Sustainable food is becoming an inevitable trend in contemporary life.

Sustainable cuisine is a concept emerging in contemporary gastronomy that defines food service as being more in harmony with nature and minimizing the harmful effects of the food production industry on the environment in the face of increasingly severe climate change.

Restaurants are embarking on sustainable culinary practices.

Restaurants pursuing sustainable culinary practices face challenges ranging from environmental and operational conditions to issues of supply chain stability and cost. However, this presents a unique opportunity for any restaurant to rise to the top, creating and leading a trend with a positive impact.

Many restaurants have cleverly embraced this trend. They conduct various experiments, such as growing their own vegetables and fruits in their gardens, and directly contacting farms to raise livestock and poultry. This "self-sufficiency" is a closed-loop process that allows restaurants to control food quality and have more freedom in preparing their supplies. The issues they face are crop yields and productivity, rather than price fluctuations or stock shortages like when they had to import food.

However, beyond self-supplying food, restaurants need to make more effort if they want to follow this trend. Sometimes, it's not necessary to create the products themselves; they can also use readily available local ingredients or local specialties that are often overlooked.

Using locally sourced, seasonal ingredients is far more advantageous because local food is often well-balanced and has nutritional value suitable for the people living there. Instead of long-distance shipments from halfway around the world, or expensive imported goods that drive up costs and cause supply fluctuations, developing a sustainable approach makes this industry much less wasteful and cumbersome.

Is sustainable practice difficult or easy?

A prime example of this sustainable culinary model is the three-Michelin-star restaurant Noma in Denmark. This restaurant has also won the "World's Best Restaurant" award for many consecutive years, as voted by The World's Best 50. It also features a Vietnamese chef.

Noma was able to self-supply its food to serve customers. This restaurant will close permanently in 2024. This is sad news for the F&B industry because the positive impact of this restaurant is something worth learning from.

This restaurant is renowned for growing its own produce in the extensive garden located on the restaurant grounds. Chef and founder René Redzepi prioritizes food quality over profit, seemingly affirming this as an inevitable trend.

Similarly, the renowned European-style restaurant Chef's Table by Chef Stephan, founded by chef Stephan Zoisl, also follows the principle of "healthy green eating" with fresh ingredients every day. He wants his diners to enjoy diverse and unique dishes depending on the available food, rather than choosing from a boring menu. The improvisational style of service, seemingly an artistic flair, turns out to be his way of valuing food and avoiding waste.

Beyond simply being "self-sufficient" or valuing local food sources more, the sustainability trend is also reflected in how restaurants and eateries protect the environment by limiting the release of non-biodegradable waste such as plastic... or minimizing food waste.

In the food preparation process, chefs practice sustainability by making the most of every part of the food—roots, bark, leaves, bones, etc.—in their dishes instead of just taking the most essential parts. After use, they compost the leftovers and use them as fertilizer for their gardens.

This trend is also spreading strongly in Vietnam. Many restaurants are stepping up their efforts to promote local products and avoid wasting valuable food resources.

"From farm to table"

"Farm to table," "farm to kitchen"—from farm to table, from farm to kitchen—are practical trends contributing to this process. Furthermore, this is an incredibly "fancy" trend that once again gives the food and beverage industry an opportunity to enhance its marketing and restaurant promotion activities. Now, besides enjoying delicious and abundant food, diners appreciate natural, novel experiences and are inclined to try many creative culinary models.

Alongside bringing fresh, farm-to-table food, the way the food is "cared for" is also a major concern for consumers. Restaurants are competing to have their own farms, raising cows for milk to make cheese and butter, having their own gardens for fresh vegetables, or having many cows raised free-range to produce A5-standard beef with prestigious certifications and a friendly image.

Besides its positive contributions to the environment, sustainable practices also require proper guidance to avoid turning this trend into a pointless "craze" with excessive marketing gimmicks.

Through the sustainable food movement, we are gradually realizing the profound impact of climate change and the greenhouse effect on food resources. And with these first steps towards practicing sustainability in the culinary field, many restaurants and food lovers are protecting their own existence and development, as well as that of the food service industry as a whole.

Phuong Thao is an editor at Travellive magazine. She is passionate about traveling and enjoys capturing moments with her camera in every place she visits. Travel, art, and lifestyle are Phuong Thao's favorite writing topics.

Ha Chuu