Talks about sustainability in the restaurant industry used to be centred on sustainable sourcing—sourcing for meats and seafood that are wild-caught or farmed through ecologically sustainable means. Subsequently, the farm-to-table movement went full swing, shifting the spotlight on reducing food miles and sourcing locally. In recent years, as climate change hits mainstream consciousness, the sustainability discussion has again gathered momentum to encompass zero-waste cooking and reducing plastic waste.
THE RESTAURANTS LEADING THE CHARGE
One of the most prominent restaurants in the sustainability narrative is Locavore in Bali, which was named Sustainable Restaurant 2019 by the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants committee. Funnily enough, sustainability wasn’t their goal when co-founding chefs Eelke Plasmeijer and Ray Adriansyah first opened Locavore. Their razor-sharp focus—on using only locally available ingredients to present their modern European cuisine—was actually prompted by the realisation that diners were looking for authentic, original experiences and that there was no point in importing ingredients that international guests have access to at better quality back home. That mindset shift kickstarted their journey and everything else started to fall into place.
At Locavore, sustainability is about “the way things get farmed, handled, shipped, used and discarded.” 95 per cent of ingredients are sourced from local producers and artisans. Locavore even has their own butchery, Local Parts, to support nose-to-tail cooking. Consider Crispy Sparrow, done bebek goreng style— pressured cooked and deep-fried such that guests can literally eat everything, beak and feet all. Thinking out of the box not only helped them find practical use for sparrows (pests to farmers), but also new ways of doing nose-to-tail.
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