Nancy Kruse, Bret Thorn discuss chefs as activistsNancy Kruse, Bret Thorn discuss chefs as activists

Kruse Company president Nancy Kruse

The editorial appeared just two weeks before The New York Times launched its first annual Food for Tomorrow Conference to explore what organizers deemed the two biggest food challenges facing the world in the 21st century: how to feed a growing population of the world’s poor and how to reverse the poor eating habits of the developed world.

A panel discussion called The Role of the Chef Outside the Kitchen brought together Tom Colicchio, Mario Batali, another Beard winner cum TV star, and Andrea Reusing, chef-owner of Lantern in Chapel Hill, N.C., and board member of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems. All argued strongly in favor of chefs’ right to advocate and make their voices heard in the food policy arena.

Batali also voiced his support for small farmers and his desire to demystify cooking. In fact, he said he’s “trying to convince people not to go to Popeyes and instead to buy wings at a very good price at their big box store and cook them in their house.”

Well, he’s obviously not an ironist, Bret. The concepts of small farmers and big-box stores aren’t exactly consonant, and if consumers literally took his cook-at-home advice to heart, his restaurant empire might be in jeopardy. As for his slap at Popeyes, it appears that he’s ignorant of the singular role played by that particular chain in broadening the American palate, easing the mass market into untried flavor territory, making a direct connection to American regional cookery and helping to open the door to the culinary revolution that made his success possible.

Then, as we reached the end of 2014, more than 700 chefs — including some of the best known in the business — signed a petition urging lawmakers to get behind a bill that would require the labeling of genetically modified foods. On Dec. 2, Tom Colicchio went to Capitol Hill along with other celebrity chefs like José Andrés, Art Smith and Sam Talbot in support of the petition. A lobbyist quoted in Politico on the subject described chefs as “among the most influential advocates I've ever lobbied with" because they have business perspective but are also perceived to rise above partisan divides.

I’m coming to the part where I typically hand this conversation off to you, Bret, and as I do, I must confess that I feel deeply conflicted. You know that I fully support the right of chefs not only to hold, but also to voice their opinions, just like you and I do in our exchanges. That right is uppermost in my mind because I am typing this at a moment when freedom of expression is quite literally under fire, with the tragic shootings last week of staffers at the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

But I am increasingly dismayed at the extent to which our food system has become politicized, and I wonder if it’s possible to rise above rancorous partisanship. Consumers hold chefs in high regard, even as their disaffection with politicians reaches record levels. Could chefs’ activism negatively impact their standing with the public, ultimately relegating them to just another bunch of noisy lobbyists?

What’s your take on this? Is a chef’s place in the kitchen? Should they be seen but not heard outside of it?  

With celebrity comes responsibility

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NRN senior food editor Bret Thorn