In a region where culinary excellence is often defined by innovation on the plate, Chef Peggy Chan has long championed a deeper measure of impact… one that begins with soil.

Chef, restaurateur, and sustainability advocate, Chef Peggy has helped reshape Asia’s food conversation, moving it beyond trends toward regeneration, reciprocity, and long-term systems change. In 2012, she founded Grassroots Pantry (GP) in Hong Kong to spotlight the benefits of whole food plant-based cuisine and raise awareness about inequities in the food system. Long before plant-based dining became mainstream, GP has been setting a new standard for conscious hospitality with its 2019 sustainability report recognized by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals ESCAP as a best practice case study.

The following year, the chef launched Grassroots Initiatives Consultancy to guide foodservice professionals toward practices that support both human and planetary health. She’s also a two-time TEDx speaker, World Economic Forum Global Shapers Hong Kong alumna, a Hong Kong Environmental Excellence Awardee, and, most recently, the inaugural Champions of Change Awardee at Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants this 2026- making her one of the region’s leading voices in regenerative food systems.

In our latest Yes, Chef exclusive, Chef Peggy talked about how her early days in hospitality and personal journey through health led her to see food as a tool for healing and systems change. She also reflects on founding Zero Foodprint Asia, why soil restoration is central to climate action, and why the future of food depends not on individual heroes but on rebuilding the systems that sustain us all.

Hi Chef Peggy! Can you share how you first got started in the industry?

I entered the food world early, working as a barista at 16 at the first Starbucks to open in Hong Kong (2000). Culinary school followed soon after, encouraged by a guidance counsellor who believed structure might help channel my teenage rebelliousness.

I only truly fell in love with cooking after graduating. In my early twenties, while navigating depression, I came to food through health rather than ambition, exploring it alongside yoga, Ayurveda, and traditional medicine systems.

The kitchen became a place of agency and care, and what began as personal healing evolved into a lifelong calling.

How did your culinary journey eventually lead you to founding and leading Zero Foodprint Asia?

Restaurants gave me a front-row view of both the power and the extractive nature of our food systems.

As a chef and restaurateur, I began to see the limits of “doing better” at the plate alone. Zero Foodprint Asia grew out of a deeper question: how can the hospitality industry actively reciprocate with the systems it depends on?

It was a shift away from simply telling people what to eat, toward collective, structural action that supports how food is grown—moving beyond chemicals and monocultures, repairing what we have already damaged, and honoring the farmers and ecosystems that sustain us.

Grassroots Pantry was one of the first plant-centric dining destinations in Hong Kong. How did your early focus on plant-based cuisine inform your later sustainability activism?

Grassroots Pantry was my way of highlighting the creativity of plant-based food beyond mock meats. Working closely with plants made it clear that taste and nutrition begin in the soil. When ingredients are grown well, very little needs to be done in the kitchen. Improving soil health by removing chemicals and going beyond organic naturally makes food more nutritious. That understanding shaped my sustainability work: rather than asking chefs or diners to make harder, and often the more expensive choices, partnering with the industry to team up with farmers is one of the fastest ways to regenerate land at scale—improving ecosystem services, increasing supply, and making good, clean food more accessible and affordable for more people.

Running a restaurant showed me both the possibilities and the constraints of change at an individual level. It made clear that chefs can be educators, but systems need collective action. Grassroots Pantry gave me the confidence, and later a personal sense of responsibility, to think beyond my own kitchen.

Zero Foodprint Asia emphasizes soil health and regenerative agriculture. How did you come to see soil restoration as a central strategy in the fight against climate change?

Soil restoration was never separate from my other climate work around food literacy and plant-based nutrition. I’ve long understood that how we grow our food directly affects its health and nutritional value, which is why I have been a long-standing supporter of organic over conventional agriculture.

However, over the past decade, it became clear that organic certification alone is not enough. Farmers have shared that while organic practices support crop growth, reliance on “quick fix” systems has gradually depleted their soils of vital life, leaving crops increasingly vulnerable to pests and diseases.

One of our key suppliers, a former doctor turned vegetable farmer in Jiangxi, often spoke about why crops grown in Hong Kong lack nutritional depth due to poor soil health. Unfortunately, the organic certification does little to support farmers to actively rebuild soil health or restore biodiversity above and below ground. Crucially, organic certification has added cost burdens for farmers and pushed prices higher for consumers.

Regenerative farming goes further by restoring biodiversity, improving soil function, and enhancing nutrition, while creating a more resilient and accessible food system. But to make regeneration possible at scale, we have to move beyond the idea that consumer choice alone will make regenerative food widely available, because after more than 60 years, only less than 2% of global arable land is certified organic. It’s a clear signal that demand-led approaches by themselves are not enough to transform agricultural systems anytime soon.

