Go Green

The Pioneer

An increasing number of restaurants are sourcing their ingredients locally than importing them from faraway lands. In the process, they not only reduce carbon footprint but also save money without compromising on taste, says Team Viva

Rahul Srivastava is a satiated man. He can now eat out more often and enjoy his tuna salad along with some French Chardonnay without having to cringe. All because the ingredients of the exotic recipe that he loves are procured locally. Tuna from coastal Andhra Pradesh, pepper from Bangalore and broccoli from Dehradun. "Generally, I would stay away from consuming tuna at restaurants since they used to import the fish and preserved it here. This used to lend a tinge of saltiness to the recipe. With the ingredients being brought locally (within India), I can safely say the fish is fresher and the taste is more indulgent," says he.




Restaurants in India have wisened up. For they are cutting down on the practice of importing ingredients for their exotic recipes and instead are getting them locally. They say it is feasible and makes economic sense too. There is also an element of environmental friendliness in it.



Feasibility



Leading the tradition of keeping the produce fresh and local is Uppal's Orchid. Its executive chef Devraj Halder grows the ingredients in his hotel lawns and also sources them from neighbouring states.



"We believe in the idea of keeping our produce as local as possible. It is more convenient to get the ingredients from nearby places than importing them. Our lettuce is grown in our gardens and we get our English vegetables like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, snow peas and zucchini from Dehradun. We also get herbs and carrots from Bangalore," says Halder.



Experts in the restaurant business feel that besides being hassle-free, procuring ingredients locally also lowers transportation cost, saves fuel and reduces energy consumption especially in storage and freezing processes thereby helping in reducing the carbon footprint.



Explains Manjit Gill, corporate executive chef at ITC Maurya, "Most of our restaurants use the locally available produce of vegetables and meats. This not only helps the people of the region get a taste of the local flavours but also as part of our corporate social responsibility, we try to reduce energy consumption and save on fuel and transportation costs."



The burgeoning global environmental movement and new generation of youth with budding enthusiasm for long-established notions of sustainability, ecological health and food safety has given a fresh lease of life to "going local" idea in the US too, according to an article published by The Christian Science Monitor.



The trend is also followed, the article states, to support smaller local farmers who avoid the kind of animal diets and pesticides that leave behind the larger carbon footprint.



No effect on taste



No matter what the cuisine is, the same taste can be achieved even if one sources the ingredients locally. This is made possible by replicating the same conditions of growth in the local farms. Explains chef Sanjeev Kumar of The China Kitchen at Hyatt, "We are breeding the ducks as per the Chinese conditions at our farm in Gurgaon. For this purpose, we had sent the caretakers of the farm to China for 15 days where they learnt what kind of feed should be given to them. The ducks are force-fed on a mixture of 28 grains throughout the day. We are using the Cherry Valley breed of duck which is the best in the world and tastes authentic." Apart from this, the restaurant also grows other ingredients like Chinese vegetables locally by importing the seeds.



Even Rahul Nautiyal, manager of Cafe De Paris, a French dining restaurant, gets his daily produce of salmon, chicken, lamb and vegetables from a farm on the outskirts of the city. Says Nautiyal, "It is more economical to get the produce locally sourced and there is hardly any difference in taste. We have had French customers who have complimented the food and gone as far as saying that it tastes even better than that available in some restaurants in Paris."



Though some restaurants are honest enough to admit that everything is not readily available. Says Halder, "Items like beef tenderloin and pork are imported as we are unsure of the quality here. But on the whole we get our ingredients locally."



Reducing carbon footprint further



Besides going local, the restaurants in the US use other strategies to help reduce global warming. They include recycling and composting waste, conserving water, using non-toxic cleaners, tapping wind or other "green" power and designing minimal-impact buildings. Many restaurants are also moving away from bottled water because of environmental concerns about bottle waste, refrigeration needed, transportation costs and shipping containers.



In India, similar experiments are being done. Says Halder, "Apart from our kitchen garden, we are practicing vermi-compost (making manure from waste food). We have also undertaken various water conservation measures like rainwater harvesting and installing of aerators in taps." Apart from this, Uppal's Orchid also has CFC free ACs and refrigerators and sewage treatment plants.



The new spotlight is creating a domino effect, say observers, in which restaurant customers begin to ask more questions about the local-food movement. Precisely what restaurants of the ITC Maurya Group are trying to cultivate in its hotels.