Connecting Cultures Through Cuisine
Yale Global Table brings culinary thought leaders from around the world to campus, where visiting chefs train staff, engage with students and researchers, and share remarks followed by a reception featuring a menu inspired by their work. Learn more about our past Global Fellows and the culinary perspectives they brought to Yale.
Spring 2026 Fellow
Rodrigo Pacheco is an Ecuadorian chef who fulfills the diplomatic role of Goodwill Ambassador in Ecuador at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He attracted global attention through his culinary art and his innovative project, “The Largest Biodiverse Edible Forest in the World,” which he develops as Executive Director of the Bocavaldivia Foundation to address socio-environmental causes through a mechanism for ecosystem conservation, reconnection, restoration, and strengthening, catalyzed by gastronomy.
He is the founder of the Bocavaldivia Research and Development Restaurant, located in Puerto Cayo, Manabí, and the founder of Foresta Restaurant, located in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. His vision, career, and purpose—along with his extraordinary participation in the gastronomic competition The Final Table, produced by Netflix—have been widely recognized by the international press and global organizations.
