MAD Talks

In this season's final episode of MAD Talks, José André—chef of Jaleo, minibar, The Bazaar and Oyamel; and the founder of World Central Kitchen and The Longer Tables Fund—talks about the extraordinary trajectory he has been on since he first fell in love with cooking as a child, and the dreams (hint: they aren't small) he has for the future. It's a revealing conversation filled with hope and determination, and it just may convince you that life, as he puts it, "begins at the end of your comfort zone."

Did you know there are places in the United States where growing vegetables is actually a crime? At the fourth MAD Symposium, Ron Finley shared how he learned this firsthand—when he was cited for planting vegetables in his own front yard. What followed was an extraordinary journey of resistance and transformation. Finley took action—not just for himself, but for his entire community. In this powerful conversation, René Redzepi sits down with Finley, a true force of nature, to talk about his life as a guerrilla gardener. They explore why access to healthy food is a human right and how growing your own food can be a revolutionary act.

Redzepi reconnects with Dan Giusti, his former head chef at noma and now the founder of Brigaid, an amazing organization that harnesses the knowledge and skills of chefs to create healthy school lunches for 650,000 kids every day. They chat about how Giusti's chef journey began, why feeding kids can be way more challenging than working in a three-Michelin-starred restaurant, and his long-term vision of transforming America's school food system.

Redzepi sits down with Harold McGee, the writer who has done more than anyone else to explain the science of flavor to the world, and the author of On Food and Cooking—a book we can pretty much guarantee all chefs have on their shelf. They discuss pleasure, the flavors that have stuck with them since childhood, and what's really going on in your brain when you put something in your mouth.

MAD's founder René Redzepi—who's also the chef and owner of Restaurant noma—sits down with iconic speakers from our signature event, MAD Symposium, to talk about food, creativity, and the future we hope to build. First episode drops on April 7.