Ben Roche

Artist, Brainstormer, Consultant, Designer, Foodie, Idea generator, Musician, Potential employer

I am a chef, a pastry chef to be exact. I work in a restaurant called Moto in Chicago, IL. We specialize in the...unusual. Every dish we create and serve is it's own idea, it's own concept. Everything must be over the top and innovative. When we started Moto in 2004, the idea was to really bring together 5 main things that were important to us as young chefs. Those things were: technology, creativity, innovation, fun and design. The goal: to build an entire "dining experience" around those things. 8 years later, we are still at it, everything has become more refined, we have a more clear vision, we are more focused and more set on using what we know with food, or with how people eat, to "change the system" and teach people to look at and think about food in different ways. Personally, I was born in Maryland (June, 1982), I've lived mostly throughout the Southern East Coast of the U.S. until moving to Providence, R.I. to attend cooking school. Worked in England for 6 months as part of school. Attended the first "world pastry forum" in Las Vegas where I first met Albert Adria, my biggest influence in cooking. Moved to Houston, TX for a job that didn't work out...moved to Chicago(2003) to begin working at Charlie Trotter's. I was fired after almost a year and a half due to an incident between myself and the chef. I may have "laughed" at him. At this point, that's neither here nor there, just an interesting side not. I began work at Moto restaurant (June, 2004) and have been there since. In that time, we have accomplished a lot for a small restaurant. What's next? Everything.

food, cooking, innovation...texturalizing, detexturalizing, retexturalizing...sharing new discoveries with as many as possible, music, rocking out, playing with puppies, bizarre humor, angst

What is food, what are ingredients? If a plant is not poisonous, does that mean we should not eat it? Does it not taste good? Don't we know how to cook and season things? I think our (humanity's) encyclopedia of what is considered food will be rapidly changing and expanding in the very near future...

Cooking and Baking, Creative Alchemy, Drumming & Percussion, Flavor

I spoke at the TED conference in Long Beach last year with Homaro Cantu. We discussed our restaurant, Moto, in Chicago as well as the properties of the Mircale Berry and how we think it can be used as a tool for massive change in the food production, agricultural and cultural worlds. This year, as a part of TED active, I will be taking a group of 15 out into the desert, cooking 2 dishes based on indigenous desert plants and serving them at the Integratron. Later that day (Monday) I will be serving up a similarly desert-inspired cocktail at the Riviera pool during the welcoming reception. Miracle berries will be in the house! It will be tremendous fun. You have been warned...

playing drums. I have played since I was 10. I took a hiatus for about 8 years, to work, gain experience and change the way people think about food. I am now in a band and playing again...it rocks.