El Nino forces chefs to rethink menus as extreme weather disrupts food supplies

A record-breaking El Nino could force some of the world's top chefs to rethink their menus as droughts, floods and heatwaves disrupt food systems, affecting the availability, quality and prices of ingredients.

At the Apapaxoa gastronomic festival on Mexico's Caribbean coast, culinary stars shared how changing weather patterns are already reshaping their kitchens. Brazilian chef Alex Atala said ants, traditionally used at his Sao Paulo restaurant D.O.M., are now available only to customers who specifically request them. In Denmark, chef Rasmus Munk is experimenting with cocoa-free chocolate, while Japanese chefs are working with warm-water fish as ocean migration routes shift.

United Nations experts have predicted an exceptionally strong cycle of El Nino, a climate phenomenon that alters global winds and rainfall and can trigger erratic weather conditions.


For chefs, adapting to unpredictable supplies is increasingly becoming part of running a restaurant.

"In the last three years, I've been creating an annual menu that I end up adjusting many times, almost weekly, because certain products aren't available," Atala told AFP.

He said El Nino can also disrupt transportation, with flooded roads and wildfires delaying fresh produce and affecting its quality by the time it reaches restaurants.

Climate change threatens culinary traditions

Atala said the disruption goes beyond ingredients, warning of a potential "cultural loss" as traditional foods become harder to source.

Spanish chef Quique Dacosta said extreme weather had already devastated parts of the Mediterranean. His restaurant in Denia, near Valencia, was affected by the consequences of torrential rains in 2024, which killed almost 250 people and damaged vineyards, orange groves and areas producing Albufera rice, a key paella ingredient.

An event of such intensity "directly attacks the raw materials that are the natural foundation on which we build our cuisine," Dacosta told AFP.

Extreme weather is also hurting restaurant footfall, he said, with customers cancelling reservations during stormy periods.

In Mexico's Yucatan region, chef Roberto Solis said the absence of hurricanes this year was also affecting seafood. Hurricanes influence moisture, ocean currents and plankton, changes that can have a knock-on effect on seafood used at his restaurant Huniik.

Chefs turn to alternatives

Danish chef Rasmus Munk said the pressure on the chocolate market had prompted his Copenhagen restaurant Alchemist to explore alternatives.

"The non-chocolate we're making now, we make it from BSG, which is the brewer's spent grains," he said, referring to the fibrous residue left after beer production.

In Japan, chefs are also adjusting to changes in seafood availability as El Nino alters ocean migration routes.

"In Japan it's not a problem, there's always product available," said Yusuke Takada, chef at Osaka's La Cime. But the species available are changing.

Other chefs said water scarcity was becoming an increasingly serious concern. At Bogota-based El Chato, Colombian chef Alvaro Clavijo said supplies of ingredients such as cacao pulp and Andean tubers were already running low.

His biggest concern, however, is water.

"Two years ago rationing already started to be felt, and that in a restaurant is super complicated," he said.

French-born chef Dominique Crenn, whose San Francisco restaurant Atelier Crenn uses its menu to highlight climate concerns, summed up the challenge facing the culinary industry: El Nino "is changing everything".

(With AFP inputs)