Michel Nischan

Wholesome Crave - Fairfield, CT

Michel Nischan is a four-time James Beard Award winning chef with over 40 years of leadership advocating for a more healthful, sustainable food system. A lifetime Ashoka Fellow, Nischan co-founded the James Beard Chefs Boot Camps for Policy and Change and serves as a Founding Director on the board of the Jacques Pépin Foundation. He has written three cookbooks on healthful and sustainable food; opened restaurants with the Marriott, Starwood, and Taj Hotels; co-founded the former Dressing Room Restaurant with the late actor Paul Newman; and made appearances on Oprah, the Rachael Ray Show, and other chef-driven television programs.

In 2007, Michel Nischan founded the food equity nonprofit Wholesome Wave in partnership with the late Undersecretary of Agriculture, Gus Schumacher, and with grant funding from his late partner, Paul Newman. He then founded Wholesome Crave in 2018, a plant-based soup company that directly funds the systems-changing work of Wholesome Wave.