“Cooking for Change” - A Young Chef Reimagines Tradition Through Zero-Waste and Plant-Forward Cuisine

On any given afternoon, sunlight slips through the kitchen windows of 25-year-old Chef Alani Peters, warming the counters stacked with jars of pickling brine, bundles of freshly washed dasheen leaves, and bowls of vegetable peels sorted with quiet intention.

At first glance, the space looks familiar: pots, knives, spices, and the calm choreography of someone in their element. But look closer, and you’ll notice something different.

Here, nothing is discarded without thought. Nothing is carelessly trimmed away. In Alani’s kitchen, every part of a plant, fruit, or root has a future.

This is where tradition meets innovation — a culinary philosophy she calls “Cooking for Change.”

Rooted in Memory

Alani grew up in a home where resourcefulness was a way of life. Her grandmother, a revered home cook, never threw scraps out.

Plantain peels were boiled and fed to chickens. Coconut water was saved for breadmaking. Leftover herbs were dried in brown paper on windowsills. At the time, there were no labels like zero-waste or sustainable cooking. It was simply what made sense.

“Nothing was wasted because everything held meaning,” Alani recalls. “My grandmother didn’t explain sustainability — she lived it.”

That early lesson has become the foundation of her work.

The New Taste of Tradition

Alani’s cooking is deeply influenced by the flavors she grew up around: smoky, herb-rich stews, ground provisions softened in coconut milk, flame-kissed fish seasoned with backyard thyme and chives.

What sets her apart is how she reinterprets these familiar flavors through a plant-forward and imaginative lens.

One of her signature dishes is a modern take on callaloo, made without salted meat. Instead, she slow-roasts breadfruit slices, brushing them lightly with smoked sea salt and bay leaf oil.

The result is rich and savory, honoring the essence of the original dish while lightening its environmental footprint.

She laughs at the suggestion that plant-based cooking must be restrictive. “To cook plant-forward is to widen your imagination,” she says. “It’s not about less — it’s about more flavor, more creativity, more respect for the ingredient.”

The Zero-Waste Mindset

Where many kitchens generate buckets of waste, Alani’s produces almost none.

Carrot tops become chimichurri.

Spinach stems are blended into bright sauces.

Fruit rinds are simmered into syrups.

Bones, if used, are boiled until all flavor is released and the remainder becomes compost.

“If an ingredient came from the earth, I owe it care,” she says simply.

Her menus often begin not with what she wants to cook, but with what local markets have in abundance, especially produce that would otherwise be ignored or discarded for not being “perfect.”

She works closely with farmers, backyard growers, and fisherfolk, ensuring that every dish is connected to the hands that nurtured it.

A Slow and Thoughtful Revolution

Alani hosts intimate pop-up dinners and collaborative tasting events that feel less like restaurant service and more like storytelling.

Guests leave with full stomachs, yes, but also with a new understanding of sustainability as something warm, creative, and culturally rooted.

The change she represents is subtle, but powerful:

that sustainability isn’t a trend to adopt. It’s a homecoming to practices our grandparents knew well.

“Cooking for Change,” she says, “means honoring where we come from while shaping where we’re going.”

As she continues to build her culinary voice, one thing is clear: Alani isn’t just creating dishes, she’s redefining what it means to cook with care.