Bun Lai Receives White House Honor

10/9/2016

Jodi Amatulli

Bun Lai, Hamden Hall Class of 1988, was honored Oct. 7 at the White House as one of 12 individuals from across the country as “White House Champions of Change for Sustainable Seafood.”

The Champions of Change program was created as an opportunity for the White House to feature individuals doing extraordinary things to empower and inspire members of their communities.

Friday's program featured remarks by Managing Director of the Council on Environmental Quality Christy Goldfuss, Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Dr. Kathryn D. Sullivan, and Deputy Secretary of the Department of Commerce Bruce H. Andrews.
To learn more about the 2016 White House Champions of Change award visit: https://www.whitehouse.gov/champions

Bun is the owner and chef of Miya’s Sushi in New Haven, Conn., the world’s first sustainable sushi restaurant. The 33-year-old family restaurant was founded by his mother, Yoshiko, and specializes in nutrition and affordability focused sushi recipes that utilize sustainable seafood, invasive species, and plant-based ingredients. Miya’s also offers the world’s only invasive species menu, featuring dishes made of foraged ingredients that are threatening to the region’s indigenous species.
Bun is a James Beard Foundation nominated chef, and a healthy-eating educator who has been the director of nutrition for New Haven Farms, a not-for-profit that serves low income pre-diabetics. He is a board member of ActualFood, a Research & Development Laboratory reinventing grocery retail to make food as preventative medicine accessible for all. He sits on the council of True Health Initiative, a worldwide coalition of health experts committed to proven principles of lifestyle as medicine. He has written for publications such as Scientific American Magazine and collaborates extensively with Yale University. He has spoken at a wide range of institutions from Google, Harvard School of Public Health, and World Wildlife Fund, to the American Fisheries Society.
Bun is an avid diver and fisherman who supplies his own restaurant with local, sustainable seafood from his own hundred acres of shell-fishing grounds off of the Thimble Islands in Connecticut. He is also the owner of two fishing boats that serve as laboratories for sustainable seafood production.

Central to the Miya’s menu are culturally and commercially unpopular types of seafood that are abundantly locally available such as silver sides, sea robins, and wild seaweeds.

Bun is the recipient of the prestigious 2011 Seafood Ambassador Award from Monterey Bay Aquarium for his leadership in the Sustainable Seafood movement. He is a Seafood Watch Ambassador and previously worked as a Director of Cooking and Nutrition for an NGO working with low-income pre-diabetics.

After the awards ceremony at the White House, Miya’s orchestrated the entirety of the White House Champions of Change dinner. Bun hosted White House staff, other Champions of Change recipients, and the media.

“It was a private 300-person sustainable sushi dinner where I took the diners on a journey through time with my recipes and illuminating ideas and issues ranging from environmental sustainability and food justice to history, religion, and world peace,” Bun said.
To learn more about Bun, check out the October 2016 issue of Popular Mechanics Magazine where Bun goes hunting and diving for wild foods with an award-wining blind writer named Ryan Knighton.
Also, just out this month is Vice Munchies mini-documentary on Bun’s work at Miya’s featuring Momma Lai, Bun Lai, Mie Lai, Ted Lai, and Dylan Bruno.

Click here to learn more about the documentary.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bun+lai+munchies

Bun is all over social media and shares the following sites for folks interested in his sustainability efforts.

Miya’s website: http://miyassushi.com
Bun Lai blog: http://bunlai.tumblr.com
Bun Lai/Miya’s Twitter: @miyassushi
Instagram: bun_lai_miyas, miyas_sushi, miela.miyas_sushi
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MiyasSushi/

Bun is honored to be recognized as a Champion of Change. According to the White House Office of the Press Secretary, the United States fishing industry is critical to the economic health and wellbeing of communities across the country, supporting 1.7 million jobs and contributing nearly $200 billion to the economy in 2014. However, our country’s marine ecosystems are under threat from multiple stressors, including climate change and ocean acidification. The need for innovation in sustainable fisheries has never been greater. Local leaders serve as the backbone of our communities, working to build resilient coasts and striving to protect the at-risk towns whose future depend on the recovery of our fisheries. The administration applauds the hard work, collaboration and sacrifice by many across the country to become responsible stewards and safeguard our seafood security. These Champions of Change are ensuring the United States is a global leader in sustainable seafood management.

2016 WHITE HOUSE CHAMPIONS OF CHANGE OF SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD
MIYA’S SUSTAINABLE SUSHI DINNER AND STORY TIME

Miya's, founded in Connecticut by Yoshiko Lai in 1983, is the first sustainable sushi restaurant in the world, specializing in nutrition and food access, sustainable seafood, plant-based sushi, and the utilization of edible invasive species.

