UNESCO Ambassador Mauro Colagreco Links Food Choices to Biodiversity
- Mark Smith
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 12 minutes ago
'Every Time We Eat, We Choose the World We Want to Live In'
World-renowned chef Mauro Colagreco is passionate about two things: great food and the environment.
And he doesn’t see why anyone should be forced to choose one over the other. As he puts it, it is all about “eating without eating the planet.”
Chef Colagreco has forged a reputation not only as a culinary maestro but as someone whose fierce commitment to sustainability saw him become the first chef ever to be named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity.
Beginnings
His journey started at home in Argentina. As the son of an accountant, it once seemed sensible for him to follow in his father’s footsteps—but it was cooking where his passions truly lay. He quit his economics studies and headed to the home of fine dining, Paris, to start training as a chef.
In 2006, just nine months after opening his first restaurant, Mirazur, in Menton, France, he won his first Michelin Star, the crème de le crème of culinary awards.
In 2006, just nine months after opening his first restaurant, Mirazur, in Menton, France, he won his first Michelin Star, the crème de le crème of culinary awards.
And success didn’t stop there.
The following year he was named chef of the year by iconic French restaurant guide Gault Millau, the first time they had given the honor to a non-French chef. He has since earned two more Michelin stars, the first time in over a century that three stars have been given to a non-French chef.
Changing an Industry
But for Colagreco, breaking boundaries is not just about food; it is about changing how the industry works in relation to the natural world around us.
Even as his culinary career was heading for the stratosphere, he was embedding his own personal philosophy on sustainability into how he and his employees worked.
Caring for the soil is paramount, as is preserving plant and animal biodiversity, recycling, eliminating single-use plastics, supporting the community, and working to offset carbon footprints.
Known as ”circular gastronomy,” his philosophy embodies a holistic mindset that calls for always making choices in favor of nature. In practical terms, this means consuming produce from organic sources or biodynamic foraging. Caring for the soil is paramount, as is preserving plant and animal biodiversity, recycling, eliminating single-use plastics, supporting the community, and working to offset carbon footprints.
Education is also important. “Change is now. Solutions exist,” he says.
“To motivate others, one must be totally convinced. It seems to me that to get others on board, we need to raise awareness of course—make people understand the issues, why they are so important—but we also need to reassure them, explaining that it is one step at a time, and that the only imperative is to start now and commit.”
Mirazur’s Permaculture Gardens
The chef has been running an agricultural project at Mirazur to cultivate his five-hectare (12.35 acres) permaculture and biodynamic gardens. His focus is not just on production but also soil regeneration and preservation of ancient varieties.
In this way, Mirazur is built like a Mediterranean estate, but it is also a place for research and development for food and agriculture. Colagreco has created a research and development space with a team made up of a gastronome and ethnobotanist, an anthropologist and archaeologist, chefs, a writer and an art historian.
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Chef Colagreco’s commitment to the environment has also been recognized. In 2022, he became the first chef named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity. The award, presented by Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO, makes Colagreco a representative of the institution on issues of biodiversity and ecology, responsible for “mobilizing public interest and support for UNESCO's objectives and principles.”
“We do not all start with the same level of awareness, so the educational aspect is essential,” he adds.
“I believe in encouraging good practice and promoting concrete results as soon as they emerge.”
“I believe in encouraging good practice and promoting concrete results as soon as they emerge; the subject is so vast that it is easy to be overwhelmed by what ‘should’ be done—in this case more and more and on all fronts,” he adds.
A UNESCO spokesman said the move was part of its desire to “give a voice” to those who are working to build a more sustainable world, to conserve biodiversity and use it sustainably, to reconcile humans with living things, and “whose activities help to strengthen the relationship between nature and culture.”
In March 2025, Colagreco spoke at a landmark food conference in Brighton, United Kingdom, that focused on nature, food, and community. He also visited a local school and community gardens under his UNESCO mandate.
He has also continued to set sustainability standards. Mirazur has become the first three-star Michelin restaurant in the world to achieve B Corp Accreditation, which is seen as the “gold standard” of sustainability credentials.
[B]eyond circular gastronomy, Colagreco took up another challenge dedicated to helping the environment: eliminating plastic use in his restaurants.
Finally, going beyond circular gastronomy, Colagreco took up another challenge dedicated to helping the environment: eliminating plastic use in his restaurants.
It all stemmed from a family trip to Mexico. Discovering a beach littered with rubbish and plastic, Colagreco realized that he used most of this type of rubbish every day in his home and restaurant.
When he returned home, he set about tackling the plastic problem. For almost three years, he monitored his consumption, refused unnecessary products, and thought about alternatives. He adapted the menu, for example, by eliminating vacuum-packed meals. He encouraged suppliers to change with him and stopped working with those who did not want to join the effort. He also set up a sorting system and an on-site composting system for compostable plastics.
Throughout this process, Mirazur has eliminated:
10,000 km (about 62,000 miles) of cling film per year
90% of nitrile gloves
90% of disinfectant use, thanks to water ozonation
100% of vacuum bags have been replaced with sustainable containers, mainly glass. All pastry bags are now reusable.
75% of bin liners, with the remainder now plant-based
Moreover, all cardboard and paper from the restaurant is recycled in France by a partner organization that provides a biannual report on the energy saved by the solution.
In recognition of these achievements, in 2020, Mirazur became the first restaurant in the world to be certified plastic-free.
Colagreco now has over 25 restaurants around the world, with locations such as London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Palm Beach, and Buenos Aires. All employ his philosophy of respect for the environment.
While it may not be in everyone’s ability to make such massive, lasting changes, even smaller interventions can have a big impact.
“My main message is that each small action is valuable, and that it is the sum of these small actions that will contribute significantly to the end,” he says.
“The power of circular gastronomy, which I promote so passionately, is that it is perfectly adaptable to all types of gastronomy—from the simplest to the most elaborate—and that it sets a benchmark for ethical gastronomy on a large scale. It shows that the paradigm of mass food production can be changed by changing habits.”
“There is hope!” he adds.
*Mark Smith is a journalist and author from the UK. He has written on subjects ranging from business and technology to world affairs, history, and popular culture for the Guardian, BBC, Telegraph, and magazines in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
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