I'm Jonathan Kapart and welcome to Kapart. On November 8th, Washington Post Live hosted a panel of conversations in its ongoing series This is Climate, How We Live.

I kicked things off with Rob Rubin, winner of the

2023 James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef, and a discussion of why

sustainability is the driving force behind his plant-based Michelin-starred restaurant Oyster

Oyster here in Washington.

So I made an admission to you that backstage that I'm very provincial. I rarely leave

Northwest when it comes to to my culinary habits.

So I'd never heard of Oyster

and your reaction was rather surprising.

You're like, that's great.

I'm so happy to hear that. Why? Explain why. Yeah, we've won a lot of accolades. We've got a lot of recognition, but they still hear that there's individuals out there that haven't been to the

restaurant or have any idea what it is. It gives us an opportunity for new

guests to come in and experience what we do and open the doors to sustainability

for them. So what was the catalyst for opening your restaurant?

Because you've worked for several Michelin-starred restaurants in New York and Chicago, Las

Vegas, Philadelphia, so why open your own restaurant? You have control to make the

the change you want and you want to see. I worked in a lot of those restaurants

for years and the status quo was what it was to be a

Michelin Star restaurant to be a restaurant of excellence and through some time

of researching and looking at things I realized those restaurants were far from

sustainable that was something I was very close to me and I wanted to to implement and

it's hard to do that with other people pulling the strings. And so then talk more

...