“Our cuisine at Miya's is indebted to my mother who came from Japan, to my father who came from Hong Kong, and to our lives together with my siblings in the tasty human hodge podge of New Haven, America. I’m lucky to have grown up with people with so many different family histories because exposure to human diversity has taught me the importance of changing one’s perspective so that we can understand and connect with one another. Just as importantly, this cuisine is constantly being molded by every who moves me, mentors me, educates me, and inspires me. This menu is my love letter to humanity and to every weird and wonderful thing that eats and breathes under the sun.” Bun, Cook, Miya’s.

BLESSED BARACK OF RIBS
Applewood smoked invasive Asian carp ribs - compliments of Fin Gourmet Foods.

Ronny Hopkin’s family have been fishing throughout the rivers of Kentucky for over a century. Today, Ronny and his family fish for Asian carp since the proliferation of this invasive fish has destroyed native fish stocks and threatened their livelihoods. Not only is this carp healthy and delicious, but eating it also creates desperately needed demand helping restore biodiversity to the rivers.

"Over 75% of Fin Gourmet Foods employees are individuals recovering from addiction and needing a second chance to restart their lives. Carp is also an economic opportunity for people needing second chances.”

Dr. Lan Chi (Lula) Luu
Co-owner & Co-founder, Fin Gourmet Foods

Barack is a Swahili name meaning “blessed” with Arabic and Hebrew origins. Blessed

Barack of RIbs are blessed by all of us who could use a another chance.

THIMBLEWEED SALAD
Roasted sesame seasoned local kelp noodles. Kelp compliments of Bren Smith.

Bren Smith’s Thimble Island Ocean Farm is used to train new regenerative ocean farmers through his not-for-profit, Green Wave, in his 3D ocean farming model. The seaweed they grow requires no freshwater, no fertilizer, and no arid land, making it the most sustainable crop in the world. It is often called the "sequoia of the sea," as it sequesters more than 5 times the carbon of land based plants. Bren Smith is the recipient of the 2015 Buckminster Fuller Award for ecological design.

TEMPURA WEED CHEE
The tender leaves of the Japanese knotweed plant are kimchee-pickled then fried in whole wheat batter.

Japanese knotweed is one of the most destructive invasive species in the world but is exponentially more nutritious than most cultivated plants. If agricultural weeds and pests (many of which are more resilient to climate change than cultivated species) were to become a part of our diets than farmers would be able to use fewer pesticides on their crops and the consumer would have a new, exciting and nourishing source of food.

MIYA’S FUTURE SUSHI
In the year 2150, people will be eating in a way that is healthier not only for their bodies but also for our whole planet. People will be eating fewer animals, since they will have learned that a plant-based diet is the healthiest way to eat; they will hunt and farm animals in a way that is more humane. Through the Future Sushi Especial, you will experience a kinder and more caring future, where one of the most popular cuisines that exists ― sushi ― has evolved to become a way of eating that honors and celebrates all life on Earth.

PLANT-BASED SUSHI
This is the first plant-based sushi menu in the world. It was conceived of at Miya’s in 1995 with the invention of the now ubiquitous sweet potato roll to take pressure off of the oceans and to reduce the need for large-scale animal farming. Plant-based diets are the healthiest way for people to eat and are far less destructive for the planet than livestock-based diets.

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”
― Albert Einstein

"Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.”
― Albert Schweitzer

DREAMCATCHER ONIGIRI
Step back in time, with one bite- the onigiri is the way sushi was made thousands of years ago, using wild and abundant ingredients from close by and molded by hand into easy-to-eat rice balls.

Mugwort, introduced to the new world by the European colonists is a medicinal herb believed by indigenous peoples worldwide to inspire dreams and visions and contains exponentially more nutrients and phytochemicals than any cultivated plant.

SALAM SUSHI
السلام عليكم As-salāmu ʿalaykum

Roasted eggplant, avocado, and smoked jalapeño vegan cashew cheese, and za’atar (Arabic زعتر , Hebrew זעתר, Armenian զահթար) herb medley that dates back to biblical

times - the Old Testament’s hyssop that King David mentioned as part of a spiritual cleansing ritual is thought by many scholars to have been za’atar.

As-salāmu alaykumā translates to “peace be upon you” in Arabic. SUSHI SALAM was created in the hope that one day we will live in a world without violence and retribution.

