Bon Appétit Management Company

I had believed that social change came from the world of nonprofits. How could do-gooders both stay true to their vision and make money? Didn’t that take grants and volunteers and 501c3 status? It was exciting to see true sustainability at work: a for-profit business model that was also loyal to a socially responsible mission. From then on, I knew I wanted to work for Bon Appétit.

This summer, Bon Appétit chefs gathered around the country to learn the ins and outs of cooking authentic Indian cuisine. At Emmanuel College in Boston, I joined a group of New England chefs attending the culinary training, titled “Flavors from the Turmeric Trail” and given by Raghavan Iyer, a native of Mumbai and a celebrated chef, author, and teacher.

These days, you can’t walk into a grocery store without being exposed to a new diet: flexitarian, vegetarian, vegan, paleo, cookie diet, low-fat, cabbage soup, gluten-free, elimination, low carb…the list goes on.

But there’s one important diet that most people have never considered: the low carbon diet. Shrinking our carbon “foodprint” is just as important as shrinking our waistlines. The food system — from fertilizers to livestock, transportation, and packaging — is responsible for at least one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Last week Bon Appétit Management Company cafés around the country celebrated 13th Annual National Farmworker Awareness Week (NFAW). As part of our efforts to make people think about who harvests their food, we asked students at colleges and universities to create a collage about why they support farmworker rights. Here’s how some thoughtful students from American University in Washington, DC; Goucher College in Maryland; and Emmanuel College in Boston finished this sentence: I support farmworker rights because…

As part of our focus on farmworker rights, Bon Appétit Management Company is proud to partner with Student Action with Farmworkers for the 13th annual National Farmworker Awareness Week (NFAW). Running from March 25 – March 31 (César Chávez’s birthday), NFAW aims to raise awareness about the conditions of the men, women, and children who harvest our food and to bring attention to their efforts to secure fair wages and benefits, and to form and join unions.

Pizza is the No. 1 food among college students. What better way to get them cooking than teaching them how to make their own perfect pies? At Carleton College, Bon Appétit Sous Chef Gibson Price and the FireBellies student cooking club partnered up to practice DIY pizza making — from the dough to the sauce. Andrew Yang, class of 2015, joined them to document the culinary adventure.

Every February for the past 31 years, thousands of fans flock to Santa Cruz’s Beach Boardwalk to sample clam chowder for a good cause. This year, colleagues from Bon Appetit joined forces to support one of their own, Chef de Cuisine Kevin Means, as he presented his award-winning Boston recipe.

Bon Appétit celebrated Valentine’s Day last week at American University in Washington, DC, by hosting an event that focused on the best part of this holiday: Chocolate! But not just any old chocolate.

You’ve no doubt heard the phrase “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”Well, a few students at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, CA, got lemons and went way beyond lemonade to create desserts, sandwiches, salads, and more.

The community of Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, is a competitive one. For the campus’s second Chopped! competition, contestants had to create a meal in only 30 minutes from a basket of surprise ingredients — with a sustainable twist: they were mostly local.