Saru Jayaraman to Speak at Culinary Institute of America

From the Culinary Institute of America:

Restaurant industry labor activist Saru Jayaraman will be speaking at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) on Thursday, June 9. Her presentation—"Forked: A New Standard for American Dining"—is also the title of her new book, published this year by Oxford University Press. Jayaraman's lecture takes place at 2 p.m. in the Danny Kaye Theatre in the college's Conrad N. Hilton Library. The event is free and open to the public and will be followed by a Q&A session.

Jayaraman has been a guest on NBC's "Today" show, PBS's "Bill Moyers Journal," HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" and CNN, among her television appearances speaking about restaurant labor issues. During her CIA visit, she will address topics such as eliminating the tipped minimum wage, increasing the standard minimum wage, paid sick days and sexual harassment, and she will talk about restaurants that have adopted equitable labor standards for their workers.

Saru Jayaraman is co-founder and co-director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United) and director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California. She was listed among CNN's "Top 10 Visionary Women" and recognized as a Champion of Change by the White House in 2014. She also received a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award in 2015 for her research, policy work and efforts to create just workplace environments for all restaurant employees. In addition to her new book, Jayaraman is the author of "Behind the Kitchen Door" (Cornell University Press, 2013).

The lecture is being presented by the CIA's Department of Liberal Arts and its Applied Food Studies program. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.