BUY BOOK

March 10th | 2pm CST

At the Table | Katherine Miller

We kindly request that if you would like your book signed, it must be purchased at Barbara’s Bookstore. To ensure a smooth and efficient signing process, please present your receipt as proof of purchase.

ABOUT THE BOOK

When Katherine Miller was first asked to train chefs to be advocates, she thought the idea was ludicrous. This was a group known for short tempers and tattoos, not for saving the world. But she quickly learned that chefs and other leaders in the restaurant industry are some of the most powerful forces for change in our troubled food system. Chefs are leading hunger relief efforts, supporting local farmers, fighting food waste, confronting racism and sexism in the industry, and much more.

In At the Table, Miller shares the essential techniques she developed for the James Beard Foundation’s Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change. Readers will learn how to focus their philanthropic efforts; pinpoint their audience and develop their argument; recruit allies and support action; and maybe most importantly, grab people’s attention in a crowded media landscape.

Miller also shares the moving stories of chefs who used these skills to create lasting change. Tom Colicchio became one of the word’s most respected voices on ending hunger. Bakers Against Racism recruited more than 3,000 people to participate in their global bake sales. Chefs from around the country pushed Congress to provide financial relief to the restaurant industry at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the Table is filled with inspiration for anyone who has ever wanted to make a difference outside the four walls of their restaurant. And most importantly, it offers proven methods to become a successful advocate. You don’t have to be a celebrity chef to change the food system; you just need the will and the tools in this unique guide.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Named an industry leader and “Fixer” by Grist magazine and called one of the most innovative women in food and beverage by Fortune and Food & Wine magazines, Katherine was the founding executive director of the Chef Action Network and the vice president of impact at the James Beard Foundation. She was the first food policy fellow at American University’s Sine Institute of Policy and Politics and is a Distinguished Terker Fellow at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs.

Katherine has built a 20-year career working at the intersections of policy, politics, and social impact. She develops and manages award-winning campaigns, trains activists around the world, and helps deliver millions of supporters – and hundreds of millions in funding – to efforts focused on global health, climate change, gender bias and violence, and food system reform. She is a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) and serves on the Board of Directors of both the New Venture Fund and Re:Her DC. She is an adjunct professor at the Culinary Institute of America. She lives in Washington DC, on the land of the Anacostan and Nacotchtank people, with her husband, Lou, and their cat, Lily.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

At Honey Butter Fried Chicken, Christine Cikowski serves a menu mindful of just how comforting food can be, especially when made with high-quality ingredients sourced from local farmers. Opening the restaurant in fall 2013 served as the culmination of several elements for Cikowski: putting her and Co-Chef/Owner Josh Kulp’s ideas into a brick-and-mortar restaurant; continuing the community they built around Sunday Dinner Club, which they’d founded in 2005; and creating a business at which they’d want to work, backed by business principles that embodied valuing employees. Cikowski has also vigorously  supported other employees in their own endeavors, including starting some of their own businesses.

She grew up with parents who loved to cook, bake, and garden, and had worked in restaurants since she was 16, but didn’t follow her passion for cooking until she was 27, enrolling in Kendall College School of Culinary Arts in Chicago. (She’s a bit of a late bloomer.) At culinary school, she met Kulp, and the two of them began hatching plans for Sunday Dinner Club after reading a New York Times article on underground dining. Cikowski worked at Blackbird in Chicago for 20 months after graduating and consecutively launched Sunday Dinner Club. Her experience at the award-wining restaurant grafted onto her personal chef philosophies, from how to run businesses to cooking high-quality seasonal food and putting menus together.

Throughout the years, Cikowski, along with Kulp, garnered acclaim including a previous spot on Eater Chicago’s Essential 38 List, Jean Banchet “Chef of the Year” nominations, a Chicago Tribune Dining Award, Star Chefs Rising Star Chef, Good Food Chef of the Year award from Family Farmed. Additionally, Honey Butter Fried Chicken won both Chicago Tribune’s Reader’s Choice Award for Best Fried Chicken, and Chicago Magazine’s Reader’s Choice Award for Best Fried Chicken.

Christine has worked closely on activist and community initiatives with multiple local and national nonprofits. She and Kulp have also co-authored op-eds advocating for higher wages and the elimination of the subminimum wage in Chicago. In her spare time, she enjoys practicing yoga, off the grid hiking and camping, and spending time with her adorable rescue dog Dusty.