass on. Your contribution to culinary heritage is taking shape with each recipe you test, each ingredient choice you make.
Would it make a menu you’d be proud of?
Food is the ultimate connector, bridging time and space, and bringing people together in ways not much else can. Our plates can be a celebration of identity, connection, and ecology. Food culture is something we inherit, transform, and share. Rooted in the past and growing into the future, it is a living legacy and an invitation to be a part of the process.
Written in time-honored techniques and place-making ingredients, on jars and in cookbooks, the culinary traditions in our kitchens are alive, simultaneously preserving and making collective memory.
Chefs are active stewards of food culture’s living legacy. In this article, we reflect on simple ways that chefs can make the most of their role as food culture custodians and future ancestors.
Food Makes Future
The future is what we make it, through everyday actions. Here are four areas of action that every chef can incorporate into their culinary practice and the pantry they’ll pass on.
Nurture intergenerational relationships
Intergenerational knowledge is power. We’ve written plenty about the importance of mentorship, but it doesn’t even need to fit into that box. Family, friends, colleagues – seek out and foster relationships with elders and up-and-comings in a spirit of openness and curiosity.
We inherit what we see and learn, and we pass on what we learn and do. There are more opportunities than you realize to engage with and influence others of all ages, in your home or professional kitchen.
SEE THIS IN ACTION
The World Food Forum (WFF)’s Young Chefs Programme equips chefs (aged 18-35) with skills, knowledge, and networks to take a leading role in transforming agrifood systems through culinary practices. From advancing better nutrition to promoting food security and biodiversity, its ultimate goal is to create leaders that can inspire and guide other chefs to advocate for more sustainable and healthier consumption habits. Each participant is paired with a mentor from Worldchefs’ community.
Put underutilised ingredients back on the menu
Cook more beans. Source the greens your grandmother used to talk about. Recipe test like the future depends on it, because it does!
We have a world of biodiverse pantry items to pull from, but yet nearly half our calories come from just three crops: rice, wheat, and maize. Rediscover and promote heritage ingredients native to where you live. Learn and tell their stories. Talk to your local farmers and food producers for inspiration and start collaborating.
SEE THIS IN ACTION
Three Michelin-Starred Chef Ana Roš views local sourcing as a commitment to the legacy and the future. Hear from here why memory-making matters.
“I want people to remember what they had, not just, ‘Oh, do you remember that dish? Maybe yes, maybe not.’ No, you have to remember it. It’s important.”
Some of our best and most innovative technology is as old as dirt.
Take a moment to reflect on how much observation, experimentation and skill sits behind processes like fermentation. Or the brilliance of nixtamalization. Think about the creativity and cunning required to process and use every part of an ingredient.
These are some of our oldest food technologies. Perfected through practice and intergenerational learning, all across the globe we find diverse examples of the scientific process from farm to table. From regenerative agriculture to salt curing, research and explore an ancient innovation and see how it can inspire your next menu.
SEE THIS IN ACTION
Zimbabwean cuisine is rich in heritage, flavor, and sustainability, yet many traditional foods and techniques remain underutilized. In this webcast, Fezile Ncube in Masvingo, Zimbabwe and Martin Christensson in Rome, Italy, introduce the unique ingredients and techniques of Zimbabwean cuisine, the challenges in food knowledge, preservation and sustainability, and the role of chefs in shaping sustainable food systems through the ‘Whatz Cooking’ project.
Explore heritage recipes and make them your own
Every recipe is a living document. They are testaments of someone’s day, markers of a growing season’s climate, stories of migration and movement and of staying put. Become a part of your heritage cuisine’s story by working with and adapting its recipes.
SEE THIS IN ACTION
Chefs, as storytellers, create delicious ways for people to reconnect with food culture, putting agricultural origins, cultural traditions, and shared values on a plate. Through their craft, chefs can inspire others to try new things and learn more about what they may have previously ignored.
In this article you can find chefs sharing their take on heritage recipes and the stories behind them.
These are just four simple suggestions, courses of action with huge potential. Your next menu is an opportunity. We know that chefs have an incredible, unique capacity to inspire change as trusted messengers. Bringing these four areas of action to your community through food can have more of an impact than you might realize, and the stories of these ideas in action show us just that.
Worldchefs’ recent UNESCO participation also shared this lesson. UNESCO guidelines remind us that safeguarding heritage means ensuring its vitality, not freezing it in time. Culinary heritage is alive, and we are its heartbeat. How will knowing that change the pantry you protect?
Resources
The word innovationgets thrown around a lot these days, as if it’s something out of reach. Just like the word future. But neither really are – they’re right with us, on our plates. Below are three resources to get more involved in the future of food.
Sign up for The Mindful Kitchen #3: Facing the Guest
Learn how you can drive impact and inspire smarter food choices and sustainable kitchen leadership. On July 28th, we have the last installment of a three-part series on The Mindful Kitchen, part of the FoodChoices4LIFE initiative.
The Mindful Kitchen #3: Facing the Guest, presented by Chef Shonah Chalmers, dives into menu psychology, sustainable menu engineering, and subtle guest communication techniques that help drive climate-smart choices in food service environments.
Read more about chefs as trusted messengers in our June article:
A chef’s recommendation is more than a selling point. It’s an opportunity to rebuild trust and drive change.
From chefs’ specials to viral recipes, what a chef recommends means more now than ever. Whether it’s a new ingredient or an issue they advocate for, people care what’s cooking. Why?
Worldchefs just launched a new Young Chefs Mentorship Program Toolkit, a practical resource created to help National Chef Associations build structured mentorship opportunities for young chefs in their communities. The toolkit offers associations a clear starting point to connect young chefs with experienced culinary professionals, turning mentorship into a more accessible and consistent pathway for learning, confidence-building, and career development. Learn more about it here.
Find Worldchefs at the World Food Forum this October
Find Worldchefs at the World Food Forum (WFF) from 8 to 16 October 2026 at the FAO headquarters in Rome!
Learn more about the WFF Young Chef Programme here.
A new international report by Linkers examines how countries are using gastronomy to strengthen tourism, support economic development, and build a stronger international identity.
Can gastronomy help shape the future of a country?
The report explores how governments are beginning to look at gastronomy not only as part of culture or tourism, but as a wider strategic tool. When supported by long-term planning, gastronomy can help strengthen a country’s image, support local producers, create employment, encourage exports, attract investment, and generate greater economic value.
More than promoting a national cuisine
Food festivals, tourism campaigns, major events, and internationally recognised chefs can all bring attention to a country’s cuisine. But visibility alone is not enough.
Real impact comes when the different parts of the gastronomic sector work together: chefs, restaurants, farmers, producers, culinary schools, universities, professional associations, tourism organisations, businesses, and public institutions.
Linkers describes this as a gastronomic ecosystem: a connected system in which gastronomy can create value far beyond the restaurant industry.
Great food is only the starting point
A country may have outstanding chefs, rich traditions, and exceptional products. Turning those strengths into sustainable development also requires professional training, strong local food systems, cooperation between the public and private sectors, clear objectives, and long-term continuity.
Investing in people is central to this process. Alongside culinary techniques, the skills needed across the sector include leadership, business management, food safety, sustainability, languages, digitalisation, innovation, and customer service.
Different countries, different paths
Examples from Peru, South Korea, Denmark, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Spain show that there is no single route to building international culinary influence.
Peru has developed gastronomy as a national project, while South Korea connects food with its wider cultural presence. Denmark has shaped an international identity around sustainability, innovation, and territory, and Japan brings culinary heritage together with modern development.
Saudi Arabia offers an emerging example of gastronomy supporting wider economic transformation. Spain demonstrates how leadership can grow through regional diversity, renowned chefs, restaurants, producers, and private initiative.
Despite their different approaches, these countries share an important idea: culinary success becomes more powerful when it is supported by a connected ecosystem and a long-term vision.
What remains after an event?
A campaign, congress, or culinary competition may attract visitors, media coverage, and online attention. But its real value can also be seen in what it leaves behind.
Has it strengthened professional training? Created opportunities for local businesses and producers? Supported tourism, employment, exports, or regional development?
Looking beyond immediate visibility makes it possible to understand whether an initiative has created lasting value for the wider sector.
The next era of gastronomic competitiveness
In the coming years, countries may increasingly compete not only through famous chefs, signature dishes, or leading restaurants, but through the strength and authenticity of their entire gastronomic ecosystems.
Heritage, education, innovation, sustainability, local production, and collaboration will all influence how national cuisines are developed and represented internationally.
Discover the international case studies, strategic models, and trends shaping gastronomy’s growing role in tourism, economic development, and global influence.
A chef’s recommendation is more than a selling point. It’s an opportunity to rebuild trust and drive change.
From chefs’ specials to viral recipes, what a chef recommends means more now than ever. Whether it’s a new ingredient or an issue they advocate for, people care what’s cooking.
Why? Every restaurant visit is a small exercise in trust. If a chef suggests a dish, a customer orders it not because they’ve studied its origins, ingredients, or technique. They try it because they trust the chef.
That trust is powerful. It can help to shape what and how people eat. It is fundamental in systems change and development, a binding agent — an essential ingredient of growth, societal well-being, and governance. Trust is also sorely lacking in so many institutions today, and much more difficult to add than a bit of salt.
The food service sector occupies a unique position between producers, policymakers, and consumers, making it a powerful driver for healthier and more sustainable food choices. Restaurants are increasingly serving as educational spaces and cultural conduits. In the halls of the United Nations, school canteens, community kitchens and boardrooms, chefs are showing up to deliver important recommendations.
Chefs have been recognized as agents of change for decades. But today they have a bigger platform than ever to drive change, as trusted messengers in their communities and in the global movement towards good food for all. In this article, we explore how building trust, insights from behavioral science, and global initiatives are providing chefs everywhere with opportunities to make an impact.
Trusted Messengers: Chefs deliver more than food & flavor
WHAT IS A TRUSTED MESSENGER?
We’re borrowing the termfrom public health. Trusted messengers are who people turn to for reliable, unbiased information. They can take many forms, from individuals to organizations. Be it a local health clinic, hairdresser, preacher or chef, who communities consider to be trusted messengers varies based on shared experience, identity, values, and built relationships. They earn this confidence by participating in and understanding culture. Their position and perceived credibility means they can deliver messages that make sense to their community, messages that are more likely to have influence.
