Top Chef’s Suvir Saran’s Majorly Misunderstood Meat Mission

Chef Suvir Saran was eliminated from Top Chef Masters after delivering an impassioned speech about the evils of red meat on this season’s cross-over episode with the contestants of The Biggest Loser.  Saran’s exit interview after getting booted was posted on Endless Simmer April 29th and the chef returned May 16th to offer up an addendum to his controversial stance. In his additional commentary, Suvir does anything but back away from his anti-meat rhetoric.  In fact, he claims that we will someday look back on his Top Chef tirade and recognize it has a major historical event!

From the first episode of Season 3 of Top Chef Masters, I had my eye on Suvir, or should I say my ear.  The man can turn a phrase.  So, now we learn that his post-elimination comments on America’s “obesity pandemic” have been met with “roaring and thumping celebration.”  He tells us that he cooks “to give people pleasure and a memorable moment in time to savor and share with others through speech and writing.”   And he confesses to being sad that “my work with the Culinary Institute of America in its partnership with Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health – rendered me to be the only chef that knew what was correct, and so I was the odd one out.”

By far the best part of Chef Saran’s response, though, is his flash forward prediction regarding the significance that Top Chef Master‘s jeremiad will have in human history.

In years to come, when we finally turn around from the path we are on that has led us to be the fattest nation on the planet, people will look back at this TV moment and realize something major happened, but was majorly misunderstood. And that is OK. An army of one, when working for the right cause, is an army that has respect and a future.

For Suvir’s entire (lengthy) comment and your own chance to decide whether he deserves a “roaring and thumping celebration,” keep reading below.

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Thanks for the interview and thanks for sharing it.

Again, I reiterate that we were given the challenge of cooking for A SINGLE PERSON, who happens to be someone who is battling obesity, and is addicted to meat. It was their love of bacon cheeseburger that made them get to this weight crisis in the first place.

Does one cure an alcoholic by providing them small doses of alcohol daily?

Obesity stems from a dietary addiction and an ability to not make the right choice, or lack of awareness of what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, and where to eat it.

Of course I am being called a chef who “put a lecture on a plate” but that is not what happened. I was speaking with the contestant who was given to me as my client. Note: One person. Not in a restaurant setting. A person fighting obesity and participating nationally on a show about their weight problems. It does not take a brain surgeon to connect the missing links and realize that this is not what we do at my restaurant, and not what any chef does ever. We are not asked ever to cook a meal within a time constraint for a contestant from a show on a regular basis. If I were to speak as I was speaking with the client in my restaurant, I would certainly accept blame for being a chef who delivers lectures on plates not pleasure.

Since my elimination I have traveled and done more work with people fighting obesity and people struggling to help America cure itself of the obesity pandemic. In these circles, I have found roaring and thumping celebration for what I did and for the integrity, honesty and clarity with which I made my point. And mind you – I spoke longer than what the episode could have shown if they had chosen my entire conversation. Such are the challenges of translating life into TV. But of course the essence was correct.

It is not shocking to those that follow health and wellness to discovery that the contestant who made a fuss about not wanting another option for her bacon-cheese burger craving, ended up being eliminated the same week I believe from her show.

I am very proud of Bravo for having crafted such an interesting and visionary challenge. Sadly for Bravo, and for the obese in America, the judges did not have any awareness of the health and wellness issues around obesity, that are directly related to diet. They allowed the outbursts from an addict to color their judgment and thinking.

In years to come, when we finally turn around from the path we are on that has led us to be the fattest nation on the planet, people will look back at this TV moment and realize something major happened, but was majorly misunderstood. And that is OK. An army of one, when working for the right cause, is an army that has respect and a future.

Perhaps the judges are reading your wonderful blog and can educate themselves into realizing a calorie does not always equal another calorie. The quality of the calories are even more important perhaps than just the number of calories. It is this very important fact the judges on Top Chef Masters had no awareness about. Sadly for me, my work with the Culinary Institute of America in its partnership with Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health – rendered me to be the only chef that knew what was correct, and so I was the odd one out. I was far from wrong. I was just different from the rest. Different in doing what was correct, but still looking strange.

My fellow chefs, including Hugh cannot be assigned any failure or blame. They are masters of their craft and brilliant at all they do and share. I have spent the better part of the last decade working on health and wellness and studying and challenging all sides of this debate. As a chef who speaks around these issues, and makes change happen for obese people in real-time, it would have been shame on me for doing any different.

I am NOT an enemy of meat by any stretch of the imagination. In fact I grew up vegetarian and afraid to eat food that was vegetarian but served alongside meat dishes. Today, I am proud of myself for being able to cook meats, poultry, fish and shellfish without any cares. I even break my vegetarianism for a good reason (like tasting the special dishes made by a chef friend, a good friend, or in my travels) and allow myself to indulge in small bites of non-vegetarian foods. I am actually a huge fan of beef and foie gras. Shocker? Not to those that know me. While I cannot eat a portion of either of them most of the time, my mind and my tastebuds do crave them. My body just is not used to this food. Sad for me!

My life is spent preaching not absolutism but moderation. Including being moderate when indulging in moderation. My table, my home, my life and my mind are very inclusive. Most vegans and vegetarians are shocked by my love for cooking meats and sharing dishes made with them with loved ones. I cook to give people pleasure and a memorable moment in time to savor and share with others through speech and writing. And so, I invest in giving people what they want. Yes, I cook with the best produce, meats and ingredients that money can buy and I am aware of. That is my commitment to sharing with those I feed the best I know.

Hope this helps you better understand who I am and what led me to doing what I did.

Thanks for your post and thanks for having your blog for us to come to for inspiration.