It seems a dozen renowned celebrity chefs accepted a challenge to make cuisine out of CSB, a cheap bland substance usually given to the world’s poorest people by humanitarians.
CSB stands for corn soya blend, the same vitamin-enriched food-ration substance that humanitarian aid workers truck through mine fields in Afghanistan and air drop from C-130s into Sudan. It is generally distributed in 25-pound canvas bags and made into mush or porridge under the dire conditions of war, famine and natural disaster. On its own, it has virtually no flavor, but it does provide crucial daily nutrition with little more than a few drops of water and even the most rustic mortar and pestle[…]
The idea to use those who literally cater to the rich to bring attention to the world’s poorest people was born of a struggle to find the common ground among those whose job it is to feed people—whether they are gourmet chefs or humanitarian aid workers, says the project’s creator, Jonathan Dumont of the World Food Program in Rome. “Despite the fundamental common goal of feeding people, the bottom line is that one type eats for pleasure and art and the other eats to survive,” he says. At first Dumont worried that it would be hard to find top-notch chefs willing to participate. But, instead, he says, “the overwhelming enthusiasm of the chefs who have already contributed, or have agreed to contribute to the project, made me realize that this is actually a way of unifying the poorest people on the planet with the richest.”
This event has much potential to raise awareness about the important issues of hunger and poverty. I even imagine that the chefs will tell this memorable story long afterwards. Although the quirky challenge seems fun, it also highlights the saddening gap between rich and poor.
What do you think?