Beyond being respected sources of information, trusted messengers are also conduits, helping to deliver information across their network. They are essential in communicating the needs and concerns of their community to others. They help to center values by sharing them in an authentic way, and by doing so, ensure that our food systems are grounded in lived experience and wellbeing, not just technical solutions.
Who delivers a message matters. They are the bridge between information and action. Whether or not the messenger is trusted makes all the difference.
CHEFS & THE STATE OF TRUST
We don’t really need references to write that trust, broadly, is at a low point. The research might still stun. The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer finds that 70% of the global survey’s 33,938 respondents across 28 nations are hesitant or unwilling to trust someone who has different values, information sources, approaches to societal problems, or backgrounds than them. Optimism is at a low, too, with just 32% of people globally believing the next generation will be better off.
While trust in institutions, media, and others wanes, greater transparency is also being demanded, especially when it comes to food. Despite the pessimism, people care about and are actively seeking information on what they eat. The question is: who do people trust enough to listen to?
In the face of a global food crisis, the news isn’t always easy to swallow. But who would shoot the messenger when they’re bringing you a delicious meal? Perhaps this is one of the many reasons behind why chefs make strong trusted messengers, and why recent research shows that food service professionals are increasingly viewed as trusted voices.
The new Consumer Observatory Trust Report from EIT Food – The State of Trust in Europe’s Food System tracks how trust has evolved between 2021 and 2025 across five key Food System actors: farmers, retailers, restaurants and caterers, manufacturers, and public authorities. Key findings from the report include:
Farmers continue to lead on trust: 68% of Europeans trust them in 2025.
Retailers are regaining trust, now at 54%.
Restaurants and caterers see the biggest gain, rising from 48% to 53%.
Authorities and manufacturers are improving, yet remain among the least trusted actors.
Transparency, competence, and care are the key drivers of trust recovery.
The Edelman Trust Barometer survey has also shown gains in food influencers as trusted voices, especially when it comes to leveraging relationships to boost institutional trust. A key finding in Trust’s 2026 report illustrated that trusted voices in food can open doors. People who trust influencers say they would trust or consider trusting a company they currently distrust if it were vouched for by someone they already trust, such as a food or lifestyle influencer (62%, among the 48% who trust an influencer). In a time when consumer confidence is desperately lacking, who or what a chef gets behind can also help to broker trust.
The data show that chefs yield power. As connectors and food culture custodians, they serve as a direct link between diverse food systems actors through their daily interactions with food producers and diners alike. Their expertise and credibility give them a unique platform to educate on topics ranging from nutrition and biodiversity to local sourcing and agroecology. Their reach helps shape food choices across the food web.
Food is deeply connected to emotion, memory, and personal histories. As storytellers, chefs make tangible what usually gets lost in technical jargon or policy dialogue. Through the universal language of food, they translate complex issues into relatable, actionable messages that resonate with decision makers, from heads of household to heads of state.
Rising trust in restaurants, caterers, and food influencers demonstrates the growing influence of chefs as trusted messengers. It also offers an opportunity to inform how we can rebuild trust, centering identity, values, and community engagement. Trust is a prerequisite for meaningful behavior change. By understanding where and why trust is making gains, communities, advocates, and policymakers can better support the movement towards healthier and more sustainable diets.
Today, everyone has to take action to make our planet a better place. Working on sustainability can be done with little action: more plants in your food, less waste, using blue water to cook, grey water to clean, etc. Every small action makes a difference. Let’s do this together.
TRUST & CHANGING WHAT WE EAT: LEVERAGING BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE
We know that cost, convenience, and taste are top considerations when it comes to consumer choices. Yet even in a cost-of-living crisis, 88% of consumers consider trust to be just as important as price and quality. Chefs, as trusted messengers, can inform these choices. People listen to chefs; they act on their recommendations. This is a bigger deal than most might realize.
What we choose to eat has far-reaching impacts on both markets and climate. Consumers’ purchasing decisions account for about 60% of the world’s GDP and constitute nearly half of food-related greenhouse gas emissions. The food environment impacts how people make these choices, and while it can be forced using strategies like taxes and bans, these measures only go so far. To get to the root, we need to change behavior.
When it comes to shifting consumer food decisions, research shows that positive and engaging experiences do more than fear-based messaging. The emerging field of culinary psychology explores how memory, culture, emotion, and environment shape what and how we eat. Chefs influence behavior through many different methods, including menu architecture, plating, portion perception, and sensory cues, to create satisfying, health-conscious experiences while maintaining people’s sense of autonomy. Essentially, they make change fun rather than fearful.
Stelios Kiosses, psychotherapist, Course Director at the University of Oxford, and author of Culinary Psychology: Food Choices and the Mind-Body Connection, is a pioneering voice in the emerging field of culinary psychology. With over three decades of clinical experience, Stelios explores how food is inseparably connected to how we think, feel, and live. In this podcast, he discusses the ways chefs and culinary experiences can influence wellbeing, behavior, and satisfaction.
Everyday success stories and the latest research show that co-creating behavioral change interventions with restaurants works. Simple strategies, like using more appealing language to describe a plant-rich dish, are helping to accelerate better consumer choices. For example, Panera Bread swapped the menu item name “Low Fat Vegetarian Black Bean Soup” to “Cuban Black Bean Soup” in trial markets and saw a 13% sales boost. Simple. Ditching “-isms” and making plant-rich dishes the default in schools, hospitals, businesses, and workplaces is yielding remarkable results, too. With the help of behavior science, simple changes like these are having a big impact.
WRI’s Better Buying Lab outlines the top 23 ‘behavior change’ strategies drawing on cutting edge academic research into how people choose food, as well as insights from experts in the food service industry about what works and what doesn’t.
Behavioral change interventions in the food service sector have great potential in the puzzle toward healthier and more sustainable food choices, shifting consumer choices in a positive and engaging way. Chefs, as key voices working at the systems level, have a huge part to play.
From changing menus to participating in global initiatives, chefs are putting behavior change playbooks into action, leveraging behavioral science and using their expertise to cultivate trust and connection through transparency, competency, and care.
Transparency, Competency, Care: Feeding community trust
The recently released EIT report outlined transparency, competence, and care as the key drivers of trust recovery. When you think about it, those three elements are essential to the way professional kitchens operate.
To be successful, chefs need to bring transparency, competence, and care into every part of their work, from procurement and menu development to food safety and plating. Opportunities to lean into these priorities and to build trust show up in their daily decisions and interactions with suppliers, colleagues, and diners.
With a larger platform than ever to effect change, chefs around the globe are channeling their expertise, credibility, and platforms to empower communities and help to redesign a better food system. International initiatives like FoodChoices4Life and the World Food Forum’s Young Chefs Programme are working in collaboration with Worldchefs to grow the movement through education, mentorship, and practical guidance for culinary professionals everywhere. Emergency food relief efforts between World Central Kitchen and World Chefs Without Borders are showing the public that when systems fail, we can trust that chefs will be on the frontlines to feed their communities. And so many local programs are making social impact a key part of their culinary practice.
Through global initiatives and the actions of an increasing number of culinary associations, schools, and industry leaders, the food service sector continues to build skills to feed greater community trust, within the industry and beyond.
“This initiative is an incredible opportunity to work with young chefs from across the globe as they champion sustainable food systems in their communities, tackling issues such as food waste, nutrition, biodiversity, food heritage, and women’s empowerment,” says Jordann Norbert, Chief Executive Officer at EcoFood Training and Certification Agency and mentor for the FAO World Food Forum Young Chefs Programme (YCC). Learn more about the YCC here.
Takeaways
Chefs are more than food influencers. They are trusted messengers, policy advocates, and system shapers. Their expertise and storytelling capacity are powerful resources in achieving good food for all. By leveraging their influence, chefs can foster shared experience and community trust, impact behavior change and consumer habits, and reach policy and decision makers. From immigration reform and school meals to supporting small-scale producers and protecting biodiversity, chefs are actively engaged in issues that matter most.
As business owners, market drivers, and community builders, empowering their potential as trusted messengers is essential in recovering trust across the food web and working together towards a healthy, fair, and delicious food future.
Education is fundamental in this process. Open source resources to educate chefs on sustainable practices and behavioral science are bringing more culinary professionals into the fold. Mentorship and training programs like the Young Chefs Programme are equipping the next generation of industry leaders with the networks and know-how needed to tackle the world’s biggest challenges. All of this work is recovering trust — and recovering hope.
Systems change requires that we work together, and that requires trust. Chefs are connectors at every point in the food system and invite diverse voices to the table. Their invitation to action helps to drive meaningful engagement across communities, sectors, and demographics, and fights back against insularity.
Where can we build trust and connect to find common ground? The chef’s table is a great place for both.
Resources
Education is essential to continue to grow the movement and to strengthen every chef’s capacity as a trusted messenger and changemaker.
Worldchefs’ is offering three upcoming webinars as part of the FoodChoices4LIFE initiative:
The Mindful Kitchen. Designed for future-forward culinary professionals, the series explores how chefs can lead the transition toward more sustainable food systems through climate-smart kitchen practices, menu design, and guest engagement.
Across three connected episodes, top global experts will show how to bridge the gap between global food systems, daily kitchen operations, and consumer menu psychology, giving chefs practical tools to cut costs, eliminate waste, and inspire climate-smart dining.
The series begins on July 2, 2026, with The Mindful Kitchen #1: Understanding the Food Systems, featuring Dr. Enrico Porfido from the Universitat de Barcelona. This foundational webinar explores the global farm-to-fork network, the role of food policies, and how chefs can use menus and guest experiences to encourage climate-smart dining.
On July 21, 2026, Chef Shaun Leonard of BHMS Swiss Culinary Academy leads The Mindful Kitchen #2: Reducing Impact Through Operations. Focused on zero-waste kitchen strategies, the session will cover full-product utilization, food waste tracking, upcycling techniques, and building a sustainability-driven kitchen culture.
The series concludes on July 28, 2026, with The Mindful Kitchen #3: Facing the Guest, presented by Chef Shonah Chalmers. This session dives into menu psychology, sustainable menu engineering, and subtle guest communication techniques that help drive climate-smart choices in food service environments.
Please note: Signing up for the first webinar will automatically register you for all three.
Learn more about FoodChoices4Life in the latest edition of Worldchefs Magazine: Issue 32.
About FoodChoices4LIFE
FoodChoices4LIFE is a European initiative empowering citizens and food professionals to accelerate climate action and behavioral change in food systems. Building on the legacy of previous EU LIFE projects, this initiative promotes healthier, more sustainable diets through education, awareness campaigns, and practical tools.
