Blink:

Congratulations Dan Barber, winner of SMARTKETING’s eighth Gretzky award.

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Back in 2010 I started an annual tradition of awarding a company or individual for peak performance, the Gretzky award for “skating to where the puck is going to be.”  The sixth and seventh Gretzky awards, were two companies making this planet a better place, LeanPath and Lotus Foods respectively.  In light of the fact I am extremely concerned about collapsing ecosystems on our planet, I am awarding renown chef, long time farm-to-table advocate, Dan Barber a Gretzky award for his forward thinking as it relates to future food and farming.

I wrote about Dan last August, specifically wastED Pop-Ups, his restaurant concept of dishes composed entirely of ingredients usually considered waste to be discarded.  His latest mission is to change farm-to-table cuisine.  Instead of center-of-plate entrées consisting of a protein, preferably grass-fed, entrées should be great tasting vegetables topped with a seasoning or a sauce of meat.  He advocates that chefs have a responsibility to form a relationship with their farmers, thus know where every ingredient comes from.  In addition, they need to better understand the numerous combinations/origins of global food.  Long-term it will be better for our ecosystems.

I highly recommend carving out some time to watch Dan Barber’s classic TED talk How I fell in love with a fish to better understand he is a planetary ecosystem leader skating to where the puck is going to be.  Congratulations Dan!