Lara Espirito Santo is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and George McLeod is from New Zealand. Through their shared interest in reducing food waste and imagining a better food system they met in the UK and started working at Douglas McMaster’s closed loop, zero waste restaurant Silo. After a few years there, where George was briefly the head chef until the pandemic hit, they decamped to Portugal, opening a restaurant called SEM.

Everything they learned at Silo they used to create SEM. What they were able to do there in five years should give everyone hope. By focusing on how they source ingredients and using every part of them, they were able to reduce their food costs dramatically. Through working directly with regenerative farmers, using invasive river fish and wild foods, and eliminating plastic, they have shown that better models for restaurants exist, that they can be efficient and effective. We just need a little bit of creativity and a shift in mindset.

They closed SEM in April in preparation of having a second child and wanting to find a longer-term space closer to nature. We talk a bit about what they are planning for the future and we should all pay attention. They are the kind of people that lead by example and they really see the forest for the trees.

Host: Nicholas Gill

Co-host: Juliana Duque

Produced by Nicholas Gill & Juliana Duque

Recording & Editing by New Worlder

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María Álvarez and Isaac Martínez are the co-founders of the Mexican culinary book publisher Novo. We had María on a couple of years ago when they had just started out. They’ve put a few more books out and have some exciting projects in development, so we wanted to talk to her again alongside Isaac.

Somehow, they are the first culinary book publisher in Mexico and they have already put out some beautiful books about that go into depth around Mexican culinary elements like mushrooms, pulque, pork, and now fish. This last one is especially intriguing as its being written by Jorge Leon, who has the restaurant Alfonsina in Oaxaca, which I have written about quite a bit. Jorge started a sustainable fish company a couple of years ago, just because he wanted to get fish from the coast of Oaxaca on his menu in Oaxaca City, but it was easier to get fish flown in from Baja at the quality he needed. So, he started working with a few local fishing families to buy whatever they caught and work with them to install practices like ikejime to make sure it gets to him in the best possible condition. It started off as something small but it is snowballing into a much bigger idea about sustainable fishing in Mexico and I’m excited to see the book, called Bitácora de Pesca Salvaje when it comes out in December.

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Novo’s slogan has been, Sembremos una milpa, which of their way of saying lets create an ecosystem of ideas around food, sort of like a milpa is. But now they have actually planted a milpa in Huehuecalco, in the state of Mexico. They are working with a local farming family, with the help of organizations like Tamoa and Tierra de Monte, and they are going to be documenting what is happening for the next five years there. We talk to them about what exactly a publishing company starting a milpa means and what the documenting of that is going to look like.

Host: Nicholas GillCo-host: Juliana DuqueProduced by Nicholas Gill & Juliana DuqueRecording & Editing by New Worlder

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Abril Macías is the founder of the magazine Revista Chiú, a print and digital platform based in Ecuador. One of the most fascinating gastronomic destinations in the world, Ecuadorian food remains relatively unknown or misinterpreted.

Abril often writes about understanding its place in the world. The country lacks an easily identifiable national dish like ceviche or tacos, however, we discuss during this conversation how its most important factor might be just that. That diversity itself is most relevant symbol of Ecuadorian food. Not the mostly widely spread industrial foods like Cavendish bananas or farm raised tilapia, or even cacao, which was first domesticated in this corner of South America more than 5,000 years ago, as we have somewhat recently learned.

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The Ecuadorian gastronomy movement looks a lot different today than it did when I first started traveling there more than 20 years ago. There’s a much greater appreciation of regional cooking and ingredients than there ever has been. Fine cacao isn’t just being shipped off and processed in Europe, but being processed in Ecuador by artisan chocolatiers. There are companies like Canopy Bridge helping create value chains for niche Amazonian products. There’s a hospital for stingless bees called Hasa! Ecuadorian restaurants like Nuema are appearing on global lists for cooking Ecuadorian food rather than international foods. Indigenous cooks like my Shuar friend Shushui Jimbicti are teaching others about cultural foods.

With all these exciting new ideas, food media is extremely important and until recently, Ecuador never really had much of it. Publications like Chiú are helping shift the discourse around the country’s foodways and provide thoughtful, critical explorations of what is going on, thinking beyond just international recognition. Chiú has printed two editions so far, one titled Líquida, about Ecuadorian drinks, where I contributed a story about chicha. The other was about Paisajes Comestibles, or edible landscapes. I highly recommend finding a copy, which can be ordered online if you aren’t visiting Ecuador anytime soon. The next issue will be out in a few months and Abril tells us all about the challenges of publishing in Latin America, but also how necessary the effort is.

Host: Nicholas GillCo-host: Juliana DuqueProduced by Nicholas Gill & Juliana DuqueRecording & Editing by New Worlder

Listen to the New Worlder podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and most other podcast sites. Or subscribe to our YouTube Channel to watch video clips & full episodes.

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