Derek Sarno’s recent TED presentation dove into the benefits of plant-based eating.

Vegan Chef Derek Sarno Delivers TED Talk: Animals Have Families Like Us

The entrepreneur and chef spoke about animal suffering, personal grief, and his journey to veganism

Vegan chef Derek Sarno, best known for co-founding Wicked Kitchen, has presented at an official TED conference. The entrepreneur’s talk – which was featured on the TED homepage – touted the benefits of plant-based food, and revealed the paths that led him to it.

In the presentation, Sarno explained he is on a “mission to unleash the mighty powers of plants.” The chef uses plant-based ingredients, especially mushrooms, to create realistic vegan meat and other foods. 

He aims to mirror the flavor and textures of meat and dairy, but without the implications of animal-based food production.

During the TED Countdown Summit, Sarno highlighted the undeniable link between meat consumption and climate breakdown. For instance, animal farming is to blame for a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and pollution. 

Further, research suggests omitting meat from one’s diet helps to sidestep the risk of diseases like cancer and diabetes. 

Grief and the journey to plant-based

But health and sustainability are just some of the reasons Sarno became a vegan chef. 

“My other reason has to do with grief, and dealing with the unexpected death of my partner,” he said in the talk. “The suffering and grief I felt was suffocating. I had two choices: to go down a road of self-destruction, or accept what had happened and find a way through it.”

Before his partner Amada passed, Sarno’s life was “based on ego and attachment,” he said.

“Being the best. Cooking anything and everything without a second thought as to the consequences of my actions. As long as the food tasted great, and I was paid well for it, I didn’t care where it came from.”And so, Sarno laid his “old self to rest,” sold off his food business, and moved to a Buddhist monastery where he lived for three years and “studied compassion.”

“What I discovered was a connection to food and heart that I had ignored. Animals suffer just as we do,” he continued, later reiterating that animals have emotions and families.

“From then on, it became my mission to find alternative ways of preparing food that not only benefited people, but avoided animal suffering as well,” Sarno explained.

“That time reflecting and learning helped me reorientate my own moral compass and opened up a whole new world of creative cooking. It also helped me become much less of a jerk.”

There are many reasons to eat plant-based, Sarno said, and encouraged viewers to find one they identify with. He added that opting for a vegan meal even once a day “makes a huge difference.”

The presentation is Sarno’s latest but not first collaboration with TED. Last month, the media giant held its first in-person climate conference. Sarno was in charge of the event’s menu, which was fully vegan.

Click here to watch the video:

Vegan Chef Derek Sarno Delivers TED Talk: Animals Have Families Like Us – Plant Based News

Regards Mark

WAV Comment – for our overseas visitors, ‘Made In Chelsea’ is a television programme.

Clean Kitchen was built to promote sustainable eating Credit: Instagram

Made In Chelsea’s Verity Bowditch To Expand Vegan Restaurant Amid £1.4M Investment

It’s hoping to become the ‘biggest’ plant-based food brand in the country…

Made In Chelsea star Verity Bowditch is eyeing an expansion of her newly opened vegan restaurant following a successful seed investment. Clean Kitchen, situated in London’s Camden secured £1.4 million in its first seed round.

Lead investors include ex-chairman of Quorn, Clive Sharpe, and the fitness influencer and businesswoman Grace Beverley.

Verity Bowditch’s vegan restaurant

Bowditch founded the business with former YouTuber Mikey Pearce less than a year ago, and the site opened its doors to the public over summer.

The vegan outlet offers fast food and built on the premise of maximizing sustainability and “clean living.”

Now, it’s hoping to open 40 new sites across the country. The move comes as the outlet celebrates thousands of daily orders and a 30 percent growth rate month to month.

And, in its first year, 2020, Clean Kitchen says it sold a staggering 50,000 burgers. The business is now valued at £7.5 million.

Clean Kitchen investment

In a statement sent to PBN, Verity Bowditch said: “There’s a clear demand for delicious, sustainable protein alternatives.

People are waking up to the impact that meat production is having on the environment and need a clear solution – one that also fits easily into their lifestyle. We provide exactly that.”

Moreover, Clean Kitchen “isn’t just for vegans,” rather for anyone who cares about the environment. The aim is to “disrupt the industry,” the Made In Chelsea star added.

