Michel Nischan

Michel Nischan is an American chef. A four-time James Beard Foundation Award winner, he is the cofounder and chairman of Wholesome Wave, Founder and President of Wholesome Wave, Co-Founder of the James Beard Foundation Chefs Boot Camp for Policy & Change along with Chefs Action Network, as well as Founder and Partner with actor Paul Newman of the former Dressing Room Restaurant.

Wholesome Wave
Wholesome Wave was founded in 2007 by Nischan, along with friends Michael Batterberry, and Gus Schumacher as founding Board Chair. It was founded with funding from Newman’s Own Foundation and the Betsy and Jesse Fink Foundation, and supported in part by funding from Grow for Good, a philanthropic initiative of FOOD & WINE Magazine.

Nischan wrote three cookbooks during his years as a chef known for local, organic, and sustainable cooking. Taste Pure and Simple (Chronicle Books 2003), a 2004 best-selling Beard award winner, Homegrown Pure and Simple (Chronicle Books 2005), and Sustainably Delicious (Rodale Publishing 2010).

Published works
Nischan wrote three cookbooks during his years as a chef known for local, organic, and sustainable wellbeing: Taste Pure and Simple (Chronicle Books 2003), a 2004 James Beard Award winner, Homegrown Pure and Simple (Chronicle Books 2005), and Sustainably Delicious (Rodale Publishing 2010).

Career and awards
Nischan’s 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. His most recent award was presented by the James Beard Foundation in May 2015 for Humanitarian of the Year. He is also an Ashoka fellow. Nischan serves on the boards of the Amazon Conservation Team, the James Beard Foundation and Harvard’s Center for Health and the Global Environment.

Philosophy
A son of displaced farmers, Nischan grew up watching American agriculture move in a direction antithetical to the environment on which it depends, and on the small and mid-sized family-owned business models that made American agriculture the envy of the world. Nischan’s deep appreciation for sustainable agriculture and those who work the land informs his work to this day. As a professional chef and advocate for a more healthful, organic, and sustainable food future, he has built on those childhood values and become a catalyst for change and new initiatives in local and regional food systems.