A record-breaking El Nino is forcing the world’s top chefs to rethink their menus ahead of droughts, floods and heatwaves upending global food systems. Ants are disappearing from the table in Brazil, one Danish chef is opting for cocoa-free chocolate and Japan is serving up warm-water fish, culinary stars disclosed at the Apapaxoa gastronomic festival on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.United Nations experts have predicted an exceptionally strong cycle of the El Nino climate phenomenon, which causes global changes in winds and rainfall as well as erratic weather conditions.The cream of the culinary crop, looking ahead to unpredictable ingredient availability, quality and prices, are rearranging their shelves accordingly. But for these acclaimed chefs, extreme weather events and their habit of turning the kitchen upside down are nothing new.“In the last three years, I’ve been creating an annual menu that I end up adjusting many times, almost weekly, because certain products aren’t available,” Brazilian chef Alex Atala said.“Ants, for example, this year are only available for customers who specifically ask to try them,” said Atala, whose Sao Paulo restaurant D.O.M. plucks ingredients from the Amazonian wilderness to reinterpret Indigenous traditions. El Nino can also massively disrupt transportation, said Atala. Flooded roads or wildfires “delay a product that should be fresh, and by the time it arrives, it’s no longer in good condition,” he said.The climate crisis has wreaked havoc on the Mediterranean, says Spain’s Quique Dacosta, whose restaurant in the port city of Denia sits near Valencia, which was pummelled by torrential rain in 2024.Almost 250 people died, while vineyards, orange groves and plots used to grow Albufera rice, an essential paella ingredient, were decimated.While El Nino ramps up weather conditions in some parts, it produces a vacuum in others. “This is the first year without hurricanes” in the Mexican Caribbean, said chef Roberto Solis. While Hurricane Polo hurtles around the Pacific, there isn’t a trace of the usual cyclones off Mexico’s opposite coast, near Solis’s native Yucatan. “Hurricanes carry moisture and move ocean currents and plankton,” he said, noting the consequences for seafood dishes at his restaurant Huniik, where he reimagines Mayan specialities.Danish chef Rasmus Munk has a reputation for inventiveness and is calling on his peers to think about future food resilience. His Copenhagen restaurant Alchemist is experimenting with chocolate alternatives because “the chocolate market is also under pressure,” he said.Japanese cooks are working with a brand-new selection of seafood, since El Nino has altered ocean migratory routes. “In Japan it’s not a problem, there’s always product available,” said Yusuke Takada, who combines Japanese ingredients with French cooking techniques in La Cime, Osaka.