Michiel Bakker on Designing Food for Impact

Food is no longer just about calories or convenience—it’s about shaping culture, health, and sustainability through intentional design. That was a central message of Michiel Bakker’s keynote at IFT FIRST in Chicago in July, where the president of the Culinary Institute of America and former head of Google’s Food at Work program urged food system leaders to expand their definition of what it means to feed people well.

Throughout the keynote, titled “Food as Experience Design: Applications in F&B Product Development,” and in an interview prior to the presentation, Bakker argued that food is more than just a product. “For me, food is truly about the overall experience … the music, the sounds, the smells, the plate, the service, and the people you enjoy it with,” he said.

Bakker drew extensively from his 12-year tenure at Google, where he helped scale the company’s global food program from 70,000 to nearly 250,000 people served daily. The program, he said, was guided by purpose, offering nutritious, sustainable food while supporting productivity, community, and culture. One key strategy he shared was Google’s move to make all menu choices healthy and appealing, removing the burden of decision-making from busy, hungry employees. “We thought, ‘What if all the choices are great choices, so it no longer matters which one you pick?’” Bakker explained.

He also addressed the complexity of sustainability, warning against one-dimensional fixes. An early Google initiative to eliminate drinks bottled in plastic, for instance, revealed that the biggest source of single-use plastic was actually in the kitchen: cling wrap and gloves. That realization allowed his team to reset, he said. “We broadened our scope, and that’s ultimately how we started to reduce our single-use plastics, one element at a time.”

And while the demands on food companies are growing—from health to environmental impact to social responsibility—Bakker urged leaders to focus, act intentionally, and communicate clearly. Purpose and profitability are not mutually exclusive. “It has to be a both/and,” he said. Here are some of Bakker’s top recommendations for food system leaders.

• Design food as a holistic experience. Food is not just a product but an immersive, multisensory experience—from pre-arrival messaging to post-meal conversations. Every touchpoint shapes perception.
• Make healthy, sustainable choices easier by design. Food environments should be structured so that every option is a good one, removing the burden of decision-making and making better choices the default.
• Prioritize flavor, access, health, and affordability. Food must not only be delicious, affordable, and available where consumers are, it must also be healthy. These fundamentals are essential for driving positive behavior change at scale.
• Pursue sustainability with a systems mindset. Take a holistic, realistic approach to sustainability, recognizing trade-offs, measuring true impact, and focusing on what’s achievable without unintended consequences.
• Lead with intention and focus. Whether tackling nutrition, environmental impact, or social equity, organizations must clarify their values, communicate priorities, and act early to stay ahead of consumer and regulatory demands.

How can food system leaders achieve it all? Bakker said it begins with the individual, no matter their role within the food system. “We all have the responsibility and the opportunity to become more mindful of the impact of the choices we make today, no matter how small or large those choices are,” he said. “Each of us has to step up.”ft