CleverRoot

5 6 | t h e c l e v e r r o o t Manny Mendoza Chef/Owner of Herbal Notes in San Diego, CA What brought you to the San Diego food scene? I have been in the food industry for almost a decade now working in restaurants in Chicago, New York, and San Diego. The first job I had in San Diego was making cold-pressed organic juices where we sourced the majority of our produce from local organic farms. I was also enrolled in a sustainable farming program at Wild Willow Farm in San Ysidro, where I learned all about what accessibility to organic, low-cost food means to the surrounding communities. But my most important contribution, in my opinion, to the San Diego food scene is the advocacy of culinary cannabis. I collaborated with an amazingly talented creative design studio called Field Guide to create Herbal Notes, which brings my vision of communal dining with healing plants and herbs to life. What does sustainability mean to you in terms of dealing with cannabis? When talking about hemp in particular, it's actually one of the most efficient and sustainable super- crops on the planet: Hemp actually requires roughly half as much water and land as cotton does to thrive. In a more conceptual approach to sustainability, I'm an enormous advocate for cannabis equity as a means of sustaining communities, especially those of color. I'm from the South Side of Chicago, so I've seen it all when it comes to who's been the most affected by cannabis enforcement. I feel a major solution of providing healing and forms of reparation is through fair legislation and equity in the can- nabis industry. How do you plan to help reduce waste within the food industry as a chef? My personal plan is to embrace closed-loop, open-sourced strategies that make our communities more efficient and healthier by developing and sharing the most innovative methods for sustainable food production, energy conservation, and material reuse. Waste is a natural resource that has already been extracted and there's plenty of it—all it requires is innovation. It's imperative as chefs to think about being disruptive and creative when it comes to the old, traditional means of handling waste. Rainer Zinngrebe Vice President Culinary/Corporate Chef at Marriott International, Luxury Brands, in Washington, D.C. When were you first introduced to the food industry? I started in my parents' pub/restaurant at the age of 12, so about 42 years ago. My dad was a trained maître d' and always loved the industry, so I had a natural progression into a cooking apprenticeship at the age of 16. What specific sustainability-related issues do you look out for when it comes to your own sourcing? We are currently focusing on sustainable seafood a lot. Since the oceans are already overfished and the ecological balance is fragile, we can have a real impact if we do the right thing on the procurement side. The more we can learn about the complexities and what it truly means to be sustainable, the better. So- cial, environmental, and ecological sustainability all need to be taken into consideration to truly make an educated choice. As such a large corporation, how does Marriott International help reduce waste within the industry? We have a companywide food waste–reduction initiative that we are focusing on in 2018 and 2019 with pilot programs across the world. We will go to full implementation of all the initiatives by 2020. In addition, many of our hotels have local initiatives from donating to composting, as well. PHOTO: MANNY V If you are a culinary professional interested in being featured here or want more information on Chef's Roll, please email featured@chefsroll.com. We've partnered with Chef's Roll, the global culinary professional network, to learn more about chefs from around the country. PHOTO COURTESY OF MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL ■cr

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