AbouttheFoodChoices4LIFE Partners
Worldchefs: Worldchefs is a non-political professional organisation, dedicated to maintaining and improving the culinary standards of global cuisines. We accomplish these goals through education, training, and professional development of our membership. As an authority and opinion leader on food, Worldchefs represents a global voice on all issues related to the culinary profession.
EUFIC (Coordinator): The European Food Information Council (EUFIC) is a consumer-oriented non-profit organisation, founded to make the science behind food and health more accessible and easier to understand among the public. Our mission is to produce science-based content to empower and facilitate healthier and more sustainable diets and lifestyles among European citizens.
University of Tuscia: University of Tuscia, founded in Viterbo in 1979, rapidly developed into a well-established cultural reference. With over 10,000 students and 200 faculty members, it is recognized for research in forestry, climate change, and innovation in food systems, including food loss and waste reduction. The Department for Innovation in Biological, Agri-food and Forest Systems is now engaged in the FoodChoices4Life project.
Interested in advocacy?
We asked Worldchefs’ national associations, Education Partners, and Executive Committee to share words that reflect the priorities of their members at this moment. Here’s what matters most to chefs. It’s one reason to stay optimistic.
If you are interested in getting involved in global advocacy, or if you have a local project to share, we want to hear from you.
Contact the Worldchefs team to talk more about the many ways you can get involved in advocacy related to a wide range of topics.
Word of the Moment: Chefs Share Theirs for Issue 32
We asked our national associations, Education Partners, and Executive Committee to share a few words that reflect the priorities of our members at this moment, industry trends they’re seeing emerge, or their hopes for the future.
Here’s what matters most to chefs, straight from the global voice of culinary professionals.
Executive Committee
Andy Cuthbert, President UAE
Inclusion. We need to continually look at how we can improve this in Worldchefs and it will need all of us to be on board.
Dr. Rick Stephen AM, Vice President Australia
Unity. A growing call across our global network is the need to stand together: chefs, educators, industry partners, and associations aligning around shared standards, shared purpose, and shared pride. It captures both the priority and the hope for Worldchefs as we shape a stronger, more connected future to be inclusive and not exclusive.
Alain Hostert, Secretary General Luxembourg
Innovation. Young chefs are redefining the kitchen by blending tradition with new techniques, technology, and global flavors. Innovation represents the courage to try, create, and lead the future of gastronomy with fresh ideas.
Kristine Hartviksen, Assistant Vice President Norway
Origin. Interest in the product’s history from farm to table. properties, taste and preparation.
Uwe Micheel, Assistant Vice President Germany
Sustainability. Our association is working on different projects that support sustainability, all the way from food producers to our profession.
Member Associations
Unity and progress. Today more than ever, the words of “power of the white jacket” resonate.
Manuel Cuerno Asociación de Chefs de El Salvador Acesa, El Salvador
Amaresh Bhaskaran, Emirates Culinary Guild UAE
Vocal for local. Use locally-sourced ingredients.
Majed Alsabagh, Syrian Culinary Guild Syria
We call it “Chef’s Society”, to bring Arabic chefs together and enable professional communication and collaboration.
Hossam Soliman, Egyptian Chefs Association Egypt
Professional standards. Elevating standards remains a top priority. Through training, competitions, and knowledge exchange, we are reinforcing what professionalism, discipline, and excellence mean in today’s culinary world.
Nadim Milhim, Palestinian Chefs Association Palestine
Culinary heritage. Our association is focused on protecting Palestinian culinary heritage while empowering chefs to innovate despite challenges. Through food, our members preserve identity, support local farmers, and use cuisine as a powerful voice for culture, dignity, and continuity.
Ricardo Kathan, Mauritian Chef’s Association Mauritius
Advocating excellence. Inspiring the next generation of chefs through training, competitions, and global culinary exchanges.
Fraaz Kasuri,Chefs Association Of Pakistan (CAP) Pakistan
Empower. CAP believes in empowering the youth and women of Pakistan by encouraging them to acquire culinary skills and start their professional journeys. Engage. CAP keeps its members busy by engaging them in different healthy and professional activities like culinary competitions, workshops, focus groups etc. Support. CAP runs a support system through which it helps the chefs with jobs both locally and internationally and other personal or professional issues.
Jenny Tan, Singapore Chefs’ Association Singapore
Progress. We have launched the community membership this year which offers complimentary membership, and will be collaborating with government organizations on initiatives to serve our chef community.
Ben Ali, Maître des Saveurs et Gastronomie de la Tunisie Tunisia
Gastronomic identity. Our association is focused on passing culinary knowledge from masters to young chefs, promoting responsible use of local resources, and safeguarding Tunisian gastronomic identity. Together, these priorities ensure our heritage evolves without losing its roots and remains relevant for future generations.
Kamal Rahal Essoulami, Fédération Marocaine des Arts Culinaires Morocco
Transmission – Sustainability – Excellence. The Moroccan Culinary Arts Federation prioritizes preserving culinary heritage through knowledge transfer while promoting sustainable gastronomy based on local, seasonal, and responsibly sourced products. Through training, competitions, and international collaboration, the Federation strengthens professional excellence and supports the next generation of environmentally-conscious Moroccan chefs.
JJ Vitale, American Culinary Federation USA
Passion. The American Culinary Federation is fueled by a passion for education, from certification through accreditation, and a belief in lifelong learning. We have a passion for competition from regional and national events to the global stage with ACF Culinary Team USA. And above all, we have a passion for our members, students to seniors, club chefs to educators, supporting them at every stage of their culinary journey.
Rodrigo Ibañez, Colegio Nacional De Chefs Profesionales De México A.C. México
Collective purpose. Our association is prioritizing collaboration across chefs, producers, and regions to strengthen the industry as a whole. It reflects a shared belief that Mexican gastronomy grows stronger when progress is built collectively, with responsibility, inclusion, and long-term vision.
Cezar Munteanu, ANBCT Romania Romania
Roots. Responsibility. Future. We believe gastronomy becomes meaningful when it understands its origins. Our association’s priority is education of children, students, and young chefs – so respect for food, seasonality, and resources is learned early. By shaping values before habits, we safeguard culinary heritage, strengthen sustainability, and ensure a future where cooking remains ethical, conscious, and deeply human.
Tomáš Popp, Association of Chefs and Pastry Chefs of Czech Republic (AKC CR) Czech Republic
Gastronomic memory. Our old guard of chefs and pastry chefs pass on their experience to the next generation of chefs and pastry chefs. They also tell stories that have shaped our gastronomic tradition.
Orkhan Mukhtarov, Azerbaijan Culinary Specialists Association (ACSA) Azerbaijan
Growth and recognition. At this moment, ACSA is focused on sustainable growth and international recognition. We are strengthening professional standards, expanding educational initiatives, and creating more opportunities for Azerbaijani chefs to be visible, respected, and competitive on the global culinary stage.
Levani Meskhi, Chefs Association Georgia Georgia
Opportunities. The Georgian Chefs Association aims to support young chefs by developing culinary education and professional opportunities in Georgia. It connects local talent with international standards and promotes Georgian gastronomy globally.
Hans Everse, Gastronomisch Gilde The Netherlands
Events, connect, competition. We provide 10 events a year for our members. We connect professionals in our network with events and competitions. We provide national competition and join international competitions with our Culinary National Team.
David Sosson, Qatar Culinary Professionals Qatar
Elevating standards. QCP is focused on elevating culinary standards in Qatar through structured competitions, global exposure, and strong industry collaboration. By supporting chefs from grassroots development to international platforms, QCP continues to raise professionalism, skills, and global recognition for Qatar’s culinary community.
Manuel Cuerno, Asociación de Chefs de El Salvador Acesa El Salvador
Unity and progress. Today more than ever, the words of “power of the white jacket” resonate. El Salvador is working for the unification of the profession. Only together can we feed the world and be an example for future generations of chefs.
Paulinus Okon, Association of Professional Chefs Nigeria Nigeria
Good chefs, healthy nation. When the system builds good chefs by building the culinary industry, then the country is sure to have very healthy citizens.
Chachaya Raktakanishta, Thailand Chefs Association Thailand
Professional integrity. Professional integrity defines our current direction. We are committed to elevating ethical standards, craftsmanship, and accountability across our membership, ensuring Thai chefs are respected globally for both skill and character.
Sheraz Nair, Indian Federation of Culinary Associations India
Collaboration. At IFCA, collaboration with industry and academia is practiced on the ground, not just stated in principle. Professionals from kitchens and institutions are actively incorporated across all IFCA task forces and working teams, ensuring that every initiative is shaped by practical industry insight and academic understanding.
Dr. Paulino Schembri, Malta Chefs Society Malta
Sustainability, waste not, innovation.
Oliver Esser Soe Thet, Myanmar Chefs Association Myanmar
Food security. Myanmar Chefs help to save lives while ensuring food security all over Myanmar, where chefs are free to provide food to children, elders, and refugees legally. Young chefs safety. We work to get as many chefs as possible out from danger zones – from warfronts to ensure good, safe work and jobs for Myanmar young chefs in foreign countries. Disabled chefs inclusion. Myanmar Chefs work to give an independent future to war-disabled young people to become chefs through practical training.
Education Partners
Sustainability. From pasture to plate, we instill responsible practices that respect biodiversity, ethical sourcing, and environmental impact, preparing students to lead a more conscious and resilient food system.
Ximena Vicente Universidad Latina De Costa Rica Costa Rica
Janie Ogeah, Institute of Tourism Studies Malta
Immersion. ITS places students inside professional environments where decisions carry consequences. From large-scale chocolate builds to live operations, learning happens through exposure, responsibility, and mentorship. Immersion turns education into preparation and students into professionals.
Janet Dyer, Heart College of Hospitality Services Jamaica
Resilience. Coming out of category 5 Hurricane Melissa, aspiring chefs teamed up with World Central Kitchens to prepare meals for persons impacted by the hurricane.
Afaque Ahmed, Heart College of Hospitality Services India
Innovation. Sustainability. Professionalism.Our school is focusing on shaping chefs who think creatively, respect ingredients and local food systems, and uphold industry-ready standards. These values prepare students not just to cook well, but to lead responsibly and adapt confidently in a rapidly evolving hospitality industry.
