Les Dames d’Escoffier International (LDEI), an international non-profit organization of women leaders who work together to achieve excellence in the fields of food, beverage, and hospitality, is pleased to announce the winner of the 2023 Women of Purpose Award presented in partnership with YETI®. The organization bestows the Women of Purpose Award to a member of LDEI who has made a positive impact in a local or global community, incorporating the important and complex realms of global sustainability, food justice and public health.
Nina Mukerjee Furstenau of Columbia, Missouri is Les Dames d’Escoffier International’s 2023 Woman of Purpose. Nina is a journalist, author, and editor of the Foodstory book series for the University of Iowa Press. A Fulbright Global Scholar 2018-19, she is the author of Biting Through the Skin: An Indian Kitchen in America’s Heartland, which won the MFK Fisher Book Award. Other works include: Mozambique, a low-literacy cookbook for small holder female farmers in rural Mozambique aimed at alleviating childhood stunting due to poor nutrition. Nina teaches and speaks about food and identity, food history, food journalism, and how cultures entwine over food. She is a former Peace Corps volunteer in Tunisia, and past director of food systems communication at the University of Missouri Science and Agricultural Journalism program. Nina is a member of the St. Louis Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier.
The Woman of Purpose Award is given biannually, and the women are nominated by and voted on by members of Les Dames d’Escoffier. This year there were 18 outstanding women who have made important contributions in the areas of food justice, sustainability, and public health and were nominated for this award. The complete list of nominees can be found at https://ldei.org/awards/woman-of-purpose.