Season 2 • Episode 2
Bun Lai: Purpose Within Food

Bun talks about his parents – and grandparents – who defied expectations and followed their own paths and how their journeys informed his own exploration. Bun has always been an artist but was drawn to cooking in order to support his mother. Purpose driven from a young age, Bun’s journey as a chef started out of love for his mother, yet evolved and thrived as he took on the role as head chef at Miya’s – the first sustainable sushi restaurant in the world. There he melded artistry and love and, through his storytelling, changed the way we eat and experience food.
We discuss all the changes in Bun’s life since he closed his wildly successful restaurant – done because he was no longer living the kind of healthy life he was teaching others to do. With humility and humour, Bun talks about the small steps he’s taken to make great change in his life and how questioning what he believed to be true has brought him greater clarity. We all have the power to make a difference – it’s enough to exist and do good things in the smallest of ways because the ripple effect will create impacts you can’t imagine.