Mikey Pearce adds that the pair have “big ambitions to be the biggest plant-based food brand in the UK.”

Regards Mark

Time for some music I think – ‘The Cure’ (England) – one of my fav bands !

Visitors to The Netherlands – The Cure performs A Forest live at the Pinkpop Festival in Landgraaf, The Netherlands; 2019.

WAV Comment:   Thanks as always to Stacey at Our Compass for sending us the article.

https://our-compass.org/author/ourcompasses/

This is of special interest as I (Mark) have been dealing with the issue of plant based foods (or not) on the menu at COP26.  See the link here:

October 8^th;

England: Vegan Food At COP26. Why None ? – WAV Now Write To MP and Ask Him To Contact Mr Sharma For Responses. Keep Ramping It Up Sort Of Thing ! – World Animals Voice

Today (15/11) I have still had nothing back from anyone associated with my request to my MP / Alok Sharma.

UK: Ever Visited Your GP With A Cough And Then Been Prescribed 20 Cigarettes A Day ? – World Animals Voice

UK: UN COP26 Climate Summit – vegan eating can reduce food-related carbon emissions by 73%. Eating meat and dairy is part of what got us into this mess. So Why No Vegan Food At the Summit ???? – Take Action Below. – World Animals Voice

UK: COP26 – ‘You Can’t Be A Meat-Eating Environmentalist’ Declares New (Bus) Campaign (In Glasgow) Aimed At COP26. Go Vegan !! – Also, Don’t Have Blood On Your Hands ! – World Animals Voice

The article below shines a lot more light on the food / menu served at COP26 – I think you will find it interesting; info which goes above and beyond the fancy spin put out at the conference to make us normal people think that they, the conference goers are all so plant based environmentalists.

Please read and absorb.

Here is a link to actions undertaken by Viva! (England) which also relate to COP26 activism:

Viva! Campaigns Newsletter (mailchi.mp)

More reading:

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/cop26-food-menu-criticised-mostly-25372431

Regards Mark

————————————————

Stopping animal exploitation does not require any human benefit, people don’t need profit to be opposed to human exploitation, the same is true for animals. However, given that nonvegans live on a planet hurtling towards destruction and potential extinction, you would hope people would at least embrace a plant-based diet, if not for them, then for their children.

Using plastic straws and reducing animal consumption is the same as doing nothing. it’s meaningless “baby steps” that will result in the same planetary destruction: don’t pretend to support the disingenuous nonsense that consuming animals is “environmentally friendly”, the scientific data has proven time and again that consuming NO animals is ideal for the environment despite the cherry-picking animal farmers/consumers/execs desperately manipulate to satisfy their greedy agendas: as I have asked previously, if you’re vegan, where will you get the decomposing flesh, rotten blood, bacteria, parasites, disease, necrotic organs, feces, gore, and pus to maintain an environmentally stable position? See? Ludicrous.

I’m not asking anyone to do more than I do, but even if you don’t care about justice or decency for animals – for whom veganism is a moral imperative versus a plant-based diet – at least care about the human ones. SL

Source Sentient Media

By Caroline Christen

he 2021 United Nations Climate Conference (COP26) hosted by the UK in Glasgow is drawing to a close. As the conference unfolded, environmental advocates criticized COP26 for serving animal products instead of a more climate-friendly, plant-based menu.

While the COP26 menu includes vegan haggis, mushroom risotto, and lasagna topped with plant-based cheddar, it also offers beef burgers and haggis made from sheep offal. More than half of the menu’s items contain meat, dairy, fish, and eggs, according to Levy, the company in charge of catering at COP26.

Despite the accelerating climate crisis, yet another COP conference chose to serve attendees some of the world’s most climate-damaging foods. A closer look reveals that livestock producers were selected as suppliers for a simple reason: being based within 100 miles of Glasgow. The COP26 menu failure is a direct result of the “Eat Local” myth, the misguided belief that locally sourced foods are ecologically superior to imported foods regardless of their other qualities.

Continue on next page.

WAV Comment: Well done Daniel for your actions over plant based. Yes, for sure, it is the way forward in future – you have the means to see this and believe in your actions; you have our full support.

