The menu and beyond: Hot NRA Show sustainability tips

All eyes in the food industry, whether in the restaurant world or noncommercial dining, are, it seems, turned to clean menu labels and sustainable dishes. Phrases like GMO-free, hormone-free, gluten-free, additive-free, organic, cage-free and grass-fed are on the tips of diners’ tongues, and operators are hustling to respond. But sustainability and social responsibility extend beyond the menu to all areas of an operation. Here are the top tips we picked up in sessions and on the floor at the National Restaurant Association Show.

Make your staff uncomfortable

While few people like being put on the spot, it’s the crux of one of Rick Bayless’ most successful sustainability efforts. The chef/owner of Frontera Grill and other celebrated Chicago restaurants keeps a dry-erase board in his kitchens with “waste” written on the top. Every time anything is wasted, it must be written on the board and then justified during a daily meeting about financial, community and environmental sustainability, Bayless said. Just 5 percent of Frontera’s waste goes to the landfill, he said—but it took 30 years to get to that point.

Walk the walk and talk the talk

Those snazzy Edison bulbs lighting up the trendiest restaurants? Yeah, they’re terrible for the environment, said Richard Young, director of education for PG&E Food Service Technology Center. His first tip for operators looking to take an easy sustainable step: switch to LED. Manufacturers even make an LED version of Edison bulbs that look nearly identical. “Even if you’re using sustainable food, nonsustainable energy sense a mixed message,” he said.

Open the lines of communication

The importance of communication was obvious during a session Monday about seafood sustainability. Moderator Barton Seaver, the celebrated Washington, D.C., chef, noted that scaring people away from farmed salmon steers them toward beef, which can be even less sustainable. “The should we/shouldn’t we conversation when it comes to fish farming is gone,” said Peter Redmond, vice president of the Global Aquaculture Alliance, noting that 94 percent of the world’s salmon supply is farmed. “The question now is how to do it sustainably.” Ten pounds of feed are required for every pound of beef produced, while 1.5 pounds of feed produce a pound of fish, said James Griffin, associate professor at Johnson & Wales University.  But the seafood industry isn’t getting this message out because of mixed messages surrounding farmed fish.

Above all, keep it simple

While this message resonated at every session we attended during the NRA show, the necessity became clear during Monday’s seafood session when Seaver projected a slide showing international seafood certification logos. “There are more than 20 certifications—who has time to understand all of them?” Griffin asked. Chefs are deferring to suppliers for sustainability information they can trust, while guests think chefs are the ultimate authority, said Kerry Heffernan, executive chef and partner of Union Square Hospitality. “We need to use that responsibly,” he said.