March Napness Champion Bears Eat a Fruity Prize Developed by Vegan Chef Priyanka Naik (Exclusive)

Global animal welfare nonprofit organization Four Paws's annual March Napness event — a tournament-style bracket competition based on March Madness — is "the most epic (sleepy)head-to-(sleepy)head battle" with a simple premise: The bear who hibernates the longest is crowned "Sleepiest Bear."

The 2024 winning rescue bears were rewarded with a plant-heavy treat developed by vegan celebrity chef and Food Network champion Priyanka Naik. Naik traveled to Four Paws's Bear Sanctuary Müritz in Germany in July 2024 to cook for and (safely) serve the winning bears "Bear-y Fruit Tartare," the nutritious recipe she developed specifically for March Napness.

"The dish used all locally sourced ingredients, honey that was made on the sanctuary premises naturally, and wooden planks as the platter. The entire dish and process took the environment and health of the bears in mind at every step," Naik exclusively tells Green Matters via email. Honey is the only animal product in the recipe.

I spoke exclusively via email with Chef Priyanka Naik about her March Napness experience, what she learned about rescue bears and their diet, and the vital nature of nonprofits like Four Paws.

The 2024 March Napness event featured 23 of the 100-plus brown bears who reside in the nonprofit's six species-appropriate sanctuaries around the globe. The bears were rescued from "deplorable conditions," as mentioned in a press release shared with Green Matters.

According to the nonprofit Bear Conservation, captive bears used for zoos, circuses, and roadside attractions tend to exhibit abnormal behaviors like pacing, swaying, and bar-biting, are kept in small enclosures or cages and are often subjected to inappropriate climates.

Four Paws's efforts specifically focus on "the welfare of captive brown bears in Europe and Asiatic black bears in Vietnam, as well as rescues from crisis, conflict, and disaster zones."

While March Napness is generally lighthearted, it's also quite special, as many participating bears were never allowed to hibernate — an innate behavioral adaptation for energy conservation purposes — in their previous lives in confinement. Now, they're rewarded for doing what they were always meant to do.

Though the 2024 winner, Bear Dushi, sadly passed away just weeks before she could receive her culinary prize, her “Dream Team” sanctuary mates were gifted the beary special prize created and prepared by Naik.

The Cooks vs. Cons winner's biggest takeaway from the project was "the amount of man/woman power, effort, and empathy" the team at Bear Sanctuary Müritz displays daily.

"It confirmed to me that what I do as a chef and environmental activist has importance and if we keep spreading awareness and sharing with people that animals are not for our entertainment and abuse, then we can restore the beauty and health of our animal and environmental ecosystem," Naik tells GM.

Additionally, she learned about the rescue process, astonished at how difficult and in-depth the missions are.

"Many of the rescue missions are being planned for months and take a crew of employees to execute. ... Some [of these bears] don't even know how to hibernate and it can take months and years for them to instinctively get into the habit," she says. "The importance of a nonprofit like Four Paws is critical to the education of animal welfare to the masses, the rescuing of animals, and the overall betterment of the ecosystem and environment."

Like me, Naik was under the assumption that brown bears chowed down on loads of seafood and some plants. Well, according to Four Paws, about 80 percent of brown bears' diet is tree bark, leaves, roots, mushrooms, nuts, fruit, and berries. Who would've thought brown bears liked cow parsnip? Of course, these omnivores also eat small rodents, birds, frogs, snakes, fish, and carrion.

"Four Paws was gracious enough to provide me with a list of the bears' preferences," Naik explains. "They loved melons, berries, root veggies, walnuts, citrus, honey, and especially almond butter. I wanted to create a recipe that felt and looked fancy, but kept the integrity of the bears' favorite ingredients shining."

Naik's Bear-y Fruit Tartare recipe is a plant-forward take on steak tartare.

"[I] used red beets and red watermelon as the 'steak,' cantaloupe as the 'egg yolk,' tangerine and honey as the dressing, and walnuts and raisins for texture and crunch," she details. "To keep the layers of the tartare intact, I used almond butter as the glue and dressed their platter with [romaine and butter lettuce]."

If you want to give it a taste, Naik's recipe is available here. To make it 100 percent vegan, swap out the honey for maple syrup! Eating like a bear has never sounded more scrumptious.