Page 13 - foodservice Magazine August 2018

INSIDER
13
TRUTH, LOVE
& CLEAN CUTLERY
INSIDER
Ihave discovered the perfect antidote for when you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by the whole
hospitality thing and you’re wondering why you do what you do. It’s called Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery, and it’s a guide to over 200 restaurants across Australia who are doing the right thing
in terms of ethics, sustainability and the environment.
passionate, articulate words – probably written late at night
– telling us about the small and large things they did to use their restaurant as a force for change.
Wow. There are so many
good people in our industry
doing good things. People who
are genuinely trying to source as locally and seasonally as possible, because that’s how they can best support the small-scale farmers in their region. Others are trying to eliminate single-use plastic usage in terms of straws, coffee cups, storage containers, bottled water and supplier’s packaging. Others are either putting effort and energy into putting the food it didn’t use to good use in the community; ensuring their staff are not over-worked and disengaged; or working out closed loop systems so their fruit and vegetable suppliers take their scraps, turn them into compost, and grow more fruit and veg with them.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I think it’s a good time for every restaurant to redefine its core values and work out what sort of business it wants to be.
The purpose of a restaurant can be more than simply packaging up the serving of food and wine in a pleasant environment – it has the potential to create an inspiring experience that can change our world.
And also because – bums on seats. If you don’t engage with these shifting priorities, you might miss out. 81 per cent of diners surveyed by OpenTable in June 2017 said that it was important to them that the food they eat when dining
out is sourced ethically (eg. using seasonal produce, giving surplus food to charities, and taking active measures to use sustainably sourced ingredients).
Consider the words of marketing guru Simon Sinek, who says, “People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.” So. Why do you do it?
Truth Love & Clean Cutlery will be released in Australia
by Blackwell & Ruth in November 2018 with simultaneous US, UK and World editions. truthloveandcleancutlery.com
CAN RESTAURANTS BE A FORCE FOR CHANGE AS WELL AS A SOURCE OF FOOD? JILL DUPLEIX GETS INSPIRED BY THE SHIFTING PRIORITIES OF A NEW BREED OF CHEF AND RESTAURATEUR WHO WORKS TO ALIGN THEIR HOSPITALITY BUSINESS WITH THEIR OWN PERSONAL VALUES OF INTEGRITY AND SUSTAINABILITY – AND A NEW BREED OF DINER WHO DOESN’T WANT TO CHECK THEIR VALUES AT THE DOOR WHEN THEY GO OUT TO DINE.
The purpose of a restaurant can be more than simply packaging up the serving of food and wine in a pleasant environment – it has the potential to create an inspiring experience that can change our world.
Jill Dupleix is a food writer, editor, cookbook author, restaurant critic and co-Director of Australia’s Top Restaurants.
It isn’t even published yet
(that happens in November) but already, I’m on a natural high
just editing it. Together with international publishers Blackwell & Ruth and a brilliant team of regional editors, we devised a survey that would help us assess the restaurants we had identified according to a new set of values.
Would they respond? Would they take us seriously? They did, in spades. So many responses ran to three, four or five thousand
JILL
DUPLEIX
JILL
DUPLEIX