Day 2 Of MAD Food Camp: Big Names And Big Ideas

The theme of this year's MAD Food Camp in Copenhagen was "Appetite," and the first day's speakers certainly whetted the appetites of the audience. Those appetites were satisfied. In the words of one attending chef, Josh Pollen of London's Blanch and Shock, Day Two was bound to be "massively epic." Heavyweight speakers included Wylie Dufrense of Manhattan's WD-50, Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen of Nordic Food Lab, Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver of St. John in London, and Ferran Adrià.

Before any of the speakers began, René Redzepi paid a tribute to Spain — Spain's soccer team, that is, which had defeated Italy's team to win the Euro 2012 championship on Sunday. Busting out a giant picture of the Spanish flag, Redzepi asked the audience to listen to the Spanish national anthem (probably much to the consternation of Italian chef Massimo Bottura).

But after that, the start of Day Two was not about games. In what was probably the most poignant talk of the entire symposium, Chido Govera talked about hunger, memory, and the will to do things differently. Govera, a young Zimbabwean, was orphaned at the age of seven. Left to take care of a younger brother and grandmother, Govera learned to forage for mushrooms from her grandmother. Saved from forced marriage, she was fortunate enough to be chosen for a pilot project on fungiculture. Taught how to cultivate mushrooms using agricultural waste, Govera used her skills to provide money and food for not only her own family, but also other orphans in her community. She has since taught fungiculture to other disadvantaged youth, but also started her own business to fund her development projects across the Africa and as far away as Oakland, Calif. But what does this have to do with appetite? In what could be said as an inspiration to the world, Govera said, "Appetite lets us look inward and bring it outside to make change with what we have."

This hopeful message was echoed by Anthony Myint and Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese Food in San Francisco and now New York City. In what could be a described as a fairy-tale, which even made Lee Tiernan, head chef at St. John Bread & Wine in London, cry, Myint and Bowien told their story: Myint, then a line cook in San Francisco, "didn't know what I wanted to do with my cooking career. As I often do in moments of uncertainty, I ate a taco."

And thus the story of Mission Chinese Food was born. First starting with a food truck and then renting space from a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant for the princely sum of $300 a day, Bowien and Myint started cooking food in a cramped kitchen, also shared with the still-running Chinese restaurant. It wasn't easy. After doing their own cooking for a stint, Myint and Bowien would then sponsor guest chefs at the restaurant. As each night was a "logistical nightmare," both Myint and Bowien thought that maybe "failure was an option." After closing the restaurant for a month, Bowien and Myint reincarnated themselves as Mission Chinese Food. Like other Chinese restaurants, Bowien and Myint hired local Chinese immigrants to be staff. Unlike local Chinese restaurants, they paid their workers living wage and donated a large part of their profits to charity: one year alone, $130,000 was donated to the San Francisco Food Bank. Using their appetite for good food and social justice, Bowien and Myint's story proved that Cinderella can go to the ball... even with Szechuan peppercorns.

As several speakers noted, part of understanding appetite is understanding science. In studying the memory of meals, Dr. Paul Rozin examined the psychology of memorable meals, and his findings should make restaurants take notice. After surveying diners in America, Rozin asked "Why should we be serving dessert at the end of meals if it's not our favorite dish?" (Sorry, pastry chefs.) The key to memorable meals is in the physical ordering and structure of meals. Foods that are novel, food order (a quick survey of Mad Food Camp participants found that majority liked appetizers the most), and communality all affect our experience with meals. But are chefs willing to incorporate those elements into planning meals? Are we missing a certain vocabulary about how we understand the meaning of food?

In challenging conceptions, the Nordic Food Lab's Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen presented the world of edible "inedibles" — namely insects. In a world where food security has become paramount concern of policy makers, environmentalists and governments, why aren't we eating more "inedibles"? For Nordic Food Lab, that question is one of the reasons to go "wildvore." But the other major concern? Deliciousness. "Deliciousness is the driving force of edibility." Distributing a little bag filled with live ants, bee larvae, and a fish sauce of garum and grasshoppers, they said, "Everything is edible, just some things have consequences." Luckily for us (and any future diners at Noma), the ants, bee larvae, and grasshoppers happen to be delicious and can create unique flavor palates. So why aren't we eating more ants, grubs, and grasshoppers? "Only prejudice can make it taste bad."

And speaking of prejudices, there are the chefs who just aren't interested in science. To those who think that way, Wylie Dufrense has a message for you: "There are many people outside the kitchen with much more knowledge than chefs. We have to learn from them, too." For Dufrense, the appetite for knowledge came out of a curiosity to know how and why chefs cook. Going through the motions is not good enough: "Understanding the processes and having more knowledge about the 'whys' helps us to do our jobs better." But lest anyone think that Dufrense is just a scientist, he also emphasized the personal and creative aspect of chefs. How can that be expressed? With humor. But in the end? "Whoever knows the most wins... Let's keep knowing. Let's keep learning. Let's keep cooking."

But that humor bit? Leave it to St. John to provide it. Sitting down on two hay bales with a nice bottle of red, Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver of St. John Bar and Restaurant in London had their own take on appetite. Henderson said it best: "I am a prisoner of appetite. I have a lunch habit." But in terms of where that appetite comes from? It's from diners. That is where the force is. But in terms of a restaurateur? Trevor tells it like it is: "A good restaurant will take five or six years. You have to have an appetite to hang on while you build that." To wit, Fergus suggested that "chefs have to be Jedi knights, or rather, Jedi chefs." But most importantly, the message was one of humility — and a good bon mot.

Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver have a nice picnic at MAD Food Camp. Photo: Evelyn J. Kim

In what was probably the most anticipated talk of the entire symposium, Ferran Adrià took the stage. Considering the circumstances, it was a miracle that he appeared at all: "For 18 months," he said, "I swore I would never go to another chef symposium. I swear. But I came. And I want to explain why." In what may seem as a surprise to many, Adrià explained from 1994 to 2008, elBulli never made any money. But it was never the point: "I got into cooking because I like the challenge of creativity, to forge new paths. I never searched for success, but for happiness." Creating that happiness takes a lot of work. In probably the only statistical demonstration using grapes, Adrià pointed to the miniscule population interested in avant-garde cuisine-in a grape seed. "What's a grape seed? It's nothing! But if you put it in the ground, it grows." But that growth is one that takes hard work, dedication, and creativity. And creativity does not come automatically. It's a capricious beast: "If you want to play at the Noma/elBulli level, know that creativity has no compassion, no matter how passionate the chef." But ultimately it is not just one chef that makes a great restaurant. For Adrià, "elBulli is not made by Ferran Adrià. elBulli is bigger than any of us." And in what could only be a tribute to the 2,000 stagiares and staff members who passed through the restaurant over the years, Adrià reminded all of us what it's all about: "The human side of this symposium is always with human values — ethics, honesty, happiness, and justice — and you." If Ferran Adrià and elBulli are any indication of the manifestation of those ideas, the world is going to be a better — and happier — place.