Food Lab Talk

Greg Drescher is senior advisor for strategic initiatives at The Culinary Institute of America, where he strengthens innovation in health, sustainability, culture and culinary insight. He played an instrumental role in developing the college’s Worlds of Flavor International Conference and Festival and co-led the Menus of Change initiative. On this episode of “Food Lab Talk,” Michiel speaks with Greg about how changing a system is like peeling an onion, why deliciousness is a key ingredient to successfully shift diets and why you should work with people outside your “lane of expertise.”  

 

Greg Drescher: “If you're asking people to shift diets, what you're asking them to shift towards has got to be at least as appealing as what they have now. There's the notion of the unapologetic elevation of deliciousness as a public health imperative. It's important for the public health community to not just say in passing that ‘healthy food needs to taste good,’ because on the other side, people are trying to make food craveable. If you're putting up merely ‘taste good’ against ‘craveable’, you're gonna lose every time.” 

 

00:36 Intro to Greg 

01:57 Why we need to reconsider whether “the system is broken” 

03:10 What does it mean to shift diets? 

05:48 What motivates chefs to drive change 

08:16 What you shift towards has to be at least as appealing as what you have now 

09:57 Multiple approaches to seed change: ownership, desire, and experience 

12:38 No “one size fits all” solution  - tailor for culture, traditions, and geography 

16:30 Levers to inspire change 

17:15 Why language matters 

19:30 A case study in building consensus 

22:57 Menus of Change: The business of  healthy, sustainable deliciousness  

24:37 Building an accelerator for change 

25:25 Why early success can ignite systems change 

26:39 Value of working with people outside your area of expertise 

28:17 Takeaways for changemakers 

 

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