Chris Ying is a writer and editor from San Francisco, USA. He is the co-founder of Lucky Peach magazine and ZeroFoodprint.org, and has worked on numerous books including The Mission Chinese Food Cookbook and the recent You and I Eat the Same. We chat to Ying about his career so far, sustainability and climate change.

Your magazine, Lucky Peach, marked an early venture into the food world. What inspired you to create this and where did you go from here?

I worked as a cook throughout college and my early post-college years until I became serious about pursuing a career in writing and publishing. I gave up on food as a profession at that point and I avoided combining my interest in food with my book work for a long time. Everything changed for me when I began to see this overlap between food (which I loved) and other things I cared about: writing and art and politics and sports. That space where all these different currents intersect is where Lucky Peach lived, and that’s where I intend to continue working as long as I can.

Sustainability is another issue you’ve tackled during your career. What inspired you to create Zero Foodprint and what is it all about?

Climate change is the issue that keeps me up at night. Working with the non-profit organization MAD in Copenhagen showed me that food can be an incredibly useful tool in motivating people to do good. Not only that, the people who work in food tend to be tremendously resourceful and motivated when it comes to things they care about. Combining those two ideas is at the heart of the work ZeroFoodprint does to help people understand and reduce their impact on climate change. Food gets people interested. Cooks bring good ideas to life.

What are some other ways that restaurants can become more sustainable?

It all depends on your idea of sustainability. The thing that I think most restaurants find frustrating is how many different pathways there are to sustainability. I would say the first thing a restaurant should do is to figure out what their priorities are – whether it’s climate change, food waste, overfishing, pollution, or something else – and then focus on making a difference in that area.

And what about home cooks?

Same thing. Decide what’s important and educate yourself about that. I’m constantly surprised about how much can be done without upending your entire life. You can eat a little less red meat or eat better meat and that accomplishes a lot. You can talk to your power company about tax breaks and rebates for being more efficient. You can familiarize yourself with local organizations and companies doing good things and support them. It all helps – really.

Your book, You and I Eat the Same, posits that cuisine is a kind of global community, of sorts. Can you explain this and discuss how, as a global community, we can collectively create a more sustainable, ethical food industry?

With You and I Eat the Same, I really wanted to put together a book that treated food less as something that needs to be divided and categorized than as something we all participate in together. The book is about immigration and the conversation around immigration. But rather than trying to be didactic or polemical, I wanted to use food as common ground. As in: here’s this great shared tradition that benefits from people and ingredients and ideas moving around. We might not agree on the politics of immigration, but too often the discussion breaks down before it even begins, because we’re not speaking from a place of commonality or addressing one another’s values and priorities. My hope is that food can get people of different opinions around the same table, literally and figuratively.

What are your plans for the future?

I like telling stories about people, whether through food or other lenses. It seems to be what I’m good at, and it makes me feel useful to society.

News: other things you need to know

• Australian restaurant Song Kitchen is hosting an exclusive four-course dinner with winemaker Damian North from Journey Wines. North will discuss the matched wines tasted during the night, and speak about his journey in becoming a leading sommelier and winemaker. Dinner with Damien North is held on Wednesday 14 November at 6.30pm. Song Kitchen is also hosting a Melbourne Cup dinner on Tuesday 6 November which includes casual and formal sit-down dining options. Visit www.songkitchen.com.au for more information.
• The European Parliament has approved an extensive ban on single-use plastics in an effort to reduce ocean pollution. The ban, which will come into effect in 2021, includes plastic straws, plates, cutlery, cotton buds, drink-stirrers and balloon sticks. “Today we are one step closer to eliminating the most problematic single use plastic products in Europe,” Karemnu Vella, European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, told The Guardian.
• London restaurant Cub will be welcoming friends from The Botanist gin and Bruichladdich whisky as they host a very special takeover from 31 October until 3 November. Craig Grozier, founder of innovative dining concept Fallachan in Glasgow, and in-house chef for Bruichladdich Distillery, will take the reins of the Cub kitchen, bringing the wild and foraged flavours of the Scottish landscape to life. This unique five-course tasting menu, paired with different drinks curated by The Botanist and Bruichladdich.aims to highlight the importance of terroir on flavours in food and drink. Visit www.lyancub.com for more information.