Agnese Mulatero, I.F.S.E. Italian Food Style Education Italy
Professionalism. We aim to train professionals ready to enter the workforce with expertise. Ambassadors. Our school shapes professionals capable of sharing and promoting the culture of Italian cuisine and its products worldwide. Excellence. We are the only school to hold the Italian Excellence recognition issued by the General Secretariat of the Republic.
Nathan Armstrong, International Culinary Studio New Zealand
Adaptability. The culinary industry is evolving rapidly. We are focused on helping students build adaptable skills and cultural awareness so they can confidently navigate change, seize new opportunities and thrive in diverse kitchens and food businesses around the world.
Ronny Albucci, Chef Academy Italy
Professional qualification, star-studded internships, international collaborations. We bridge the gap between education and employment by offering a legally-recognized professional qualification valid across Europe. Our approach combines this academic rigor with international collaborations—such as our partnership with École Ducasse—and guaranteed star-studded internships in over 150 Michelin-starred restaurants, ensuring our students enter the workforce at the highest level.
Duane Riley, HTA School of Culinary Art South Africa
Community and consistency. HTA School of Culinary Art believes chefs have a responsibility beyond the kitchen. Through ongoing community partnerships—including being the first partner school for the 67,000 Litres for Mandela charity—we instill the importance of showing up consistently and using culinary skills to ensure no one goes hungry.
Ailin Lee, Culinary Arts Center Of Azerbaijan (CÀSÀ) Azerbaijan
Creativity, innovation, experiential learning, global exposure. CÀSÀ currently focuses on developing creativity and innovation through experiential learning initiatives, such as curating dining events and international study tours. These initiatives reflect industry trends toward creativity, sustainability, and global standards, equipping students with contemporary skills and exposure relevant to today’s hospitality sector.
Sasinaporn Yutsanong, Bangkok University Thailand
Creativity. Our school’s focus is on developing industry-ready graduates through real-world exposure and hands-on learning with leading professionals, including Michelin-star chefs. We emphasize creativity in culinary arts and food design while strengthening management, leadership, and operational skills. This approach reflects current industry demands and prepares students to succeed in global hospitality, fine-dining, and innovative food businesses—today and in the future.
Heba Abu Al Rab, The Royal Academy of Culinary Arts Jordan
Innovation. Our Academy is equipping aspiring chefs with the digital literacy and applied learning needed to integrate new technologies while advancing service excellence and guest experience. Sustainability. Our Academy embeds responsible practices across our academic programs, equipping students to reduce waste, prioritize ethical sourcing, and apply resource efficient methods as a core professional standard. Inclusion. Our Academy develops culturally intelligent professionals who lead diverse teams with respect, empathy, and consistent service standards, ensuring guest experiences are welcoming, authentic, and aligned with international hospitality expectations.
Carlos Mézquita, Anáhuac Cancún México
Leadership: Our school is focused on developing culinary leaders, not only skilled cooks. We promote responsibility, teamwork, decision-making, and ethical awareness across our programs, preparing students to lead kitchens, projects, and teams with professionalism, respect, and a strong sense of social and industry responsibility. Experience: Our school emphasizes that gastronomy goes beyond food—it is about creating memorable experiences. Students learn to design dishes, service, ambiance, and storytelling with the guest in mind, understanding emotions, expectations, and cultural context. We prepare future professionals to craft meaningful dining experiences, not just meals. Social impact: Our school encourages students to engage in social projects that connect gastronomy with community needs. Through academic activities and initiatives, students apply their skills in real contexts, promoting food education, sustainability, and support for vulnerable groups, understanding that gastronomy can be a tool for positive social change.
Christian Schiering, B.H.M.S. Business & Hotel Management School / Swiss Culinary Academy Switzerland
Passion. Our school is helping students to turn their passion and love for food into a successful career. Practice. Our school is focusing on hands-on kitchen training to equip students with the essential skills to excel in the industry. Potential. We nurture young culinary talents and provide opportunities for them to strive and excel in the industry in future.
Iliyana Tsvetanova, HRC Culinary Academy Bulgaria
Care: for our students, the food we serve, and the ingredients we use. Respect: for the culinary profession. Traditions: honoring local cuisine and culinary heritage.
Ximena Vicente, Universidad Latina De Costa Rica Costa Rica
Identity. We cultivate a strong Costa Rican culinary identity by honoring local products, traditions, and producers, helping students understand who they are as chefs and the cultural story behind every plate. Innovation. Our program encourages creative thinking, modern techniques, and applied research, empowering students to reinterpret tradition and respond to the evolving global gastronomy industry. Sustainability. From pasture to plate, we instill responsible practices that respect biodiversity, ethical sourcing, and environmental impact, preparing students to lead a more conscious and resilient food system.
Pichaya Noranitiphadungkarn, Dusit Thani College Thailand
Turn your passion into your profession.
Dr Albeena Abbas, AAFT School Of Hospitality & Tourism, Noida India
Research and authenticity. Our school emphasizes mastering classic recipes in their original form while building strong research skills, enabling students to innovate thoughtfully and create new dishes that respect tradition and meet future culinary trends.
Soon Pau Voon, Sunway University Malaysia
Industry‑ready. We are focused on preparing students who can transition confidently from classroom to professional kitchens through structured industry exposure, real‑world learning, and strong employability skills. Sustainability. Our programs emphasize responsible food practices, ESG awareness, and long‑term thinking—ensuring students understand their role in shaping a sustainable future for the culinary profession. Partnership. We believe meaningful industry–academia collaborations, such as YOCUTA with Nestlé Professional, are essential to nurturing talent, relevance, and professional confidence.
Sukey Baker, Silwood School of Cookery South Africa
Rooted – Flavor – Story. Food is more than flavour, it’s memory, culture, and identity. At Silwood, students learn to translate personal heritage, seasonal produce, and ethical choices into plates that speak with intention and authenticity, preparing them to cook food that resonates far beyond the table.
Sheraz Nair, Bangalore Culinary Academy India
Discipline and consistency. We are reinforcing habits that sustain long careers, not short success. Daily discipline and consistent performance remain the strongest markers of professional reliability in today’s kitchens. Employability. Our focus is on producing work-ready graduates who understand kitchen systems, time management, and accountability, aligning training closely with what employers actually expect on the floor. Access and opportunity. Through scholarships and industry partnerships, we are widening access to specialised training for capable students who may otherwise be excluded from advanced professional pathways.
Wen Zhang, College of Culinary and Food Science Engineering – Lan Ming Lu Studio China
Inherit – Promote – Innovate. Preserving culinary heritage through rigorous training in classical techniques, ensuring the mastery of the foundational skills like knife work and broth-building. Fusing tradition with modernity by experimenting with new ingredients and methods, such as plant-based cooking and molecular gastronomy. Driving industry evolution through research, global collaboration , and sustainable practices, shaping future culinary leaders.
John Piazza, Detroit Institute of Gastronomy USA
Purpose. Our students learn not just skills, but the why behind them. DIG’s education is built on passion-driven learning, personal growth, and meaningful contribution to the culinary world—aligning with the idea that every plate tells a story worth sharing.
Meng Sen, Golden Chef College of Culinary Arts & Hospitality Malaysia
Innovation. Industry-ready. Global. We are focusing on creative thinking, practical skills aligned with real industry needs, and international exposure. Our goal is to prepare students who can adapt, lead, and succeed in a fast-changing global culinary and hospitality landscape.
Patti Thomas, Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts USA
Purpose. Discipline. Responsibility. These values guide how students connect ingredients, technique, and leadership. Through strong foundations and real-world experience, they can develop confidence, sound judgment, and professional competence that support sustainable careers and meaningful contributions to the culinary profession.
Stories have power. Chefs, as storytellers, create delicious ways for people to reconnect with food culture, putting agricultural origins, cultural traditions, and shared values on a plate.
Everyday, culinary professionals and Worldchefs members are doing incredible work around the globe to help build more conscious kitchens. For Earth Day on April 22nd, we are spotlighting the power of storytelling through food, and how chefs are contributing to positive change. The 2026 Earth Day theme is Our Power, Our Planet, calling people everywhere to stand shoulder to shoulder in defense of the only home we share. Our collective wellbeing depends on planetary wellbeing, too.
Our planet is one thing we universally share alongside food and love. In celebration of Earth Day and this reminder of what connects us, we take a world tour of heritage recipes that show the intersection of sustainable gastronomy, storytelling, and love for the craft of cooking.
Recipes with Soul
Recipes with soul help us to understand each other and the world around us. Chefs, through their craft, can inspire others to try new things and learn more about what they may have previously ignored. Below, you can find chefs sharing sustainable recipes and the stories behind them.
Click the dropdown below to meet some of our committee members through their recipes.
Azerbaijan
Chef Orxan Muxtarov
Kükü is a traditional Azerbaijani herb omelette that reflects the deep connection between local cuisine and seasonal agriculture.
Chef Orxan’s dish is prepared with a large amount of fresh herbs such as dill, coriander, spinach, sorrel and green onions, combined with eggs and lightly cooked to preserve natural flavors.
Chef Erich’s stew highlights beans, lentils, and barley, climate powerhouses that deliver big nutrition with a small footprint. Packed with fiber, plant protein, and slow-release energy, these humble ingredients create a rich, hearty and low-impact meal.
Plant-forward and easily made meat free, for the meat-eaters it can include Kranjska klobasa, a traditional sausage made using natural processing methods.
This is Chef Nimish’s ode to the nutritious and hearty fresh ingredients of the great Himalayan cuisine, finished with a touch of international influence.
This recipe is a zero-waste celebration of raw banana where the fruit is roasted whole in its skin to intensify flavor. The pulp becomes a delicately spiced kebab, while the skin transforms into a crisp floral tuile infused with bell pepper essence. Finished with bright curls of pickled yellow baby beetroot for acidity and color contrast.
Chef Gianluca adapted a typical recipe from mountain villages in Italy. It is prepared with care using every ingredient with the utmost respect for nature.
Mushrooms are a symbol of symbiosis and connection, and this recipe reminds us of the simple techniques toward sustainable cooking, like vegetable broth from scraps and stale bread for croutons.
Breadfruit, tuna, and coconut are ingredients that are naturally abundant in the Maldives and have been part of island cooking for generations. This dish from Chef Mariyam brings a warm and comforting feeling, especially during the rainy season when families stay home and the sea is too rough for sailing.
