Michel Nischan

Michel Nischan is a four-time James Beard Award winning chef with over 35 years of leadership advocating for a more healthful, sustainable food system. He is Founder and President of Wholesome Crave, a food company selling responsibly sourced, plant-forward soups to large-scale dining facilities, and now available direct-to-consumer. A portion of the gross sales from Wholesome Crave products benefit Wholesome Wave, the non-profit food equity organization for which Michel serves as Co-Founder and Executive Chairman.

This non-profit was founded in 2007, to solve not just food insecurity but nutrition insecurity. A lifetime Ashoka Fellow, he serves as a Founding Director on the board of the Jacques Pepin Foundation; and on the advisory boards of Chef’s Collaborative, Modern Farmer, Good Food Media Network, and The Culinary Institute of America. He is also Co-Founder of the James Beard Foundation’s Chefs Boot Camps for Policy and Change, as well as Founder and Partner with the late actor Paul Newman in the former Dressing Room Restaurant.

Michel is the author of three cookbooks on healthful and sustainable food. His book Taste Pure and Simple won a James Beard Foundation Award in 2004. Nischan won a second Beard Award in 2008 for his work on the PBS television series Victory Garden. In 2015, he was awarded Humanitarian of the Year by the James Beard Foundation.