Most of us were trained to follow a recipe to the letter. José Miguel Gómez Morales (@jmgomezmorales ) started wondering what it was leaving out.
Working at El Celler de Can Roca and Sant Pau, he saw ingredients discarded, with no defined place once the recipe was complete.
Together with chef Sergi de Meià, he built @lareceptaverda around a simple addition, an annex to every recipe that treats its leftovers with the same intention as the dish itself. Specifying what to ferment, dehydrate, reduce or repurpose, it's now being practiced from rural eco-restaurants in Girona to the classroom at EUHT Sant Pol de Mar.
🍽️ Read the full Alumni Essay at the link in bio.
@katkinsman , founder of Chefs With Issues and author of Hi, Anxiety, has spent years advocating for mental health in the restaurant industry, after seeing what this industry does to the people who love it. The all-consuming hours, the silence around mental health, the burnout that gets mistaken for dedication.
In a survey of over 1,600 workers, 84% reported struggling with depression and 57% said they couldn't talk to anyone at work about it. Kat argues it's a culture problem, and that culture starts at the top.
🎥 Watch her full talk at the link in bio.
A few glimpses back at MAD Academy ✨
1. Nature is our best teacher
2. OOO for a week of learning and meeting the coolest people in the industry
3. Taste testing vinegars, misos and vegetable scrap crisps at @esserestaurant_cph
4. Sustainable egg production at @hegnsholt
5. BTS lobster diving at @fiskerikajen
6. Sampling some of the city’s best tacos from @sanchez_vesterbro
7. @baka.d.busk comes to MAD bringing plenty of plant-based goodness
8. Half of the fun is sharing a meal together, here at our old HQ.
Keep your eyes peeled for news about Academy soon 👀
“A great solution for the whole planet is probably a terrible solution for most of it.”
In Greenland, where vitamin C might come from "mattak" (narwhal skin) rather than oranges, and where imported strawberries sit alongside hunted seal, the idea of a universal diet starts to look thin.
For @aviaja_lyberth_hauptmann , the gap is as much about imagination as it is about science, what gets counted, what gets overlooked, and how easily local food cultures are edged out by global norms. Her answer gestures inward, toward “qarrtsilluni”, a way of listening to what comes from within.
This month’s MAD Digest looks at food sovereignty, and the question of what it really means to eat locally.
🧊 Read the full piece at the link in bio.
Illustration by @sofiekampmark
“You know, it's wonderful to know where our food comes from. But let's really think about how we're treating the people who make our businesses run.”
@mickeybakst has centered his career and impact on improving the hospitality industry. Through co-founding Ben’s Friends, he’s worked to build a recovery community for people working in F&B.
Around 17% of the 15.5 million U.S. F&B workers struggle with addiction. So why aren’t we focusing on them and how to support the people who keep these businesses going? We spend a lot of time talking about sustainability in terms of ingredients. It’s worth asking what that means for the people doing the work.
Find out more about Ben’s Friends (@bensfriendshope ) via their page.
🎥 Watch the full talk at the link in bio.
"People shouldn't have to choose between their family and having a job."
In the U.S. alone, 18% of restaurant workers leave the industry because of childcare. One restaurant in South Carolina decided to stop waiting and build a workaround. A spare room, some bean bags, a couple of babysitters on shift. Within a year, turnover had hit zero.
A lot of people in this industry want kids, or already have them. That shouldn't be the thing that ends their career.
Read the full story at the link in bio. 🍼
These might be go-to strategies for many of you, but they definitely bear repeating 😉. Special thanks to Doug McMaster (@mcmasterchef ), our go-to #zerowastecooking expert for many years.
Curious about what else is explored at MAD Academy? Link in bio.
“Instead of fear, you need an environment of honesty.”
Ben Shewry (@benshewry ), chef-owner of @atticamelbourne , has spent years watching what happens when kitchens run the other way. When someone hides a mistake because they’re terrified of you, the guest pays for it. He argues that a team that trusts you enough to come forward when things go wrong will always do better work than one running on fear — and then performance follows from that.
🎥 Watch the full conversation with Lisa Abend at video.madfeed.co
How do you grow old in this industry? In hospitality, where the pace rarely slows and change is constant, growing old often means learning how to adapt without losing yourself in the process. The work shifts over time, from the intensity of service to the demands of running and sustaining something much larger, and it can mean slowly losing sight of what initially drew you in.
With 55 years in the business, Guy Savoy has spent decades navigating that balance. Still in the kitchen, still cooking, he offers a view of longevity that is less about stepping back and more about adjusting without drifting too far from the craft.
Read the full issue at the link in bio. And… tell us your secrets to longevity in the comments 🕰️
Big change rarely starts big. It begins as a simple idea—then, with the right care, it grows. This month in Digest, we’re taking a moment to reflect on how far we’ve come since the seed of MAD was first planted. 🍎 Link in bio.
Illustration by @sofiekampmark
