Chefs as change-makers from the kitchen: indigenous knowledge and traditional food as sustainability innovations

Projections of a burgeoning population coupled with global environmental change offer an increasingly dire picture of the state of the world's food security in the not-too-distant future. But how can we transform the current food system to become more sustainable, more equitable and more just? We identify kitchens as sites of transformative innovation in the food system where cooks and chefs can leverage traditional food knowledge about local food species to create delicious and nutritious dishes. Achieving a sustainable food system is a grand challenge, one where cooks in particular are stepping forward as innovators to find solutions. How can we transform the current food system to become more sustainable, equitable and just? Enhancing agrobiodiversity has been proposed as a mechanism for shifting the current food system onto a more sustainable pathway, but there are barriers to the innovations that will enable systemic uptake of diverse plant species in the formal food system. We argue that there is a need to expand on the potential of traditional food knowledge as innovation by focusing on what happens in the kitchen. We identify kitchens as sites of transformative innovation in the food system, requiring as much consideration as the conventional areas of agricultural production, food pricing and calories. Using case studies from South Africa and Mexico, we demonstrate that there is a case to be made for combining the innovative creativity of cooks and the biodiversity of underutilized species to create a food culture that enforces eating as an ethical act. We propose that an alternative model of global food system transformation must recognize that trust and connectedness are key values that need to be scaled. Achieving a sustainable global food system is a grand challenge, one where chefs and cooks are stepping forward as innovators to find solutions.