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Food as Medicine: How a Doctor Becomes a Chef and a Chef Becomes a Doctor

a vegetable-forward evening hosted by Diane Hatz, founder of Change Food

as part of our FOOD AS MEDICINE series

We will discuss each panelist's work + passion projects: the very new 100% botanical, gluten-free restaurant, Le Botaniste created by Le Pain Quotidien's founder Alain Coumont, the hows & whys in founding Change Food by Diane Hatz & the Lenox Hill Hospital's rooftop garden project known as "Victory Greens", which was started by Robert Graham, MD in an effort to teach his residents how to use food to help cure their patients--and themselves.

co-presented by ABC Home & Thrive Market as part of the Food as Medicine series a conversation series to bring our greatest chefs, farmers, doctors, journalists, activists & wellness experts together to advance the sustainable food movement

each conversation is recorded live and will be released as a podcast series

doors open at 6:30pm, conversation starts at 7pm
deepak homebase, on the mezz of abc home

ALAIN COUMONT -- creator of Le Pain Quotidien & Le Botaniste
Alain is the son and grandson of grocers. As a child in Belgium, Coumont spent countless hours perched on a chair, watching his grandmother make bread. After graduating, Coumont worked in a number of highly regarded restaurants including Michel Guérard (Eugenie Les Bains, France), Georges Blanc (Vonnas, France) and Joel Robuchon (Paris, France). As a young chef in Brussels, Coumont could not find the right bread for his restaurant. Passionate about quality, he returned to his roots and opened a small bakery where he could knead flour, salt and water into the rustic loaves of his childhood. Coumont opened his bakery in rue Antoine Dansaert in Brussels in 1990, in those days an avant-garde quarter of Belgian fashion. He named his bakery “Le Pain Quotidien.” Brussels quickly took to the taste of this traditional bread. Alain evolved his offering to include simple salads and tartines, keeping bread the cornerstone of the menu. At a local flea market, Coumont found a long table where his guests could sit to eat together; it became Le Pain Quotidien’s first communal table.

Coumont currently serves as the Company’s Chief Creative Officer. In this role, he remains the driving force behind the brand’s dedication to organic ingredients. Coumont spends most of this time traveling to support the concept throughout the world. Coumont is also the co-founder of BioGhetto.com,and parteneering wıth natural wıne maker Philippe Formentin. The company produces a line of Natural organic wınes with no added sulfites. Alain Coumont share his time between New York City and his farm/organic food research and training center in the Languedoc region in the south of France

Le Botaniste is his newest project, starting with a single front at 63rd & Lexington. The food menu is similarly organic, 100% botanical, and gluten free. The offerings are chiefly “prescriptions” such as the Tibetan Mama (brown rice, steamed greens and spicy kimchi in a peanut-curry sauce) and Dirty Noodle Soup (tofu, steamed leeks, garlic).

ROBERT GRAHAM -- MD, MPH, ABOIM, FACP
Robert Graham, MD is board certified in Internal and Integrative Medicine. Dr. Graham is the co-founder of FRxESH Integrative Health and Fare Wellness, He is currently is the Director of Integrative Health & Wellness for the Northwell Health.

For over a decade, Dr. Graham has been a trailblazer in the field of Integrative Medicine. Since 2010, he created Fare Wellness, an innovative, culinary and nutrition program teaching doctors how to cook whole food plant based meals at the Natural Gourmet Institute, so that they can share the insights with their patients. In 2012, he and his wife Julie, a certified yoga instructor, launched Lenox CHill Initiative, a yoga/meditation course for healthcare workers. The following year, Dr. Graham created “Victory Greens,” an edible rooftop garden at Lenox Hill Hospital, where he offers “rooftop to bedside” meals.

Dr. Graham received his medical degree from the School of Medicine at Stony Brook University Medical Center, Stony Brook, NY and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Lenox Hospital in New York City. He received a Masters of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health while completing two fellowships in General Internal Medicine/Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies at Harvard Medical School. He completed an additional fellowship in Medical Education at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

He is a frequent speaker at conferences including TedxManhattan, where he described his attempt to incorporate his roots in integrative and traditional medicine into our modern healthcare system with an emphasis on having greater respect for food, cooking, farming, meditation and their healing properties.

DIANE HATZ -- Founder & Executive Director, Change Food
Diane Hatz is a marketing innovator who raises public awareness about food and farming while activating individuals to create change. As Founder/Executive Director of Change Food, she develops creative projects and motivates people to take actions to change the food system. She also works to find ways to help individuals and groups within the field collaborate, connect and work more effectively. She is currently organizing the Change Food Fest, a three-day event in NYC November 2016 and has just launched the Change Food Video Library.

Diane was also the founder and organizer of TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat” from 2010 - 2015. TEDxManhattan was an annual event that brought together key experts in the food and farming movement to discuss issues with the U.S. food system. TEDxManhattan has been described as an institution that has changed the food movement.

Diane also worked at the GRACE Communications Foundation for 12 years, where she founded and directed the hugely successful consumer education program Sustainable Table; was executive producer of The Meatrix movies, critically acclaimed, award-winning animated films on factory farming; and was the founder and director of the online sustainable food directory the Eat Well Guide.

She has appeared in many publications and media outlets, including The New York Times, NPR, Grist, More Magazine, Fine Cooking and Vegetarian Times. She is a prolific writer and on occasion can be found hosting or on a panel about sustainable food.

Diane has an MA in Creative Writing from Antioch University, a BS in Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Delaware, and a Minor in Philosophy. Her claim to fame is having her fanzine of 12 years, The Relay, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.