In the past, recipes like this were a way for families to gather around the table and share food made from what the island provides. Breadfruit gives a hearty base, tuna adds rich flavor and protein, and fresh coconut brings a creamy taste that ties everything together.
The origins of sarma can be traced back to the Ottoman Empire, where the technique of wrapping various fillings in leaves—such as vine leaves or cabbage—was widely practiced. Over time, different regions adapted the dish to their local ingredients and preferences, leading to the version commonly enjoyed in Serbia today, made with sour cabbage.
Sarma is more than just food; it is a symbol of hospitality, family gatherings, and celebrations.
This traditional Korean soup is made with sun-dried radish greens (siraegi) simmered in soybean paste broth.
It reflects Korea’s long tradition of root-to-leaf cooking and seasonal food preservation, where the entire vegetable is utilized to minimize food waste.
This recipe turns what is often discarded into something delicious. Fresh peelings from seasonal root vegetables become a zero-waste snack that makes the most of local produce, reducing the footprint while boosting natural flavor and nutrition.
These thin strips are rich in fiber and color, then lightly seasoned and air-fried, for a crisp, and sustainable, crunch.
Have you seen our My Sustainable Recipe series? Explore these award-winning recipes from the 2024 LIFE Climate Smart Chefs Award Best Sustainable Recipe category.
Italy
Chef Matteo Farsoni
Chef Matteo Farsoni is an Italian gluten-free vegan pastry chef. Before becoming a pastry chef, Matteo studied foreign languages. You can see how he uses food to communicate. Like language, he uses his recipes to help connect people and ideas, like in this zero-waste dish.
Universality is important to him–he wants everyone to be able to experience the joy of food. That’s why he focuses on gluten-free, sugar-free and vegan desserts. The creative challenge to find new alternatives and techniques to make desserts more inclusive keeps him curious and inspired to find new solutions.
“My aim was to create a sustainable recipe by re-using food that would have been wasted otherwise,” he says. “It is a vegetarian recipe that has a low carbon and water footprint, so it has a low environmental impact, but at the same time it is healthy for our consumption.” This recipe, A Blossoming Future, won the 2024 LIFE Climate Smart Chefs Award Best Sustainable Recipe.
I usually take inspiration from nature, animals, landscapes. Everything that surrounds us can be a potential source of inspiration. And I also take inspiration from other pastry chefs, of course, because in our world we influence each other.
Chef Nazario Contardi is an Alma-trained chef from Ancona. Through this recipe, he celebrates fellow food artisans safeguarding indigenous ingredients, sharing the work of the farmers at Agricoltura Rasoterra, millers at Rocca Madre, pastoralists at Le Capre di Capradosso, and stewards of ancient olive varieties and harvesting methods.
For Chef Nazario, sustainability relies on community, and this recipe demonstrates that beautifully and deliciously. Nazario earned 3rd place at the 2024 LIFE Climate Smart Chefs Award Best Sustainable Recipe category.
For me, sustainability is tradition—the sacred and timeless act of cooking to bring well-being to others. Within this act lies the true key: the feeling of being well. When we respect raw ingredients, we honor those who cultivate them, those who transform them through the alchemy of cooking, and those who are nourished by them. This is where sustainability reveals its deepest meaning: an act of love that connects past, present and future.
Chef Evi Chioti is a chef, educator, and sustainable gastronomy advocate. For this ingenious and unexpected dessert, she uses ingredients indigenous to Cyprus. This recipe earned her 2nd place in the LIFE Climate Smart Chefs Award Best Sustainable Recipe.
I used a vegetable that we have in Cyprus. It’s a simple vegetable, not expensive and very nutritious. It was cooked a bit differently than the traditional way, presented differently. I used the juices from cooking for the sauces. I used cherries and other ingredients that were seasonal at the time to create the sauce and decorations for the plate.
With Worldchefs’ members in over 100 countries, there are so many cuisines and fantastic sustainable recipes that deserve the spotlight. To continue the tour, check out more from chefs around the globe.
South Africa: Capsicum Culinary Studio Heritage Day recipes
El Salvador: Asociación de Chefs de El Salvador (ACESA) Sabores de la Memoria: Cocina indígena y Afrodescendiente launch event with the United Nations (FAO)
Worldchefs Members in Asia: Food of Asia, Soul of Asia free recipe book
More Than the Sum of Its Parts
These recipes show us the power of the plate. They show us that a dish is much more than the sum of its parts. They bring to the table more of what we have in common, showing that sustainable principles are found universally, and deeply representative of heritage cuisines around the world.
Sourcing local and seasonal ingredients, plant-forward cuisine, and using the whole ingredient to reduce food waste–these techniques and so many more are commonalities we share.
Food is a universal language that chefs are fluent in. But unlike language, it doesn’t need to be spoken to be understood. Like Chef Nazario Contardi shared, “Community is sustainability.”
Community is also power. By coming together through food, we have the opportunity to influence eachother, to teach eachother, and to inspire eachother to take action. Through recipes like these, we can better understand the connection between planetary health and wellbeing and our own, and take real steps toward a more conscious kitchen.
Resources
Looking for more on the sustainable gastronomy movement? Find more ways to get involved:
We invite chefs across our global network to take part in FoodChoices4LIFE, a new EU co-funded initiative led by Worldchefs that promotes climate-smart food choices across Europe.
Join the +17,500 chefs around the world who have gained skills to empower their role as changemakers. Sustainability Education for Culinary Professionals is a free course built to teach chefs to think and act sustainably.
At Worldchefs Congress this May in Wales, join the session Feed the Planet: Driving Global Impact to learn more about our programs and how you can get involved.
In the wake of abuse allegations at some of the industry’s top-rated restaurants, we reflect on how culinary professionals are redefining excellence and making positive kitchen culture an essential criteria.
The culinary industry in the midst of a long overdue reckoning. As allegations of abuse emerge from the most celebrated kitchens, chefs and hospitality professionals are reexamining how we define excellence and setting a new standard for the industry.
Today, a growing movement of culinary professionals are prioritizing people-centered policies, transparency and well-being, recognizing that positive kitchen culture is an essential part of success. We explore the steps being taken around the world toward a culture shift in the kitchen.
A Message from Worldchefs President on Safe Kitchens
Excellence in cuisine can never justify the mistreatment of people. A kitchen must be a place of learning, collaboration, and safety. Abuse—whether physical, verbal, psychological, or systemic—has no place in our profession.
Andy Cuthbert, Worldchefs President
Worldchefs is deeply concerned by the recent reports of long‑term mistreatment and abusive behavior within high‑end professional kitchens. These accounts are painful to hear and stand in direct opposition to the values of respect, professionalism, and mentorship that define our global culinary community.
Certain professions, not only culinary, operate at certain levels of intensity that also lead to stress and pressurized environments. However, this can never be an excuse for behavior that is demeaning and unprofessional at any level. We need to encourage young people to join our profession, and this can only happen when the industry as a whole works collaboratively.
Excellence in cuisine can never justify the mistreatment of people. A kitchen must be a place of learning, collaboration, and safety. Abuse—whether physical, verbal, psychological, or systemic—has no place in our profession.
The future of our profession depends on the wellbeing of its people. Worldchefs stands united in building a global culinary culture rooted in respect, integrity, and excellence. Worldchefs members works closely with organizations globally, including The Burnt Chef Project, to ensure we are highlighting the need for good mental wellbeing.
Responding to Research
In a January 2026 report produced by Bournemouth University in collaboration with The Burnt Chef Project, responses to a global survey of 460 chefs offer a timely snapshot of what the industry must address to retain talent. The global survey shows that 69% of chefs regularly consider leaving their jobs due to toxic leadership, work-family conflict, and unsustainable working conditions. Addressing structural failures–from enforcing zero-tolerance policies on harassment to ensuring fair pay–is essential for the growth of the industry.
Toxic leadership and abusive work cultures, wage theft, the gender gap, mental health issues–so many of the primary drivers for chefs considering leaving their roles have been highlighted in recent stories of abuse allegations in the fine dining world.
We already know what conditions need to change, coupled with a growing movement towards positive kitchen culture. Although we have a lot of work yet to do, the industry is in a state of transition, taking real steps towards operational change and accountability mechanisms.
Celebrating Good Leadership
We have so many bright examples of the kind of leadership we need to cultivate positive kitchen culture:
Read the thread above and you’ll see diverse examples of positive kitchen culture. Michelin-starred Chef Emmanuel Stroobant has shared his journey, which you can learn more about below. Chef Kris Hall, through his work at The Burnt Chef Project, is providing resources to chefs around the globe. Culinary schools and employers alike have spotlighted how essential a positive team culture is. Chef Rick Bayless has written on creating a positive professional kitchen culture, and restaurateur Asma Khan has offered key characteristics of a positive kitchen. These are just a handful from an inspiring movement of culinary professionals committed to building a better future for the industry.
Below you can find additional resources, from mental health services to more examples of how chefs are building positive kitchen culture in restaurants around the world.
Resources
Keep reading for resources and examples of chefs that have spoken out against abusive and are helping to drive positive kitchen culture around the globe:
Hear more about what strong leadership looks like in hospitality and how the industry can build more equitable and inclusive workplaces for the next generation on episode 142 of World on a Plate with Anna Blue. She explores how the industry must rethink leadership qualities, and offers advice for young people entering hospitality today.
The Burnt Chef Project is a globally recognized non-profit that raises awareness, provides training, and offers market-leading support for mental health issues within the hospitality industry. Tune in to episode 126 of World on Plate to learn how they advocate for more compassionate, resilient workplaces, and how we can all play a part in supporting mental health in the culinary world.
Access their resources, including free 24/7 mental health support, here.
The Burnt Chef Project will be at the 2026 Worldchefs Congress & Expo in Wales this May. Register now.
Mentorship: the secret ingredient to industry success? Going beyond technical skills, mentorship is about more than just imparting culinary expertise. By modeling and inspiring leadership qualities, mentorship also helps to ensure that we develop the strategic, professional, and personal competencies necessary to navigate today’s complex hospitality environment and beyond.
Read more here to explore why mentorship matters now more than ever in the culinary world.
Jasmin Parks-Papadopoulos, Chief Growth Officer at CHOW (Culinary Hospitality Outreach Wellness) is a former chef turned certified life coach. Hear her discuss the unique challenges faced by hospitality workers, community support, and trauma-informed tools–all aimed at promoting a sustainable and healthier work environment–on episode 114 of World on a Plate.
