Anand Deshpande

Anand Deshpande is a storyteller, community builder, cook, startup investor and mentor. He depends on interdisciplinary and nuanced tools, like food and tech, to help people support and understand one another in our increasingly complicated world.

In a world divided by identity politics, food remains one of the few areas where identity often is not a barrier. By enticing people with the flavors, smells and sites of delicious foods, Anand is able to help open conversations that people may otherwise hold back from. Anand is less interested in how food brings people together around a table, but rather what knowledge of politics, religion, economics, history, biology, medicine and the human experience is coded within recipes and food traditions. His core mission is to use food to create a container for empathy, encouraging the spread of compassionate conversation and healing.