Column: Food and guts

I knew I was meant for the food world when I found myself able to list more James Beard Award-winning chefs than Golden Globe-winning actors.

This Sunday and Monday, I spent my time refreshing my Twitter timeline for live coverage of MAD3 while my friends watched the 2013 Video Music Awards.

In 2011, René Redzepi, the owner of Michelin-starred Noma, started MAD, a forum for chefs and gourmands all over the world to discuss everything food-related. Once a year, MAD holds a two-day food festival in Copenhagen where people meet to eat and listen to these talented chefs and intellectuals speak.

This year, chef David Chang, and writers Chris Ying and Peter Meehan — three men who I have to thank for creating Lucky Peach, the beloved food quarterly at which I interned this summer — curated it.

In fitting Lucky Peach feistiness, the three men themed the event “Guts.”

And while actual guts did make an appearance – butcher Dario Cecchini slit open a hanging pig onstage during his talk on “conscientious carnivorism” – many speakers spent their time talking about the current and future state of mankind’s relationship with food.

Historian Michael Twitty said the foods made by enslaved peoples, such as jambalaya, transformed the culture of their enslavers. He argued chefs can do the culinary world justice by preserving the ethnological and ecological roots of such dishes.

Chris Ying spoke about the carbon emissions of popular restaurants, and how dining out can harm the environment. 

Even the meals served had a message. The 22 women of Tawlet, the farmers’ kitchen of Lebanese farmer’s market Souk el Tayeb, served dishes that were reminders of the benefits of eating local, in season foods.

And yes, intestines were served.

Despite the individual takes, there was one message nearly all speakers touched on.

Danish Author Tor Nørretranders, graffiti artist David Choe, three-Michelin-starred chef Pascal Barbot and others preached that in order to achieve greatness, in the kitchen and life in general, one must have guts.

So when the videos are posted online, probably around the time of the Emmy Awards, I think I know what I’ll be doing.

Follow columnist Amanda Arnold on Twitter @Amanda_Arnold14.