Prevention is better than cure. After his own struggles, Michelin-starred Chef Emmanuel Stroobant advocates for a culture that values rest, reflection, and mental resilience as much as culinary excellence. He realized that taking care of oneself is more than an act of self-preservation; it’s a responsibility we have towards those around us.
Hear more from him during his session at the 2024 Congress here.
When it comes to mental health, the culinary world is still in the weeds. The once-glorified kitchen culture of hustle and hard living has started to give way to a more sustainable ethos, one that recognizes that the future of the industry depends not just on innovation and skill, but on the health and happiness of those behind the pass.
While awareness of the importance of mental health and wellness has increased, the culinary industry still faces unique challenges requiring attention and change in workplace culture.
More than half of the hospitality workforce are women, yet they remain hugely underrepresented in leadership roles. To fix the gender equity gap in our industry, we need systemic change.
The hospitality industry runs on talent, creativity, and care, and globally, women provide more than half of it. They make up over 50% of the hospitality and F&B workforce. Yet despite being the majority to help power the industry, women are significantly underrepresented in leadership and decision-making roles. This paradox is at the heart of hospitality’s gender gap; one that the industry can no longer afford to ignore.
In this article, we explore why gender disparity persists regardless of the critical role women play in the culinary world, and what that means for the industry in practical terms.
Leaving Talent on the Table: Today’s Hospitality Workforce
LABOR FORCE & LEADERSHIP GAP
In the hospitality industry, women hold one leadership position for every 10.3 men. Women make up just 33% of management positions in restaurants, and only 19% of chefs and head cooks are women. In the US, 79.3% of chefs identify as male, while 35.6% identify as female. 9.1% of corporate executive chefs are women, while 90.9% are men.
Fewer higher ranking positions in the restaurant industry, such as head chef or executive chef, are held by women, from Zippia 2022 data.
RECOGNITION GAP
Representation in awards and recognition also lags behind. Just 6% of Michelin-starred restaurants are led by women. In 2025, of the 22 new one-starred restaurants in the UK, only one was awarded to a female chef patron – Chef Emily Roux. The percentage of the World’s Best 100 restaurants with a female head chef scratches by at 6.5%. For every female-led Michelin-starred establishment, there are 16 run by men.
Leaving the stars aside, the 2024 State of Gender Equality in the Travel and Hospitality Industry report found that a staggering 63% of female respondents believe they must work harder for recognition and acceptance because of their gender compared to 22% of male respondents who feel the same. A 2022 study from MIT found that female employees are also less likely to be promoted than their male counterparts, despite outperforming them and being less likely to quit.
GENDER-BASED PAY GAP
The gender-based pay gap is persistent in the hospitality industry, and it’s moving in the wrong direction. A 2023 report found that the gender pay gap in hospitality increased from 4.2% to 5.2% over the previous year. According to Equality in Tourism, women in tourism earn approximately 14.7% less than men.
In the US, the average annual salary for chefs and head cooks in 2025 was $45k for men versus $35k for women. In Europe, a study published in 2025 found that the gender wage gap in hospitality management ranges from 5.1 % to 23.8%.
Chef Valentina Giacobbe, winner of the 2025 MICHELIN Young Chef Award for her restaurant Ginko in Lille, France. Photo credit: AFP
Invisible Labor, Not-So-Invisible Problems
In hospitality, some of the most essential leadership work is rarely listed on a job description. Culture building, conflict mediation, keeping a team calm under pressure, and so many more tasks, are the invisible backbone of a thriving kitchen team. Research shows that this invisible labor disproportionately falls on women, who are expected to absorb stress, maintain morale, and smooth interpersonal dynamics while their contributions remain undervalued. When structural systems fall short, women pick up the slack.
The qualities most associated with effective leadership today – emotional intelligence, adaptability, cross-functional collaboration, and long-term thinking – are the very qualities that have historically been feminized and dismissed as “soft skills.” Yet modern leadership science has made clear that these are high-impact competencies linked to stronger team performance, resilience, and innovation.
Studies show that purpose-driven women leaders consistently rely on empathy, calculated risk-taking, a bias toward action, and achievement orientation across their careers. They excel in both generating ideas and executing them, driven by a deep commitment to purpose and to the people around them. Broader organizational research echoes this: women leaders are more likely to demonstrate participative decision-making, ethical sensitivity, and collaborative leadership styles – traits that correlate with stronger organizational outcomes.
Despite this, what problems are still preventing women from rising to the top?
FALSE STEREOTYPES
A study published in the European Journal of Travel Research found that ingrained stereotypes and sexism continue to be a huge issue in the culinary field. False gender stereotypes, like being less resilient to stress, lacking in authority, or emotional sensitivity, negatively impact women’s career advancement, leaving many on the lower rungs of hospitality roles. What chefs wear can come under scrutiny, too, with something as simple as a sequined chef jacket causing a stir.
All too often, women in kitchens, even those in change, are overlooked in search of a male authority figure. The McKinsey’s 2024 Women in the Workplace study found that women leaders are 1.5x more likely than male leaders to have their judgment questioned, and are twice as likely to be called “too aggressive” when demonstrating the same assertiveness valued in their male counterparts.
THE “OLD BOY’S CLUB”
Studies also show that the “old boy’s club” continues to pose a problem for women working in the hospitality industry. It excludes women from informal and formal networks, making the glass ceiling further out of reach. With mentorship a key ingredient to a successful career, inclusive networking plays a critical role in helping women advance in the hospitality sector.
Deep Dive: A Data-Informed Look at Why Gender Disparity Is Bad Business
Women in Leadership: A Good Decision
Research has found that women in leadership improve decision-making. A 2023 study, conducted by the University of California and Copenhagen Business School and published in the Harvard Business Review, listened to board members from more than 200 publicly traded companies in the US and Europe.
The results? Women come to meetings better prepared, more willing to ask in-depth questions, more open to different points of view, and concerned with accountability and making the right choice as a group rather than worrying about how they might be perceived.
Having more women in decision-making roles matters most for long-term value creation, from McKinsey & Company.
Bias is Expensive
Inclusive environments equals better performance. Research shows that the firms with higher gender diversity in upper management are more likely to achieve better financial and sustainability performance. Inclusive, gender-diverse workplaces drive measurable performance gains and are significantly more likely to outperform less inclusive peers, with higher productivity, increased innovation, stronger employee retention, and nearly 63% greater profitability and productivity.
Side Dish: How do men and women see these barriers differently? A recent study offers insights.
A recent study by EHL Insights found substantial differences in the way male and female hospitality managers understand research-backed factors related to women’s career advancement. While women (and substantial data) report that opportunities have stagnated, men perceive that women’s opportunities to reach top management levels have greatly improved.
While men still hold much of the decision-making power, how will anything change if they don’t see the not-so-invisible problem?
Barriers to women’s career advancement, from EHL Insights.
On the Line: Lessons from Women Who Lead
Let’s hear from female voices on the line. What have they learned from their experience in leadership?
Executive Committee Member at Worldchefs and Head of Innovation at NorgesGruppen, Norway’s largest grocery company
WHAT WE NEED: I was the first woman in the Nordics to be president of their chef association. I have been fighting and I thought at times “Oh, I don’t want to do this anymore.” It has been tough. When I started [my career], I must be honest, [Worldchefs] was an old gentlemen’s club. It’s different now. We still need to have more of a mix on the board, a mix of age, women and men, experiences–more voices. Everyone is important. Women and men, we think differently, so the mix is important.
HER ADVICE: It only takes one idiot in the room to try to break you down, so have good mentors, people who you can trust, and then ignore the idiots. You must trust yourself and have a mentor. Call me, I’m going to help. We are stronger together.
Director of Operations & Projects, Worldchefs (World Association of Chefs’ Societies), France
WHAT WE NEED: We need to stop treating gender equity as a “women’s issue” and start treating it as a leadership and governance standard. That means transparent pathways to senior roles, fair recognition of contribution, and leadership cultures that value both results and people. There isn’t one “correct” way to manage; it depends on the situation, the culture, and the people in front of you and women should not have to lead like men to be taken seriously. In a global chefs’ association, cross-cultural intelligence matters: respect is built through tone and intent. Most importantly, leadership is never about one person. It is about the team you build and the trust you earn.
HER ADVICE: Find mentors and sponsors who could actively advocate for you and create opportunities, not just offer guidance. And when you can, do the same for someone else. Don’t wait to be “ready”; take the seat, do the work, and build credibility through consistency. Be firm when the situation requires it, but don’t confuse toughness with effectiveness. Stay curious, learn, and adapt to today’s realities and never forget that real leadership is measured by the people you develop and bring along with you.
Young Chefs Club Australia Co-Chair & World Chefs Without Borders Committee Member
WHAT WE NEED: The workplace is really responsible for creating that positive culture. Getting rid of harassment in workplaces. It’s about creating stronger mentorship with senior chefs and junior chefs and getting rid of that divide.
HER ADVICE: I definitely have to thank all the mentors I’ve had previously to make up the chef I am today and the person I am today. The mentors that have guided me through these competitions made me want to also mentor future generations.
2026 Global Young Chefs Challenge Competitor, National Culinary Team of Cyprus She will compete at the Finals during the 2026 Worldchefs Congress & Expo in Wales this May.
WHAT WE NEED: The industry is in need of many other female chefs and leaders. Growing up I was very lucky to have various female mentors around me such as my grandmother who inspired me to keep going and follow my dream.
HER ADVICE: My advice to other female chefs is to always believe in yourself and keep trying to achieve your goals.
Breaking the Demi-Glace Ceiling: Systemic Change or Bust
Dig into the history of the culinary profession and you’ll find it’s riddled with the same story. We know the Auguste Escoffiers, and the Rosa Lewises and Marthe Distels of the world are forgotten. Search for related articles and you will come up with thousands, hundreds of thousands, of related writing.
The pandemic undid years of progress towards gender parity in leadership. While brands including Marriott, Hilton and Accor have pledged to increase female representation in leadership roles, according to the 2025 Women in the Workplace study, only half of companies are prioritizing women’s career advancement, part of a multi-year trend in declining commitment to gender diversity.
Despite the challenges faced, women aren’t going to stop at the demi-glace ceiling. They’re taking their chefs’ knives to it, from smashing stereotypes in corporate kitchens to owning their own businesses. In the US, one-half of restaurant businesses are owned by women and 49% of restaurant firms are at least 50% owned by women, according to recent data from the National Restaurant Association. Women entrepreneurs in culinary are hungry for change, and they aren’t waiting for someone else to make it happen.
