Most people talk about sustainability from a conference stage. Chef Matthew Beaudin talks about it from a trash beach in Ghana where someone just threatened to stab him.

Matthew is a VP of Culinary for Higher Education, and he's spent the last decade logging 250 to 280 days a year on the road — Vietnam, Ghana, the Mekong Delta, a barbecue joint in Texas where he got the last two sandwiches because he happened to be wearing his chef coat. He didn't set out to become a food journalist or a culinary advocate. He set out to see it for himself. And somewhere between going blind in a hotel room in Vietnam, coughing up blood, and making a connecting flight through South Korea while running a full-body infection — he decided that's exactly where he belongs.

This conversation goes everywhere. We talk about why he went all-in on higher ed dining, what a room full of CIA chef students taught him about Gen Z, and why sustainability isn't expensive — your restaurant is just greedy. We also get into the Cocoa Research Institute in Ghana, the first one ever built, and what it means that a group of scientists are racing to preserve the integrity of cocoa before we engineer it into something unrecognizable — the same way we did with corn and tomatoes.

Two small-town kids who had the same itch to get out. This one goes deep.

Socials

Matthew Beaudin Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-beaudin-83424b14/

Time Stamps

0:00 — Intro: Why Matthew Beaudin's Work Hits Different

0:47 — Two Small Town Kids: Kansas, IL and Lincoln, NH

2:52 — VP Culinary Higher Ed — Why Now

7:10 — The CIA Speech He Thought Was Bombing (It Wasn't)

10:05 — Why Gen Z Actually Wants to Make a Difference

13:35 — How to Inject Real Change Through Contract Management

16:53 — Surge, Red Dye #40, and What We Actually Ate Growing Up

18:47 — The Last Brisket Sandwich in Texas

19:35 — LinkedIn and the Art of Sharing Real Moments

22:42 — AI Saturation and Betting on Being Real

24:31 — The Mekong Delta Boat That Almost Capsized

26:43 — Going Blind and Coughing Blood in a Vietnam Hotel at 3AM

28:12 — The Trash Beach in Ghana and Nearly Getting Stabbed

32:08 — Why He Uses His Platform for Voices That Can't Get Out

32:42 — "There's Something Broken in Me"

37:29 — Inside Ghana's Cocoa Research Institute with Cho Chocolate

42:09 — Sustainability Isn't Expensive — Your Restaurant Is Just Greedy

43:10 — Jeff's University Beef Program: What Actually Worked

45:32 — How Do You Actually Tell the Story to Diners?

48:15 — Fear of Doing Nothing

50:42 — What Matthew Eats When No One's Watching

52:40 — Advice for the Next Generation: Believe in the Power of One

54:19 — Where to Find Chef Matthew Beaudin

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