Welcome from Chef Andy

Hi, I am Chef Andy, Group Executive Chef at the International Culinary Studio and I am your mentor during this course on Sustainability in Food Service.

Hotels and food service establishments do not operate in isolation; we source our products from suppliers, the land and the sea and process these into beautiful dishes that we serve to our customers.

This processing of food has many impacts on our planet and our communities. If we want to protect our planet and its people for generations to come, businesses (and individuals) need to be concerned with transforming the way they work.

Sustainability is a passion of mine. I hope, through this course, you will discover how to make changes that can have a significant benefit to the environment, its people and your business. This will ensure that the legacy that we leave for future generations is a beneficial one.

Before we start discussing actions that we can take to lessen our impact, it is essential to understand some global sustainability concepts, issues and concerns. Once you get the big picture, it becomes clearer why hotels and food service operations need to change. So, we delve deeper into sustainable decisions and actions that are being implemented.

Throughout the program there are many opportunities for discussion; please share your ideas and reflections with others on the course, read through their comments, like or follow them. This will enrich conversations as well as your learning.

Outcomes

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

1. Explain global sustainability concepts, issues and concerns.
2. Discuss sustainable decisions and actions that foodservice can take and reasons for these.
3. Identify some challenges to a business in implementing sustainable practices.

A business imperative

Imagine that you run a 100-seater restaurant that operates at about 70 percent capacity each night, six nights a week (that’s 70 guests on average per night or 420 guests per week). On average, each guest orders a starter and a main or a main and a dessert.

Apart from the food that needs to be purchased, you will need table linen that requires washing, menus that are discarded once marked, cleaning materials, plastic straws, restroom amenities including soap and lavatory (toilet) paper. The staff also need feeding and their uniforms washed; the list goes on. In the kitchen, the food areas need cleaning and disinfecting. Food is delivered in packaging (plastic, cardboard, glass), which is discarded, and the food is stored in electrical refrigerators or freezers. Preparing food takes gas or electricity and water.

Your kitchens and restaurant need lighting and air-conditioning. Once the plates come back from the restaurant, leftover food is scraped into the waste disposal. You can calculate that your restaurant will be using a lot of electricity, gas, water, food, paper and will also produce a lot of waste. Apart from impacting the planet and people, it is costing your business financially. Reducing waste, electricity, water consumption, using safer chemicals, choosing responsibly produced food is not only conserving precious resources but also having a significant positive impact on your customers’ perceptions and your restaurant’s bottom line.

The pictures from around the world illustrate the impact that humans have on the planet. Mass food production keeps up with mass consumerism, plastic in the oceans affect beaches and our seafood, mass landfills of waste, more waste than governments can contend with, and air pollution from mass production.

Discussion

Please introduce yourself and share your reasons for joining the course. What are your thoughts on the pictures above? Have you observed any food service organizations implementing sustainable practices? Please share some of these practices with us.