Inspiring talk by Chef Michel Nischan

On Nov 2nd, Chef Michel Nischan spoke to Microsofties on campus as part of the Visiting Chef series organized by a couple of foodie employees. This was one of the most inspiring chef talks i've heard. Michel Nischan is a James Beard award winning chef from New York and used to do what many chefs of his calibre do - creatively apply French techniques and method to locally available meats and produce. in the process, ofcourse, a lot of cream, butter, duck fat & goose fat can get used. if you live for good food, you relish it so much, you keep wanting to go back. then one of his children got diagnosed on juvenile diabetes. that's when he started a journey to reinvent food and use his genius to create healthy but flavorful food that is culturally relevant and social responsible (his words, not mine :) he's had several restaurants of his own in the past - that served both healthy food and not so healthy food but these days he mainly evangelizes eating healthy, eating local and fresh and works towards creating local movement to get organic produce and meats easily accessible to the common man.

his talk really got me thinking...Indian food really lends itself to healthy eating habits using local fresh produce. while still keeping it immensely flavorful. just put a nice Indian garam masala with ginger and garlic as a rub on your favorite meat, poultry & seafood & see how its transformed while being the healthiest meal possible. that's how most of us grew up in India (ofcourse there is an unhealthy side to Indian food too but you can ignore those since there are ample healthy options) and many of us continue to still make the right food choices no matter where we live. what if we could educate western society about this? hmmm...that could be a concept worth exploring...

to learn more about Chef Michel Nischan, visit his website.