Bowl of beet gnocchi topped with mushrooms, cheese, and herbs, next to a small bowl of sliced mushrooms and cutlery on a napkin over a light gray surface.

Cook for Change! Challenge: Where Innovation Meets Sustainability

Innovative Cooking for a Better Tomorrow

The Cook for Change! Challenge celebrates culinary innovation, passion and Sodexo’s commitment to sustainable eating. Each year, hundreds of chefs from North America compete in a unique, plant-based culinary competition to inspire change in food services. Each chef creates a zero-waste dish that reduces carbon emissions and uses sustainable, nutrient-rich ingredients. Finalists are selected based on creativity, flavor, and a dedication to responsible cooking, culminating in an exciting global finale in Paris. This challenge is an opportunity for Sodexo’s top talent to redefine responsible dining by showcasing sustainable recipes that will be featured across Sodexo restaurants worldwide.

Person in a white chef's uniform with 'Sodexo' logo standing in a commercial kitchen with metal racks and trays in the background.

Meet Chef Ryan Hickey: North America’s Cook for Change! Challenge Finalist

Chef Ryan Hickey brings his passion for creative, sustainable cooking to the global stage as North America’s representative. Known for his innovative use of local ingredients and creative plating, Ryan believes in making dishes special from scratch. Watch his journey as he crafts a plant-based masterpiece for a chance to become the Cook for Change! Challenge champion. 

Chef Perspectives: Cook for Change! 

  • Group of chefs in white uniforms and tall hats standing in a kitchen with ovens and stoves in the background.

    How Our Chefs Cook for Change!

    Read the blog to see how our chefs inspire sustainable dining.
  • Person in a black chef's uniform with red piping and 'Sodexo' and 'Sam Blackburn' logos, standing indoors with blurred people in the background.

    Chef Sam on Sustainable Dining

    Get Chef Sam Blackburn's insights on Cook for Change!
  • Sodexo’s Sustainability Culinary Competition Crowns Its Winner

    The Cook for Change! Finale

    Read more about the culmination of the challenge in Paris.

How Our Chefs Cook for Change!

Read the blog to see how our chefs inspire sustainable dining.
Get Chef Sam Blackburn's insights on Cook for Change!
Read more about the culmination of the challenge in Paris.
  • male chef white uniform

    Chef Ryan Hickey

    Sodexo USA 

    Secret Ingredient: “Innovation! Fresh perspective on classical techniques always results in fun outcomes.”
  • male chef in uniform

    Chef Adam Collison

    Sodexo UK & Ireland

    Secret Ingredient: “My love of competitions. I got the bug from competing in the Sodexo Chef of the Year, that I won in 2018.”
  • female chef white uniform

    Chef Nabila Kerbout

    Sodexo UAE

    Secret Ingredient: “My passion for cooking and my creative ability to combine different cuisines together.”
  • female chef white uniform

    Chef Sandrine Leriche

    Sodexo France

    Secret Ingredient: “Wild plants. They provide me with a wide range of sensational flavors to work with.”
  • male chef white uniform

    Chef Christopher Paredes

    Sodexo Chile

    Secret Ingredient: “Precision cooking. It’s the skill I’ve been improving the most lately.”
  • male chef blue uniform

    Chef Gaurav Pawar

    Sodexo India

    Secret Ingredient: “A roasted mix of millet and legume flour with spices. It’s an inspiration from my mother and a deep connection to my roots.”
Chef in a professional kitchen plating food with tongs under black pendant lights, wearing a white hat and dark clothing. Plates are lined up on the counter.

Inside the Challenge: A Global Culinary Movement

The Cook for Change! Challenge spotlights how chefs can reshape the culinary world by prioritizing sustainability at every step. 

It’s about more than competition. It’s about channeling innovation for responsible dining practices and igniting a positive, global change in the food services industry. By using sustainable ingredients and honing energy-efficient techniques, these chefs are paving the way to a greener future.  

And that’s not all – the winning recipes will be made available to Sodexo locations all over the world, offering a taste of what a sustainable future can look like one dish at a time.

Learn More
Delicius salmon with vegetables on a blue plate.

Chefs competed from around the world.

350

Sodexo is committed to one-third of our menus being 100% plant-based by 2025.

 1/3

Cook for Change! Has made a huge impact in a short amount of time.

2022

Assorted fresh produce including halved grapefruit, purple and yellow cauliflower, carrots with greens, and leafy greens arranged in a colorful display.

The threshold set by Sodexo for each chef's low-carbon meal.

> 0.9 kg CO2e 

global cook for change! finalists.

8

of our main dishes to be low carbon by 2030.

70%

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