SAN FRANCISCO, July 17 — San Francisco chef and restaurateur Anthony Myint has been named the winner of a major food award worth €100,000 (RM410,780) for his influential work aimed at reducing food waste and helping restaurants reduce their carbon footprint.
Myint was named the recipient of the Basque Culinary World Prize 2019 at a sustainability symposium in San Francisco Tuesday, for his work as a food consultant advising some of the world’s top restaurants — including Noma in Copenhagen and Benu in San Francisco — on how to reduce their environmental impacts and go carbon neutral.
The prize goes to leaders who use gastronomy as a tool to improve society.
In the food world, Myint is known as the co-founder of popular Chinese restaurant Mission Chinese Food with chef Danny Bowien.
But as well as being a chef and restaurateur, he’s also parlayed his degree in economics and Asian studies into his restaurant consultancy project called ZeroFoodprint and Perennial Farming Initiative, which has partnered with the state of California to create a state-wide restaurant program aimed at removing millions of tons of carbon and restore it in the soil.
“I started cooking because I believe restaurants can make the world a better place, and becoming a parent seven years ago really inspired me to explore what chefs can do about climate change,” Myint said in a statement.
“Since then, scientists have confirmed that healthy soil and good farming can solve global warming... I believe that all of us across the food world — chefs, diners, farmers and policy makers — can come together to create a renewable food system.”
The Basque Culinary World Prize comes with a €100,000 prize that can be used towards a cause or institution that furthers the role of gastronomy in society.
Myint beat finalists from Ghana, Panama, Malaysia, Italy, and the UK to win the grand prize.
Last year the prize went to Australia’s Jock Zonfrillo, for his work championing the food heritage of the country’s indigenous peoples. — AFP-Relaxnews