THE ROLL OF MILK AND HONEY
Figs, dates, raisins, *goat cheese, roasted barley, cinnamon, spicy red pepper, honey, pistachio, extra virgin olive oil, and manna/broccoli

Many rabbis throughout history have advocated vegetarianism, citing health, environmental reasons, and the Torah’s many commandments on the humane treatment of animals. This roll utilizes the Seven Species of the Hebrew scriptures. Created with Chef Micah Fredman, Yale College 2010, in honor of retired Yale Jewish Chaplain Rabbi James Ponet.

*Vermont Creamery, founded by Allison Hooper and Bob Reese, has won over 100 national and international awards. They produce a line of fresh and aged goat cheeses, cultured butter, and crème fraîche. In their 32nd year of business, Vermont Creamery supports a network of more than 20 family farms, promoting sustainable agriculture in the region.

SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD SUSHI
"Eating fish is one of the most personal ways we experience the ocean. So making a conscious decision about what you do or do not take from the ocean is perhaps the most direct way to influence it’s health."
Tim Fitzgerald, Director of Impact, Fishery Solutions Center, Environmental Defense Fund

KIRIBATI SASHIIMI

Lionfish sashimi, mineral-rich Kiribati sea salt, and a dozen profoundly mouth-numbing spices

The island nation of Kiribati is located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. It is one of the world’s poorest countries with few natural resources. At only 8 to 12 feet above sea level, Kiribati may become the first nation to be completely engulfed by the ocean due to climate change.

KANIBABA
Potato skin stuffed with invasive blue catfish topped with toasted cow’s milk cheese, a lemon dill sauce, and Asian shore crab (gathered on our certified shellfishing grounds in Branford, Conn.).

By collecting invasive seafood on shellfishing beds, we are basically providing an ecologically healthy, pesticide-free way of ridding farms of crop-destroying pests.

We hope that this will accomplish a few things. First of all, it could potentially curb the dominance of invasive species in the ecosystem. Secondly, it would provide the seafood industry a greater supply of native seafood and reduce stress on those overfished populations. Finally, we hope that it will encourage greater balance in the inter- regenerative relationship between man and the oceans.

Created with Dr. Yancey Orr, Yale College 2001, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Queensland.

BONE THUGS-N-BROCCOLI
Wild Alaskan sockeye salmon bones and broccoli stems.

Almost half the food produced in the world goes to waste; a fact that is a tragedy in a world where there are over a billion people who are hungry. This recipe was created to illuminate the problem of waste by utilizing salmon bones and broccoli stems, which are commonly discarded food items.

The usually impossible to eat salmon bones and the inaccessible flesh attached to it are high in vital nutrients such as protein, omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, and magnesium. After being pressure-cooked, the bones become soft enough to eat. Later, we low- temperature bake them to make them crispy like bacon.

CATFISH BLUES
Chesapeake Bay invasive blue catfish, okra, apricots, and black eye peas.

Thousands of years ago, sushi wasn’t the ocean-based international cuisine that it is today. It was a fresh water-centered way of food preparation that included species such as catfish. The biggest catfish in the world is the 600-pound Mekong River Catfish. In this recipe, in lieu of this giant, ecologically destructive but healthy-to-eat invasive catfish is used.

This recipe, which incorporates ingredients that are native to Africa, is inspired by the African origins all people, and a reminder that, despite our differences, we are all family.

SEA TO TABLE
Chesapeake Bay invasive blue catfish, Florida invasive lionfish, and Alaskan wild coho salmon are compliments of Sea2Table. Owned and operated by the Dimin family, Sea to Table partners with independent fishermen and commercial docks in 50+ traditional American fishing communities from Alaska to Maine, creating better markets for their catch.

The greatest good gets done when we all work together at it. The following are just a few of the many organizations/movements that you can join that can help you make a greater difference!

MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM SEAFOOD WATCH is the leading source for science- based recommendations that help you choose seafood that is fished or farmed in a way the reduce impact on the environment.

FISH CHOICE helps businesses source and sell sustainable seafood.

CHEF'S COLLABORATIVE is a network of chefs and restaurant people who work to transform and improve the world through food.

THE CHEF ACTION NETWORK is an organization of chef and restaurant people advocates who donate their time to help drive change in critical issues.

WORLD WILD LIFE FUND works with people to change the trajectory of threats to nature, and to help ensure nature's ability to provide.

EATTHEINVADERS.ORG Professor Joe Roman helps you fight invasive species, one bite at a time.

Special thanks to our sponsors/heroic change-makers at Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, Sea to Table, and Fin Gourmet Foods for making the White House Champions of Change Miya’s Sustainable Sushi Dinner and Story Time possible.

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Bun Lai Receives White House Honor

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