The Evolved Network’s Ingredients for Impact

Sebastian White, the chef and executive director of The Evolved Network (TEN), spends his days bouncing between classrooms all over the city. His mission? To provide a culinary education to students ranging in age from elementary to high school. Using a curriculum he’s developed and honed over the last four years, White challenges his students to realize their potential with culinary skills education.

White founded TEN in 2020 following the loss of his father and his aunt, two influential people in his life. In blending their passions, White found a niche that allows him to serve students through an accessible and familiar medium: food. “This morning at Ray Elementary in Hyde Park, about 30 kids and I made cauliflower tacos with arugula, salsa verde, and avocado crema. Cauliflower — it’s simple, but they think it’s complex. And I’m showing them how simple things can taste good and be unexpected,” said White.

White, previously a clinical psychologist working with at-risk youth, applies The Evolved Network model and uses food as a way to break through in spaces where therapy might be a harder sell.

TEN’s programming covers a range of concepts and curriculums, but White tries to keep it as flexible as possible to meet the students where they are. At a debrief in a classroom at the Chicago Jesuit Academy in Austin, for example, he noticed that some students were continuously talking over a peer. Instead of admonishing the students, White took note and then applied the goal of fixing disconnect to the next lesson.

“We didn’t cook. We did a teamwork activity: they built a recipe together. It’s going to be hard, they’re going to have to work together, and it won’t go well the first time,” laughs White. “We’re going to do it again and again. It isn’t about the food — it’s about working and being with people and appreciating their ideas and being open to what they have to say. This is what I’m trying to bring to the space—pushing them until they can treat each other with respect and dignity.”

White creates opportunities and possibilities for kids in his classes to connect with the food rather than going out of his way to force certain conversations about difficult topics. “I love the indirect nature of what we’re doing, because what shows up makes them want to ask questions, and that’s when the learning happens,” White said.

White says one exercise known as the Eight Ingredient Showdown illustrates his mission perfectly. In this exercise, students are given eight ingredients to put together in a dish. “The first thing they always ask is: what can I add? I always say they’re missing the beauty of what they have,” said White. “As people, we’re always looking to add stuff versus seeing what gifts we have. How can I focus on what those gifts are, figuring out how to harmonize them in a way that creates a beautiful dish? These are the types of analogies that come up and are part of what we’re trying to do. What I think is so beautiful about them is that they’re not just analogies. You get to live in them.”

Though his work is centered in Chicago for the moment, White has ambitions to grow the program, first to other Midwestern cities and then cities around the U.S. “First, I want to make sure that we are sustainable here. But I am already thinking about creating chapters of this model across the country,” says White. In the meantime, White has dedicated time and energy to ensuring he gets to work with the majority of students in the program multiple times a year. Frequent engagement and building relationships with students are both vitally important to White, who instructs most of TEN’s classes.

“I think we have found this very interesting, niche space that hasn’t been tapped into. I truly believe that the spaces I create are therapeutic,” said White. “I feel so lucky and appreciate how people backed me, but this is about The Evolved Network, not me. It’s a way of being with people. If people live into this and what we’re trying to do, I think the world will be a much, much better place for all of us.”

Want to Support TEN’s Mission? You can empower students across Chicago by donating directly to The Evolved Network, attending an upcoming fundraising event, or sharing TEN’s story with others passionate about youth education.