Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO’s Director-General, has appointed the renowned Swiss Chef and plant-based food advocate Daniel Humm as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Food Education. The nomination ceremony was held Tuesday at his three-Michelin-star restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, in New York.

FEATURE IMAGE: UNESCO’s Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, announcing Chef Daniel Humm as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Food Education. Credit: Eleven Madison Park Instagram

“Daniel Humm is much more than one of the world’s most gifted chefs. He is a passionate advocate for sustainable nutrition, who has staked his career on his beliefs, defying the skeptics, and proving to us all that the finest cuisine can be an ally in protecting our precious planet. A luminary in the culinary community, there is no one better placed to promote the powerful connections between food and education,” said Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General.

“I am deeply honored to join UNESCO as Goodwill Ambassador. The language of food is so powerful, and together, we will work to demonstrate how choices around food can create solutions and empower future generations, as well as to bring further awareness to indigenous culinary traditions and their critical role in sustainability and food equity,” explained Chef Daniel Humm.

As a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, Daniel Humm will focus on Food education, a subject that is at the crossroads of the Organization’s mandate which leads global programs on environmental and health education, on the safeguarding of intangible cultural practices, as well as on the protection of natural heritage and biodiversity in the face of climate disruption.

Audrey Azoulay and Daniel Humm agreed on a roadmap: he will amplify UNESCO’s voice at key international meetings such as the next COP for biodiversity, at the end of October in Colombia. He will also promote UNESCO sites that are home to agricultural, culinary and gastronomic traditions, including World Heritage sites, Biosphere Reserves and UNESCO’s network of 350 Creative Cities, 56 of which are cities of Gastronomy.

For example, in June 2024, the chef visited the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve “Champlain-Adirondak” located in Vermont, United States, where several initiatives have been established to sensitize local youth to the creation of sustainable nutrition systems.

To educate and raise awareness on sustainable food practices, and as one of his first Goodwill Ambassador initiatives, Chef Humm will organize a plant-based public dinner with his fellow UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Chef Mauro Colagreco, in January 2025.

Daniel Humm will also play an active role in the development of a new UNESCO International Food Atlas, which will promote and participate the safeguarding of hundreds of culinary traditions and foodways inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

“Not anti-meat, but pro-planet”

Born in Switzerland in 1976, Daniel Humm began working in kitchens at the age of 14 and earned his first Michelin star at the age of 24. In 2003, he took the leap across the pond, becoming the Executive Chef at Campton Place in San Francisco. Three years later, he moved to New York to become the Executive Chef at Eleven Madison Park, which has since received numerous distinctions, including three stars from the Michelin Guide, and the #1 spot on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2017.

Humm is a co-founder of Rethink Food, a New York City-based nonprofit aimed at creating a more equitable, sustainable food system. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Daniel Humm launched several initiatives to provide nutrition to food-insecure New Yorkers, including re-purposing his high-end restaurant as a kitchen producing 2000 meals a week for the organization. This led to a reflection on how to tackle global food insecurity and build more sustainable food production systems.

In 2021, in a renegade break with his culinary past and due to environmental concerns such as climate disruption and overfishing, Chef Humm overhauled the menu at Eleven Madison Park to make it entirely plant-based, while keeping his three Michelin stars – a first time accomplishment for a plant-based restaurant.

About UNESCO

With 194 Member States, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization contributes to peace and security by leading multilateral cooperation on education, science, culture, communication and information. Headquartered in Paris, UNESCO has offices in 54 countries and employs over 2300 people. UNESCO oversees more than 2000 World Heritage sites, Biosphere Reserves and Global Geoparks; networks of Creative, Learning, Inclusive and Sustainable Cities; and over 13 000 associated schools, university chairs, training and research institutions. Its Director-General is Audrey Azoulay.

“Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed” – UNESCO Constitution, 1945.

More information: www.unesco.org