Global Table, a collaboration between the Yale MacMillan Center, the Yale Schwarzman Center, and Yale Hospitality, aims to illuminate the connections between sustainability, health, culture, and community. It centers around bringing culinary thought-leaders from around the world to campus. While in residence, each visitor trains staff, connects with students and researchers, and offers remarks followed by a reception with a menu inspired by the chef.
Coming in February
Ebru Baybara Demir, Turkey, Spring 2025
Ebru Baybara Demir is committed to finding innovative solutions to societal challenges. She founded Cercis Murat Konağı in Mardin, Turkey, in 2000 as a way to celebrate and elevate traditional Mardin cuisine. This restaurant, which has become a cornerstone of the tourism industry in Mardin, is unique in is commitment to empowering women in an industry that has traditionally favored men.
A leader of the From Soil to Plate Cooperative, Chef Ebru has been a champion for heritage ingredients and has helped to create an e-commerce platform to local farmers. She also implemented a biodegradable waste management project nationwide. Following the devasting earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria earthquake on February 6, 2023, she established Gönül Mutfağı, a soup kitchen that provided over 20 million hot meals to victims with the help of 4,000 volunteers, private organizations, and public institutions.
Chef Ebru’s extensive list of over 20 awards includes "Aenne Burda Creative Leadership Award" (2023), World Book Best of the Year Award "Culture of Gastronomy Endeavour Award" (2022), "Business Woman Making a Difference" award of the year by Bursa Is Kadinlari (2022).
Upcoming Lecture
"Food is a Tool for Change": A Chef's Commitment to Transforming Communities and Cultivating Sustainability in Turkey
Monday, Feb. 10, 4 p.m.
Luce Hall Auditorium
34 Hillhouse Ave., New Haven, CT
(Reception to follow at The Well, located in the Schwarzman Center)
Looking ahead...
Venerable Jeong Kwan Seunim
Jeong Kwan, South Korea, Fall 2025
In the fall 2025 semester, we will welcome the Venerable Jeong Kwan Seunim, a Buddhist nun who uses Buddhist temple cooking methods to draw connections to sustainable eating practices.
Jeong Kwan is a Seon Buddhist nun and chef of Korean cuisine. She lives in the Chunjinam Hermitage at the Baegyangsa temple in South Korea, which is located 169 miles south of Seoul, where she cooks for fellow nuns and monks, as well as occasional visitors. She does not own a restaurant and has no formal culinary training. As a Seon Buddhist, she lives on a strictly vegan diet, excluding certain varieties of Allium, and no animal products. She quickly shot into the global limelight when she was featured on an episode of the Netflix series Chef’s Table in 2017.
Using only ingredients that she herself grows in gardens on the temple grounds, she is an expert in fermentation, producing miso and soy sauce as well as Kimchi to incorporate into the meals she cooks. Jeong Kwan has influenced chefs including Mingoo Kang, of the Seoul restaurant Mingles, and René Redzepi, of Noma in Copenhagen.
Our inaugural Yale Global Table Fellow
Selassie Atadika, Ghana, Fall 2024
After more than a decade spent engaged in humanitarian work with the United Nations and years of self-teaching in the culinary arts, Selassie Atadika completed course work at The Culinary Institute of America. She is a founding member of Trio Toque, the first nomadic restaurant in Dakar, Senegal. Selassie brought her innovative approach to African cuisine back home in 2014.
Her food enterprise is Midunu, a nomadic and private dining enterprise in Accra that embodies New African Cuisine. Midunu is a culinary lifestyle company that celebrates Africa's cultural and culinary heritage, with the goal to create experiences where culture, community, and cuisine intersect. Midunu employs local, seasonal, and underutilized ingredients, including traditional grains and proteins, to deliver Africa’s bounty to the table. With an eye towards biodiversity and sustainability, it curates white-linen nomadic events, private dining, retail and lifestyle products, and a bespoke event space. Midunu’s Nomadic Dinners have attracted attention with diners from five continents. A favored part of the Midunu dining experience is its final course: delectable handcrafted chocolate truffles.
Selassie has been sought for her thought leadership by CNN African Voices, The Financial Times, The Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR), OmVärlden, as well as mentioned in Vogue, National Geographic’s The Plate, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Ebony. She holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a bachelor’s degree in geography modified with environmental studies from Dartmouth College. She was one of the 2017 EAT Foundation and CIA Global Top 50 Plant-Forward Chefs, a 2018 Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture Exchange fellow, and a 2019 World Restaurant Award judge.