http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/07.17.03/dining-0329.html
although i realize that this article is a little outdated being that it is from 2003 i find that it is a good starting point when looking into sustainability in the food industry. it is good to see that a problem had been realized, in that the food industry consumes and waste many many products. it is also good to see that people have started making changes in their restaurants. Though few at first, i feel that the restaurant industry has started to come about and start taking action to reduce their Eco footprint. A long with this also comes the urge to serve more organic and locally grown foods rather than the mas produced, manipulated products out there.
i was quite surprised when reading about sparks and how just about everything is recycled or came from recycled products. the idea of reusing all your fryer oil and using biodegradable/ recyclable products for take out containers to reduce their Eco footprint out the door. I never thought about sustainability in a restaurant from this perspectives before. Both front and back of house can be sustainable in many ways to help reduce Eco footprint, cost and improve quality.
i was kind of shocked when i read that Roxanne's had been talked down against due to the fact that i love the sounds of what they did. The idea of using hemp as a medium for everything from napkins to seat covers and curtains is great. as well as the recycled wood and solar set up on the roof. although it is typical to find that they were talked down about due to the fact that it was funded from previous success. Which let them do things most restaurateurs could not do.
I think that this article lies down a good foundation and also lets us look back and think have we started to change since this came out? maybe it did have an effect on how we are thinking about sustainability today in the restaurant industry...
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Great article, Dave! I think the article is especially interesting BECAUSE it is from 2003. It seems like Sparks was way ahead of their time, considering that most restaurants 7 years later are barely getting into biodegradeable products.
ReplyDeleteI also liked the part in the article about using salvage material for the buildings. That has been something that I've been hearing alot about and i think its a great way to reuse and recycle, even if it doesn't directly relate to the food that is being served.
I really liked this article, I liked the approach, I think it prosed many good new to me ideas. I found it very similar to mine maybe I should have read it before I posted mine. This article took a stand point of the average customers and simple ways they can give back, or more ways to be aware. I think this could be really helpful for the public. It also talked about more complex ways the industry can help the cause. I think all of these ideas are trends that will stick around for many years even if they aren't really popular yet. This article dated back to 2003 and the one that I found with the same elements of decomposable containers and untensils, delivery trucks being more ecofriendly, ect. was just written in 2008 and had the same components. I think all these ideas are really interesting and personally caught me off guard when I first thought about the topic of going green and sustainability in fine dining.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteReading this article I liked all the examples they used and at the bottom where the give advice for how to help out the green movement. I agree with what Alon says, even thought its from 2003 it shows how people cared back then and how their interest for this topic would grew over the years.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part about this article is where real Chefs weigh in and give their opinion on this topic.