Mentorship & networking are key
Many women in hospitality attribute their achievements to mentorship. Look no further than the women profiled above for evidence of the impact a support network can have on navigating challenges and seizing new opportunities. In a global survey, 71% of businesswomen said their mentor was influential in their career advancement. Women with mentors are promoted five times more often and are 33% more likely to be seen as strong performers in the workplace.
Then there is this statistic: Men apply for jobs when they meet 60% of the qualifications, while women wait until they meet 100%. Mentorship can help address this, providing women with the right kind of support to ensure they go after what they deserve.
Access to strong professional networks is overall one of the most powerful accelerators of women’s career growth in hospitality. Mentorship, in particular, gives women the guidance, visibility, and confidence needed to navigate structural barriers. When women are connected to peers and seasoned leaders who champion their development, they are far more likely to advance. Expanding these networks and ensuring women have real pathways into them is essential for progress.
More than anything, we need to address the structural barriers holding women back. As long as the systems shaping career progression remain biased, women will continue to do the work without receiving the power, recognition, or opportunity that matches their contribution. Addressing these structural barriers means redesigning how we hire, promote, mentor, and value leadership itself. It requires shifting from relying on the invisible labor of women to building cultures where emotional intelligence, collaboration, and inclusive leadership are recognized as strategic assets, not gendered expectations.
When the industry embraces structures that support women’s advancement, it’ll do more than correct an imbalance. We need more women to unlock the full creative and economic potential of the global hospitality workforce.
Despite the figures and the major work still left to overcome regarding gender, there is so much inspiring action from individuals and organizations committed to closing the gender gap in hospitality. With passion and persistence, women won’t be stopped. Where they don’t have a seat at the table, they’re setting their own.
Check out the resources below for more.
More Women!
Looking for more on women in the industry? Keep reading:
While the kitchen has long been perceived as a male-dominated space, the tides are shifting, and together we are building a better, more inclusive future.
Discover the dedication, resilience, talent, and innovation of women shaping our industry today.
Mentorship could be a key piece of the puzzle to solving the gender gap, making sure that the industry doesn’t leave talent on the table when it comes to hiring for leadership roles.
In an exclusive interview, Chef Zana Alvarado of SA Chefs highlights key action points to address gender disparities in the culinary world and support equity in a male-dominated industry.
Find your next mentor at Worldchefs Congress in May. In addition to connecting directly with industry experts and experienced professionals, you’ll hear from several female leaders, including:
Sian Wyn Owen, the Executive Head Chef of The River Cafe, one of London’s most iconic Michelin-starred Italian restaurants. Sian is a regular guest on Ruth Rogers’ podcast Ruthie’s Table 4.
Chef Shonah Chalmers CCC, B.A.Sc., WCCE, the Chair of the Worldchefs Feed the Planet and Sustainability & Inclusivity Committee. A culinary educator and sustainability advocate, Shonah is known for championing regenerative and locally sourced “hero ingredients” in modern recipe development.
Rosalyn Ediger, the founder and CEO of The Culinary Diplomacy Foundation of Canada. In addition to this role, since 2017 Rosalyn has been a passionate Culinary Arts Instructor at her alma mater, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.
Mentorship: the secret ingredient to industry success?
When you read a chef’s bio, it usually includes who they worked for. If they’ve been lucky, it might read something like this:
Tom Phillips trained at The Ritz in London, before moving on to Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume in the Lake District and Thomas Keller’s Per Se in New York. He later returned to London to join Restaurant Story, working alongside chef patron Tom Sellers.
While this might not be immediately read as mentor-protégé relationships, the value is clear. Where a chef worked and for whom is a big part of how their skills are perceived. For some, it’s like a badge of honor. A well-known mentor can signal potential, legitimize a chef in the eyes of colleagues and consumers, and inspire culinary professionals to aspire to excellence in an effort to be a part of a shared legacy.
A big-name mentor in your bio might get you noticed, but the benefits run a lot deeper than PR. In this article, we’ll explore why mentorship matters now more than ever in the culinary world.
An Underrated Resource for Today’s Hospitality Landscape
Mentoring is an underrated resource and an under-recognized skillset. According to recent data, 76% of people think mentors are important, but only 37% actually have one.
You can be a great chef but not know a thing about how to inspire someone or guide them towards a long-term perspective on career. It takes time to cultivate skills to mentor and manage people, and the willingness to continue to learn from protégés, too. According to the latest data from Deloitte, many managers only spend 13% of their time developing the people who work for them, and more than one-third (36%) are not sufficiently prepared to be people managers, suggesting that more learning and development is needed across each stage of a person’s career.
Mentoring represents one of many skills that are increasingly expected by today’s hospitality landscape. Culinary professionals need to be multifaceted to respond to an evolving industry, one changed by the pandemic and shifting generational expectations. From small businesses to large commercial kitchens, chefs need to demonstrate strong managerial and leadership skills, as well as operational and administrative skills. Success also often depends on being savvy when it comes to social media, culinary arts tourism, and the latest culinary trends. With so many things to consider in building a successful career, culinary professionals need diverse guidance.
While the culinary arts has traditionally been rooted in vocational training and hands-on apprenticeship, across the globe, industry leaders, educators, and employers report that traditional technical training alone is insufficient to meet these shifting demands.
The need for meaningful and intentional mentorship is stronger than ever, a kind of mentorship to strengthen career development by offering specific expertise, insights, and opportunities, whether near or far.
Worldchefs Certified Judges with Global Chefs Challenge competitors.
Deep Dive: A Data-Informed Look at Why Mentorship Matters Now More Than Ever
Mentorship delivers clear strategic value, for employers, mentors, and mentees alike. It’s no wonder why 98% of Fortune 500 companies invest in structured mentorship programs and report higher engagement, stronger pathways for leadership development, and higher retention rates as a result.
Especially now, with automation and AI quickly reshaping day-to-day activities, both employers and customers are searching for connection and adaptive, human-centric skills. Mentorship can help to keep a balance in check by creating opportunities for dialogue around new technologies, approaches, and ways of working. By bridging tradition and innovation and helping to connect perspectives across generations, cultures, and specializations, mentorship can be a key driver for growth, for both the industry and its individuals.
Strengthening Team Culture and Employee Retention
Studies show workplaces with structured mentorship see higher retention rates for mentees (72%) and mentors (69%) compared to other employees. Especially for the new generation of workers, a focus on learning is essential. In a 2025 survey from Deloitte, when asked the strongest reasons for choosing to work for their current employer, Gen Z put learning and development in the top three, with specific mention of wanting greater guidance, inspiration, and mentorship from their managers.
Mentorship also can also be a part of efforts to address mental health in the kitchen. Mental wellness is an increasingly visible challenge for chefs worldwide, and the value of mentor relationships shows up in this area as well. Studies show 45% of employees feel uncomfortable discussing mental health concerns with their managers. Mentorship builds trust and provides emotional scaffolding, reminding chefs that they are not alone and that their contributions are valued. Data shows that 89% of employees with mentors say colleagues value their work, versus 75% without mentors. All this from knowing someone has their back.
Side Dish: Gen Z’s Career Expectations
86% of Gen Z and 84% of millennials consider mentorship from experienced colleagues to be a key tool for career growth.
9 in 10 Gen Zs (89%) and millennials (92%) consider a sense of purpose to be important to their job satisfaction and well-being.
Promoting Skills Transfer
Mentorship is at the heart of craft, with one person’s mastery becoming the next person’s foundation. According to the Harvard Business Review (HBR), global research shows structured mentoring accelerates skill development by 30% or more. In a study by the HBR, across 19 countries, 84% of workers said that mentors helped them achieve competence in their roles faster.
It’s also a two-way exchange. Seasoned chefs can share their insights and offer actionable guidance to their mentees. Mentees in exchange bring new perspectives and skills to the table, challenging their predecessors with fresh questions, ideas, and innovations.
And mentorship isn’t just for young chefs. It can benefit chefs at every point in their career. Beyond age and traditional kitchen hierarchy, mentorship promotes mutual learning across generations, cultures, and disciplines. Peer-to-peer mentoring has its place, too, with more experienced colleagues helping others to grow confidence, and encourage collaboration.
The American Culinary Federation celebrates International Chefs Day with young chefs.
Fostering Inclusive Leadership Development
Mentorship is also one of the most effective tools for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, which leads to many more gains. Research has shown that mentorship programs can increase minority representation in management positions more effectively than many standalone diversity initiatives, with studies reporting improvements in leadership representation for underrepresented employees when mentoring is part of the strategy. What’s more, the data shows that when employees feel represented, innovation improves by an astonishing 83%.
A recent survey by the Gallup Center on Black Voices found that employees with a mentor are 1) more than twice as likely as those without to strongly agree that their organization provides a clear plan for their career development, 2) twice as likely to strongly agree that they have had opportunities to learn and grow at work in the last year, 3) twice as likely to be engaged, and 4) 98% more likely to strongly agree that they would recommend their organization as a great place to work.
For women, mentorship has huge potential, too. A recent study from MIT found that female employees are less likely to be promoted than their male counterparts, despite outperforming them and being less likely to quit. Research also shows that women are less likely to self-promote. In a DDI Women in the Workplace Global Research study, a survey from 19 different countries found that 63% of women have never had a formal mentor.
Despite women making up more than half of the restaurant and foodservice workforce (52.6% in 2022, according to DataUSA), their representation sharply declines as seniority rises. Only 21.6% (down from 22.6% in 2022) of head chefs and cooks identified as women in 2024, revealing a persistent gender gap in leadership. Meanwhile, half of students at the Culinary Institute of America are female. Women occupy only 6.3% of the head chef positions at prominent U.S. restaurant groups, whereas women CEOs run 11% of Fortune 500 companies in 2025, having made significant gains since 2018. As Fortune 500 companies continue to invest in structured mentorship programs, their strategy could be an important model to address gender representation in professional kitchens.
Mentorship could be a key piece of the puzzle to solving the gender gap, making sure that the industry doesn’t leave talent on the table when it comes to hiring for leadership roles. Across the culinary world, mentorship can help to ensure that chefs of all backgrounds and at all points in their career can rise with confidence and clarity.
Chefs gather at the Global Chefs Challenge Americas Semi-Finals in 2025.
