New Orleans chef Tunde Wey says restaurants don’t need bailouts

Tunde Wey, a New Orleans-based activist, artist, and chef, posted a 10-part essay on Instagram titled “Don’t Bail Out the Restaurant Industry,” in which he considered the weight of issues the industry faced before Covid-19, including its racial and economic segregation, its reliance on destructive agricultural practices, and its role in gentrification and community displacement. Last week, Helen Rosner, food editor from The New Yorker, spoke with Wey about whether, in the absence of little more than incremental steps toward change, the whole concept of restaurants should be rethought.

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