728: Chefs Irene and Margaret Li, part1: Winning Awards Saving Perfectly Good Food

I first read about Margaret and Irene and their book Perfectly Good Food: A Totally Achievable Zero Waste Approach to Home Cooking in an article on doof in the New Yorker. Then the next week the magazine devoted an article just on them and their approach to avoiding wasting food by eating it all.

You might say to me---someone who avoids packaged food, in his fifth year on one load of trash, who eats citrus peels, who almost never throws away something edible---their perfect for you. But avoiding waste alone wasn't what made me invite them here.

What made me invite them here was their attitude: They're fun! They make enjoying every last bit of food fun. I invited them here because I'm working on changing culture and they belong to the culture I do, which is joy, freedom, fun, and delicious. I don't hear anything from them that's obligation, judgment, telling people what to do, our what I call CCCSC bludgeoning (convincing, cajoling, coercing, seeking compliance).

They also win awards and organize community.

Listen for the fun and freedom of it. Enjoy never throwing food away again.

• Their restaurant, cafe, community center: Mei Mei Dumplings Factory, Cafe and Classroom
• The New Yorker article on them: The Sisters Behind the Fridge-Cleanout Dinner
• The New Yorker article on doof that mentioned them the week before: The Perils of Highly Processed Food

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