Copyright yahoo
A Brazilian chef has refused to plan the Earthshot Prize banquet after being asked to curate a “disrespectful” vegan menu. Saulo Jennings was invited to cater the annual environmental award, which was founded by Prince William in 2020. The awards, which the Prince will present, are this year being hosted in Rio de Janeiro on November 5. Mr Jennings had hoped to create canapes for the 700 guests using sustainable ingredients from the Amazon rainforest, for which he is acclaimed. But organisers told him the entire menu must be vegan, which he branded as a “lack of respect”. ‘It’s like asking Iron Maiden to play jazz’ He had planned to present guests with a pirarucu, a large river fish that has become a symbol of environmental recovery in the Amazon in the face of deforestation, he told the New York Times. “It’s like asking Iron Maiden to play jazz,” Jennings told the newspaper. “It was a lack of respect for our culinary traditions and for the Amazon itself.” The Earthshot Prize honours innovation in environmental protection and 15 finalists will compete for the opportunity to win £1m each in five categories. The event will be held at Rio’s futuristic Museum of Tomorrow, and meat-free food is typically offered at the awards because of its climate-friendly message. However, Prince William has had no involvement in the menu or the request for it to be vegan, it is understood. Mr Jennings later agreed to a full vegan menu, including local produce such as cassava root, jambu leaf and Brazil nut, but the price quoted was above the budget allocated for the event, sources close to the discussions said. The museum has instead opted for another supplier, while Mr Jennings will have the opportunity to cater for Prince William at the COP30 summit in Belem, Brazil, later next month. “I have nothing against vegans or British people,” Mr Jennings said. “But I don’t want to abandon my culinary mission. My work has always been about balance, about honouring what the forest and rivers give us.” He has previously cooked for the coronation ceremony of King Charles III at the British Embassy in Brazil, where he “made fish and chips, but with pirarucu.” The chef is part of community-led efforts proving that sustainability and tradition can coexist with the pirarucu fish populations recovering thanks to conservation programmes having once been endangered because of overfishing. “We eat whatever the forests give us, whatever the rivers give us. Some days it’s fish, other days it’s nuts and açaí. That’s what real sustainability looks like,” he added. “Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. I still believe in what I do – teaching people that respecting the environment doesn’t mean rejecting it.” Of the menu he will provide when he caters for world leaders at the request of Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva next month, he says: “With all due respect, there will be fish.”
