In these times of climate change and global warming, it has long moved past being a trend to becoming an absolute necessity – across all sectors of the economy: sustainability. Even if the word is used rather loosely, there is no denying that it is shaping the consumer behavior of a growing number of people. This is particularly the case when it comes to the food they eat. As a result, many food service businesses, from pubs and restaurants to large kitchens and caterers, have been committed to sustainability for quite some time. At the same time, the impact on commercial kitchens is, well, let’s just say particularly sustainable.
One of them is Sodexo. Based in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, the global food service company with around 430,000 employees provides food and drink to 80 million people every day. These include company canteens, schools and preschools, nursing homes and hospitals, and even prisons.
Image: Sodexo
Sodexo: sustainable chefs in focus
Sodexo is committed to seriously establishing sustainability in its kitchens. The company relies on the sustainable chef. For Sodexo, this concept focuses on reducing both the CO₂ footprint by sourcing regional food and the use of pesticides and other harmful chemicals by introducing seasonal, sustainable organic products. This should also help boost the local economy.
With its sustainable chefs Sodexo is consciously focusing on plant-based products and limiting animal-based products. Reducing food waste, holistic product handling, minimizing packaging waste and recycling also contribute to sustainability in Sodexo’s kitchens – as does the use of sustainable kitchen cooking systems such as those from Rational. They can help enormously to save resources and energy, especially in commercial kitchens. Multifunctional cooking systems like the iCombi Pro save energy, water, and raw material resources, and produce significantly less waste, which was one of the reasons why Sodexo chose them.
Beyond customer demand, the conscious dedication of companies like Sodexo and Rational to greater sustainability in the food service industry is crucial. According to Statista, farmland covers around five million hectares of soil on our planet. More than a third of the world’s man-made, climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions come from food production. This calls for true rethinking and awareness-raising initiatives.
A very special competition
Sodexo is therefore doing even more to raise sustainability awareness and bring it into kitchens. In collaboration with Rational, the company has been organizing the Sustainable Chef Challenge annually since 2022 – a sustainability cooking competition. Sodexo chefs around the world are invited to take on a very special challenge under the Cook for Change initiative: They showcase their culinary skills by creating innovative dishes that demonstrate how much sustainable cuisine can help ensure a sustainable future.
Every year, the challenge is open to all chefs employed by Sodexo or its subsidiaries, wherever they are in the world. In the first round of the competition, the participants must inspire the jury with their regional culinary skills. This year’s winners secured a place in the grand finale in Paris in autumn 2024. With the help of Rational cooking systems, they will compete for the title best Sustainable Chef from November 11 to 15, 2024. However, the chefs get more than just the chance to share experiences with colleagues from around the world: The winner of the final will be featured extensively in the Sodexo’s social media and other communication channels as well as the Sodexo Annual Culinary Report.
Image: Sodexo
Impressively sustainable
The previous winners and finalists have certainly set the culinary bar extremely high in this competition. Their dishes wowed not just because they were sustainably prepared, but also because of their visual appeal and flavor. The Frenchman Dominique Doer, winner of the first Sodexo Challenge 2022, created a “land and sea” dish: Roasted vegetables from the Paris region with an iodized algae salad dressing. Ashwin Iyangar from India, who as a finalist only narrowly lost to the eventual winner, won (almost) everyone over with a spinach and chickpea curry featuring beetroot upma (semolina pudding) and a salad made from the leftover spinach stems.
In 2023, two participants equally impressed the jury of experts, which included, among others, the German three-starred chef Thomas Bühner. In the end, they both were awarded the Sustainable Chef title. Northern Ireland’s Sharon McConnell created a pistachio-crusted celery steak and a vegan chocolate mousse with dates and nuts. Brazil’s Ricardo Machado impressed with a sauté banana peel medallion featuring sweet potatoes and banana-coconut puree.
However, Rational and Sodexo are doing more to pave the way for a sustainable future than organizing the Sustainable Chef Challenge and the emerging Sustainable Chef generation connected to it. Sodexo has also set itself the goal of cooking 70 percent of its main courses “low carbon” by 2030 and becoming completely climate neutral by 2040. These goals call for employees who think sustainability is much more than an empty buzzword. After all, to truly change consumer behavior, it is not enough for a dish to simply be good for the planet. It must also be good for consumers. Good for our taste buds, but also good for our bodies. Above all, it needs to taste great.
And therefore in more ways than one: enjoy your meal!