Regenerative practices also have the ability to draw down carbon, making them one of the most powerful yet underutilized climate tools available. Techniques such as cover cropping, composting, and reduced tillage actively sequester CO₂ while rebuilding soil structure. Soils rich in organic matter retain water and nutrients more effectively, strengthening crops against climate shocks, which is something we’ve witnessed repeatedly across our Restore farms in Hong Kong. Food and agriculture do not have to be part of the climate problem; they can be a central part of the solution.

Can you share an example of a project or community where regenerative farming has made a measurable impact on both ecology and farmer livelihoods?

One clear example is our work with smallholder rice farmers through the Astungkara Way project in Bali. While yields typically dip during the early transition from conventional to organic practices, participating farmers using regenerative complex rice systems were able to recover to pre-transition levels within several planting cycles, with greater yield stability over time.

By eliminating synthetic inputs and integrating regenerative techniques, including ducks for natural pest control, farmers reduced input costs by nearly 40% and labor costs by around 12%. Combined with premium rice sales and diversified income from secondary crops, this translated into a more than 30% increase in net profit.

Ecologically, soil organic carbon increased from 2.05% to 2.58% after four cycles, a significant gain in a system where even maintaining soil carbon is difficult. The fields also showed improved water quality, lower heavy metal residues, and higher biodiversity, with insect diversity scores approaching healthy benchmark levels. Beyond the data, the most meaningful change has been the growth in farmer confidence and long-term autonomy.

What have been the biggest opportunities and challenges in getting industry partners on board, particularly on the 1% pledge model that invites restaurants to contribute a portion of sales?

The strength of the 1% pledge lies in its simplicity.

It meets businesses where they are; is easy to adopt, scalable, and operationally light. It doesn’t require immediate changes to sourcing practices, although those are always encouraged, and it comes at no cost to operators, as the 1% is added directly to the bill.

The main challenge is awareness. Regenerative farming can feel distant to urban businesses and diners, and its long-term benefits require foresight. Causes with immediate, visible outcomes are often easier to support. That said, once partners understand the collective nature of the model and see that it is credible and impact-driven, many choose to stay engaged over the long term.

How do you approach education and outreach both with chefs who have not yet embraced sustainability and with consumers who may be unaware of regenerative agriculture?

With chefs, I focus on practicality and peer leadership, showing how restaurants can effortlessly redirect a small portion of revenue toward better farming, something most in the industry already values. With consumers, the approach is storytelling and accessibility. Regenerative agriculture can feel abstract, but food is universal, so we start with what people already care about.

Your work spans restaurants, consultancy, NGO leadership, and public speaking. How do you find synergy among these roles, and what keeps you motivated across such varied platforms?

They’re really all different expressions of the same question: how do we build food systems that sustain life? 

Consultancy keeps me grounded in real-world constraints, while NGO work gives me space to test ideas at a systems level. As for public speaking, it was never something I set out to do and I’m still very crowd-shy. But over time, I realized the restaurant gave me a platform to share ideas and create change, and that motivated me to work on communicating those ideas more clearly so they could reach a wider audience.

Looking back at your journey from culinary school to launching Grassroots Pantry and beyond, what are the key decisions or turning points that defined your path?

Realizing early on that corporate life wasn’t for me pushed me toward a more hands-on exploration of sustainability through hospitality. Opening a plant-centric restaurant before it was mainstream challenged the status quo, and later, closing it was an equally important decision when I knew my work needed to evolve.

Choosing to build an organization rather than a personal brand was another defining shift. Each turning point required letting go of certainty and trusting the direction of the work.

What does receiving the inaugural Champions of Change Award at Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants mean to you personally?

It’s deeply humbling. Not because it recognizes me, but because it acknowledges the farmers who care for the soil, the ecosystems, and the systems that sustain us, and because it shows that chefs can play a meaningful role in that conversation.

What message do you hope it sends to the hospitality industry?

That impact doesn’t have to sit outside excellence, and that responsibility and creativity can coexist. And that leadership today is as much about stewardship as it is about innovation.

How do you plan to use the award and its associated platform or grant to further the mission of Zero Foodprint Asia?

Visibility helps bring more partners to the table, especially in regions where regenerative agriculture is still under-resourced. The platform allows us to scale trust, not just funding.

What do you think distinguishes your approach and philosophy from others in the industry?

I’m less focused on disruption and more on repair. Less about personal recognition, more about building the collective infrastructure that makes food systems work. The world doesn’t need another hero in the kitchen. It needs systems that actually sustain people and the planet.

What structural shifts do you hope to see in food and hospitality over the next decade?

True cost accounting in food, stronger links between hospitality and agriculture, and policies that reward regeneration rather than extraction.

What’s next for you?

I’m deepening regional work in Southeast Asia, especially around farmer transition and industry education. Also, I’m continuing to build bridges, helping chefs, farmers, and communities work together so good intentions actually translate into impact.

To know more, follow Chef Peggy Chan on Instagram. You can also check out Zero Foodprint Asia’s initiatives on the website or Instagram page.

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