Chefs are more than culinary innovators. They connect farmers and consumers, shape food culture, and use their purchasing power to influence how food is grown, produced, and served.

“Chefs are in a very unique position on planet Earth to be changemakers,” says Andrew Zimmern, Emmy- and James Beard Award-winning chef, television host, author, and food advocate. They operate at the intersection of immigration, gender and pay gaps, hunger and food insecurity, food waste, and a range of other global issues.

At “Chefs Save the World,” held in partnership with the James Beard Foundation and CARE at Climate Week NYC 2026, culinary leaders, farmers, and advocates came together to explore how chefs can use their platforms to build a more equitable, resilient, and sustainable food future. Watch the full event replay here.

Throughout the morning, speakers emphasized the importance of diversity throughout the food system—not only in crops and ingredients but among humans.

“If we demand more diversity in our food system, that is what is going to build resilience,” says Chef Bleu Adams, Executive Chef at Black Lamb Group and Director of IndigeHub. And diversity in kitchens builds human resilience, too, she adds.

“Better food begins with embracing diversity. Whether that’s diversity in our fields, diversity in our ingredients, diversity in the people preparing our food, or diversity in the people we welcome around our tables,” says Food Tank President Danielle Nierenberg.

Right now, chefs are “operating in the most difficult environment they’ve ever operated in,” says Erica Helms, Chief Growth Officer at the James Beard Foundation.

Meanwhile, food producers and workers face systemic challenges worldwide: “In many parts of the world, the people who are food insecure are the people who are growing the food,” says Emily Janoch, Associate Vice President for Evidence and Learning at CARE. “This is not a charity problem but a systems problem.”

Read the full article about the role of chefs in resilient food systems at Food Tank.