In May, the Swiss cook transformed the menu at Eleven Madison Park, his three Michelin star establishment in Manhattan, scrapping its renowned meat dishes such as glazed duck for an entirely vegan offering, a move that raised eyebrows in the industry.

Critics are just critics; we are all critics in our own right; so what makes them know better than you ?

You have a vision, so stick with it. It is the right vision for sure.

Mark.

Top chef quits Claridge’s as hotel rejects his vegan vision

Claridge’s three Michelin star chef Daniel Humm has dramatically parted ways with the Mayfair hotel in a row over his attempt to give the restaurant a vegan makeover.

Top chef quits Claridge’s as hotel rejects his vegan vision (msn.com)

The chef was lobbying for a meat-free future at the helm of Davies and Brook, the five-star hotel’s prestigious restaurant and his first outlet in London.

Talks were under way to overhaul the establishment’s menu, famed for its foie gras, roasted venison and dry-aged duck, after the 45-year-old axed meat from his “world-best” New York restaurant to make it fully vegan.

Claridge’s told The Telegraph on Friday that its culinary offering was under review, “including the possible introduction of a fully plant-based menu”.

But on Friday night the row came to a head as Mr Humm confirmed he was leaving the hotel after just two years, insisting that “the future for me is plant-based”.

A spokesman for Claridge’s said: “We completely respect and understand the culinary direction of a fully plant-based menu that Daniel has decided to embrace and champion and now wants to introduce in London.

“However, this is not the path we wish to follow here at Claridge’s at the moment and therefore, regretfully, we have mutually agreed to go our separate ways.”

In May, the Swiss cook transformed the menu at Eleven Madison Park, his three Michelin star establishment in Manhattan, scrapping its renowned meat dishes such as glazed duck for an entirely vegan offering, a move that raised eyebrows in the industry.

New fine-dining plates included cucumber with melon and smoked daikon, and sunflower butter with bread rolls.

Despite a scathing review from the New York Times’ acclaimed food critic, Pete Wells, Mr Humm justified the decision by stressing that “the current food system is simply not sustainable, in so many ways” and insisted “we need to inspire change”.

A similar vision was being pursued at Claridge’s, prompting concern that its two centuries of culinary tradition, including foie gras torchon, butter-poached native lobster and roasted venison, would be ditched for climate-friendly vegetables with a lower carbon footprint.

Mr Humm said on Friday night it was “with sadness” that in December he would leave Davies and Brook, which has gained one Michelin star, adding: “The future for me is plant-based. This is our mission and what we stand by as a company, and at this time this is not the direction that Claridge’s feels is right for them.”

‘Maybe he should bring back the celery root steamed in a pig bladder’

He said it was a “dream come true” to join the hotel in 2019 and praised the “beautiful restaurant with a dedicated and passionate team”. Claridge’s thanked him for his efforts and promised an update on its future plans in due course.

Mr Humm, a leading voice in the charge to make the food industry more eco friendly, visited the Cop26 environmental summit in Glasgow this week and expressed his wish to “make plant-based food delicious, magical and luxurious”.

After the vegan overhaul to his 12-course New York restaurant drew criticism, Pete Wells wrote in the New York Times: “Almost none of the main ingredients taste quite like themselves in the 10-course, $335 menu the restaurant unwrapped this June after a 15-month pandemic hiatus.

“Some are so obviously standing in for meat or fish that you almost feel sorry for them.”

The critic remarked that Mr Humm achieved “purer, deeper results out of vegetables before the restaurant went vegan” and suggested that “maybe he should bring back the celery root steamed in a pig bladder”.

William Sitwell, The Telegraph’s restaurant critic, suggested that a high-end vegan Claridge’s restaurant could be a “clever idea” without the costs of buying in protein. “That restaurant has driven away classic Claridge’s customers very successfully already and this cements that view,” he said.

While veganism was not for Claridge’s appetite, Alex Gauthier, the Michelin-star French chef, responded to protests at the doors of Gauthier, his Soho brasserie, over the force-feeding process to produce foie gras by turning his restaurant vegan.

Now he cooks a version made of lentils, walnuts and cognac.

Regards Mark

Comment – thanks Stacey:

Imagine being pissed off and indignant because a chef refused to prepare food requiring violence and suffering.

People are disgusting.

I hope Mr. Humm becomes widely, incredibly successful and famous.