Mentorship is Legacy and a Long-Term Strategy
Worldchefs and its members are not just looking to help create great chefs. Our community is here to foster leaders for a better culinary industry and food system at large. Going beyond technical skills, mentorship is about more than just imparting culinary expertise. By modeling and inspiring leadership qualities, mentorship also helps to ensure that we develop the strategic, professional, and personal competencies necessary to navigate today’s complex hospitality environment and beyond.
Through this support, we create a cycle of mentees who grow to become mentors, and an industry culture of learning and development. Mentorship is a legacy of leadership, one that branches out into the past, present, and future.
So, if a chef has been lucky, their bio might read something like this:
Marco Pierre White is a renowned chef, restaurateur and TV personality. A leading figure in the UK restaurant scene for over 25 years, he has been influential in the culinary careers of many including Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal. Marco’s rise to culinary acclaim began at 19, when he moved to London to study classical French cuisine under Albert and Michel Roux at Le Gavroche. He later honed his craft with Raymond Blanc and Pierre Koffmann, masters of French cooking technique.
Marco Pierre White Chef, Restaurateur, and TV Personality
The World Food Forum (WFF)’s Young Chefs Programme equips chefs aged 18-35 with skills, knowledge and networks to take a leading role in transforming agrifood systems through culinary practices.
Each participant will be paired with a mentor from the Worldchefs network to drive local food systems projects.
Young Chefs Clubs connect emerging culinary professionals within a global network, providing mentorship and leadership development through friendship, cuisine, and cultural exchange.
A toolkit is also currently being developed for rollout to national chef associations, offering guidance to launch and manage a mentorship program for young chefs.
At Worldchefs Congress & Expo, the Billy Gallagher Young Chefs Forum Program provides young up-and-coming chefs proper training, guidance, and learning opportunities.
At Worldchefs Congress 2026, the exciting young chefs program includes a trip to Cardiff Market, a foraging experience, face-to-face sessions with Michelin-starred chefs, and more.
Interested in being matched with a mentor — or becoming one? Get in touch with us.
Young Chefs and mentors at Worldchefs Congress & Expo 2024.
Photo credits and captions
Cover image: Billy Gallagher Young Chefs Forum at the 2024 Worldchefs Congress & Expo.
With 2026 right around the corner, chefs around the world are in the middle of a busy season and an essential time to think about the year ahead.
There’s a lot to consider. Diners’ expectations are changing, purse strings are tighter, and the balance between tradition, health, and innovation is reshaping menus everywhere. With consumers looking for more out of their meals, foodservice businesses need to stay ahead of the curve to drive success in 2026.
Here are five 2026 trends backed by market research that should be on every chef’s radar.
1. Purposeful Protein: A Return to Humble Ingredients
Protein continues to drive menu development, but the path forward is changing. Forecasts for 2026 show a clear movement away from highly processed plant-based meat alternatives.
Where are we headed? Protein-rich ingredients such as beans, lentils, chickpeas, and heritage pulses are taking center stage. With traditional roots and a whole lot of versatility and culinary depth to offer, these ingredients are having a major moment.
For chefs, that means a creative comeback for beans, turning humble pulses into ingredients of purpose. Explore this trend plus five others in Custom Culinary’s 2026 Food & Flavor Outlook.
2. Fiber & Gut Health: Elevated Through Craft and Technique
Right on protein’s tails is fiber. Digestive wellness continues to influence food choices, and fiber is fast emerging as a leading priority for 2026. Fiber-rich whole foods like oats and lentils are capturing greater attention, particularly as diners look for meals that offer both satiety and nutritional benefit. Rather than positioning fiber as a “health” feature alone, chefs are integrating it through technique and craft. Fermenting, sprouting, roasting, milling, and blending to create dishes that are flavorful, layered, and texturally dynamic, this trend offers a lot of room for creativity while serving more gut-health-minded consumers1.
Aseeda Bobbar is a traditional Emirati dessert made with pumpkin, saffron, and cardamom. Find the recipe here.
3. Heritage Recipes & Culinary Traditions: Authenticity with a Modern Twist
Across markets, diners are reconnecting with culinary heritage, sparking a resurgence of traditional recipes, techniques, and regional flavors. This global return to ancestry-driven cooking reflects a desire for authenticity and cultural grounding. From street food favorites and near-forgotten recipes to Taste Globes, cuisine diversity is key to feeding consumer curiosity around spicy and global flavors.
For chefs, this is a great moment to reconnect the past and present, honor culinary roots, and build dishes with cultural context and meaning.
4. Immersive Dining: Experience as the New Value Driver
Dining in 2026 moves further into experiential territory. Guests continue to look for experience, from chef-led tastings and open-kitchen formats to thematic menus, multisensory activations, and community-driven gatherings. Cost-of-living is rising, and more diners, especially young people, want the most of their money when eating out, fueling an appetite for novel experiences.
Chefs who embrace immersive dining, whether through storytelling menus, communal dishes, sensory pairings, or culturally rooted tasting journeys, will meet a growing guest demand for meaningful, memorable meals and likely have some fun while doing it.
“I think we all assume that taste comes from our tongues… In fact, all of your senses are involved. Everything from the color of the plate to the weight of the cutlery in your hands, from the background music to any ambient scent, as well as the lighting and even the softness of the chair you are sitting on.”
– Charles Spence, Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford and author of Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating
5. AI in the Kitchen: Powerful Tools, but Creativity Must Lead
Artificial intelligence is accelerating rapidly across the foodservice sector, appearing everywhere from menu engineering and forecasting to inventory management, training, and guest personalisation. In 2026, AI-supported systems will continue to become more accessible to kitchens of all sizes, offering chefs new capabilities to streamline operations, reduce waste, and analyse consumer behavior with greater accuracy.
But there’s a critical caveat. While AI can optimise, predict, and streamline, it can’t replicate human intuition, cultural sensitivity, or culinary artistry. Chefs must lead tech integration thoughtfully, using it to support but not replace skill, craftsmanship, and identity.
“You’d be amazed to know how many people are using it. There are a lot of egos in the business. They’re not going to make a big thing about it.”
– Chef Matan Zaken, from Michelin-starred Nhome in Paris, on ChatGPT
The future looks bright. Worldchefs’ Global Chefs Challenge competitors’ plating prep at the 2025 European Grand Prix.
Trend Takeaways: A New Year for Learning
These five trends reflect a global shift in how the industry approaches flavor, identity, sustainability, and innovation. The landscape will keep shifting, so get equipped with these early trends and be sure to stay informed as the year goes on.
Don’t miss the 2026 Worldchefs Congress & Expo in Wales, where industry leaders will guide essential discussions around the future of culinary education, workforce development, operational models, and flavor innovation. Check out the program for sessions related to these trends and many more, including 2050 Menu, Shaping the Future of the Culinary Industry, The AI-Powered Chef, Cooking with Natural Plants: Extracting Aromas and Flavours, and so much more.
Here at Worldchefs’ Paris headquarters, we’ve just celebrated the autumn equinox. In the northern hemisphere, it’s the start of fall. South of the equator, it marks the welcoming of spring. But no matter where you are, the change in seasons means new opportunities in the kitchen.
This is the time of year when we celebrate the shifts in seasons and get those exciting dishes that can only exist for a few weeks a year. It’s when we get the “last-ofs”, the “I’ve been waiting fors” and the “I look forward to all years”.
It’s also an especially important time to improve the adaptability of your kitchen, reduce waste and food loss, and build stronger relationships with local food producers. By celebrating what’s in season, we can end up with less in the bin, help farmers move what’s in abundance, and grow demand for speciality produce.
Here are a few things to think about to seize the opportunity, waste less, and celebrate seasonality in your kitchen, whether you’re moving into fall or spring.
Northern Hemisphere
FOOD PRESERVATION
Build your skills with food preservation and hone new techniques to extend the life of seasonal ingredients into the colder months. Flavors and textures can be transformed by pickling, canning, fermenting and drying. Beyond just giving you more to play with in the winter season, the craft of food preservation is another way to highlight the versatility of locally available ingredients.
ASK YOUR PRODUCER
Ask your producer: what do you have in abundance? Think wider than your kitchen to help ensure that local farmers don’t have food loss. Making the most of their surplus means less waste and usually lower cost, too. Plus, it’ll help you build stronger relationships with your suppliers. Over time, this can help you to gain an edge with early notice of seasonal availability and know that you’re part of the local food community.
CREATE A SEASONAL SPECIALITY
Create a seasonal special that keeps customers coming back each year. When your menu shifts with the seasons, you can offer consistency and comfort with some added anticipation. Think fungi, short-season fruits like quince and sea buckthorn, fresh nuts like chestnuts or green walnuts, and specialty greens like puntarelle. Need inspiration? Go to your local farmers’ market!
Southern Hemisphere
FORECAST FLAVORS
Familiarize yourself with the harvest schedule in your area. Start thinking about how your menu can feature seasonal ingredients throughout the upcoming months. Growing your awareness of what’s in season helps you to plan menus that are more cost-effective and allows you to work with your suppliers to secure quality ingredients, season after season. It also gives you more time to get creative with recipe ideas and ways to use every part of what you buy.
By appreciating seasonality and planning ahead, your menu can reconnect you, your staff, and your customers with where ingredients come from and how valuable they are.
THINK DIFFERENTLY ABOUT OFFCUTS
Think differently about offcuts. Everything that comes into your kitchen has value. From pestos to stocks to colored powders, think about how you can creatively utilize the whole ingredient.
Don’t forget your beverage program. Not only can coordinated efforts between back of house and the bar help to set your restaurant apart, but they can also extend the possibilities for ingredients. For springtime’s bounty of berries and stone fruits, often easy bruised, work with your beverage manager to create cocktail pairings. Try seasonal specials in collaboration with the kitchen, like infused simple syrups, shrubs, bramble purees, etc.
LEAN INTO SHORT SEASON SPOTLIGHTS
Lean into short-season spotlights. Ask your supplier ahead of time about specialty produce like asparagus, artichokes, and stone fruits. Or even early varieties of favorites you can get all year, like spring-only mangoes. You’ll secure unique flavors while also supporting local farmers to move precious volume quickly.
Tag us in your next dish or recipe @worldchefs #ThisIsWorldchefs
Cover photo: Martin Rodriguez sells his vegetables at the Corona Farmers Market in Queens, New York, one of the most dynamic and diverse farmers markets in the city. USDA Photo by Preston Keres
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