You’re working on a fat substitute?

Exactly. All natural, good for you, and it’s going to taste better than trans fat and be cheaper.

The problem with patenting everything is the intention. What is the intent with a patent? Well, a lot of people there are just trolling. They’ll wait for some guy to infringe, perhaps some small guy…I’m not going to name names, but you see this all the time. [He] gets a nasty letter in the mail, and all hell breaks loose.

We’re on the opposite end of that. First, we patent, we market, then it becomes open source.

Why are you willing to share?

Because I really don’t want to inherit the Earth when we run out of lead.

Back to the health issue. Have you experimented with adding nutrients to common foods?

We do a lot of interesting stuff with things [the market doesn’t] consider ingredients but are edible. Those ingredients are all around us.

What if you could take wood, process it, and eat it? What could you do with that? That would definitely give you enough fiber for the day. But what is cellulose? What can that break down into? What can we create from that? There is so much wood. There is more wood than there is corn.

How do we balance out the most-basic energy requirement, which is food, and how do we sustain that? How do we make that shelf stable for long journeys? How do we make that easy for developing nations to consume? That’s a key problem, right there.

If there were enough food on planet Earth, don’t you think everybody would be eating fine? It’s just not the case.

If Cantu Designs were to create a quick-service concept, what would it look like?

I am creating a concept. It’s going to be all sustainable, all organic, all natural. Bigger, better, and faster.

With what kind of menu?

It’s still up in the air. The food is the easiest part. It’s getting the thing done and getting the big guys to listen and be a part of the game, that’s the hard part. But we got the backing, and we’re moving.

It’s going to be nationwide. The first store we’re projecting in New York City.

I’m not going to hoard the ideas for myself. A license here, a license there. Eventually everything starts coming together. I don’t work exclusively with anyone.

You know, a patent is only as good as he who is first to market. If we’re first to market and we have a patent, that’s great, we’re double protected. After we’re first to market and the business is sustaining itself, then you can take [the ideas] and make them open source because you can afford that.

You’re a rare chef—one who looks beyond the restaurant.

It’s not the guy who cooks the recipe who makes all the money, it’s the guy who owns the recipe and the patent on it. I don’t want to have the money; I just want to redistribute it to those who need it.