Can Ice Cream Save the World? Maybe not, but Canada’s number one pastry chef for three years running, Kenta Takahashi, thinks it's a delicious step towards addressing biodiversity loss.
Chef Takahashi, the pastry chef at Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar, has been creating delicious, ultra-artisan, and locally sourced ice cream for years. Chef Takahashi wondered if he could make every ingredient in his ice cream as biodiversity-positive as possible.
"How can we spark interest and encourage small actions? Continuity is key. We often start initiatives but forget to sustain them. We need constant reminders and frequent opportunities to reconnect. I wanted to contribute to this effort. I strive to improve upon yesterday’s efforts here."
— Chef Kenta Takahashi
Chef Takahashi turned to his long-time collaborators, local tea company TEALEAVES, known for hand-blending luxury teas and botanicals of unparalleled quality. The Master Blenders honor ancient traditions and deep-rooted cultural rituals, crafting sustainable teas that foster biodiversity-positive impacts beyond the teacup. One of their botanical powders, Color of Biodiversity, created with Pantone Color Institute in support of United Nations Biodiversity, contains a multitude of biodiversity-positive ingredients including regeneratively farmed beets, micro-farmed chamomile, and strawberry.
Adapting his award-winning ice cream recipe, Chef Takahashi crafted a dairy-free sorbetto in hopes of reducing biodiversity loss caused by animal agriculture. Infusing this biodiversity-positive botanical powder to a brand new, hand-made sorbetto to create a complex palate with notes of sweet strawberry in each spoonful.
Additionally, Chef Takahashi infused his award-winning ice cream recipe with the official tea of Pantone Color of the Year 2024, Peach Fuzz. Using this bespoke blend of the finest white tea, he masterfully blended a creamy palate with the juicy sweetness of summer peaches.
Biodiversity refers to the variety of life on earth, including plant and animal species. We are losing that diversity at an alarming rate.
"The global rate of species extinction today is higher than the average rate over the past 10 million years. Our global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss."
— United Nations Environment Programme
With purpose, we aim to address the challenges we have seen in the changing quality of ingredients impacted by biodiversity loss. This ice cream activation hopes to highlight biodiversity loss through carefully selected ingredients. With every creation, we hope to enlighten, enchant and empower your tastebuds to make informed choices.
Learn how you can benefit biodiversity at biodiversitydesign.org
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