In a city where fine dining often chases Michelin stars and skyline views, Peggy Chan has spent two decades tilling quieter soil. Now, as the inaugural winner of the Champions of Change Award announced ahead of Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2026, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, she's earned the region's loudest applause for work that whispers: regeneration over renown.
Chan, executive director of Zero Foodprint Asia, has mobilised restaurants and hotels across Hong Kong, Bali, Thailand, Nepal, and the Philippines to pledge 1% of sales toward regenerative farming grants. Launched in 2021, her Asia chapter has channelled over HKD 5.7 million into 26 projects, think 87-hectare rice paddies in Bali supporting 220 farmers, or Wawee Valley in Thailand scaling beyond organic toward climate-resilient soils. "Change in food systems doesn't happen overnight or alone, it's built patiently, through collective commitment," Chan says.
Her trail began in 2012 with Grassroots Pantry, Hong Kong's first carbon-neutral restaurant (achieved in 2018 via Zero Foodprint's lifecycle assessment, a UN-recognised best practice). Followed Nectar, vegetarian fine dining that redefined plant-based elegance, and her consultancy, Grassroots Initiatives, guiding F&B businesses from ambition to action. Crowdfunding her 2020 cookbook Provenance amplified the call, while TEDx talks and a Hong Kong Environmental Excellence Award cemented her as Asia's sustainability conscience.
Zero Foodprint Asia closes the loop: chefs fund fossil-fuel-free farming (ditching chemical fertilisers for nutrient-dense, tastier crops), eat better ingredients, and combat climate edge-to-edge. It's funded projects removing thousands of tonnes of carbon, proving scalability from Hong Kong kitchens to Southeast Asian fields.
Peggy Chan is a true champion of sustainable farming for hospitality.
The festivities of the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2026, unfold on 25 March at Kerry Hotel Hong Kong with #50BestTalks on gastronomy's future, Signature Sessions blending visiting chefs with local talents, a Chefs' Feast of city-sourced bounty and media roundtables, culminating in the full list reveal. In Hong Kong's frenzy of fusion and flash, Peggy Chan proves the future grows from the ground up. Her win isn't endpoint; it's invitation. Soil first. Then, everyone eats better.
