What on earth is EthicalChef all about?
That’s a good question, and one that is often put to me. So, here goes………….I will try to explain.
Let’s start right from the beginning. It seems to me that the restaurant and food industry has had a huge amount of negative press (quite justified in many instances) about how much food waste and excess packaging it produces. What EthicalChef is about is caring about food from the soil to your fork and beyond!
Let me explain further:
Sourcing ingredients:
We source our ingredients from local farms including Blaencamel Farm, Pencoed Growers, Riverside Market Garden and Ty Mawr Organics. EthicalChef believes that using local produce where possible is really important. Supporting local farmers is where it all starts. Buying their produce enables them to continue to grow amazing vegetables, often nearer to home than you would have guessed. Farming is not an easy job, far from it, especially in the winter months when the weather is cold and rainy, and those who grow our vegetables and care for our farm animals deserve our praise, support and thanks.
Our packaging:
An area that is a real issue in the catering world is packaging. A worrying amount of packaging made from plastics and harmful chemicals gets thrown away every day, which can only damage the environment. What we’ve done here at EthicalChef is use only recycled and/or fully compostable packaging so that when it eventually goes into the bin, or on the compost heap, it will decompose naturally and harmlessly. We buy our packaging from a company called London Bio Packaging.
Vegetarianism:
Being a vegetarian is a big step towards reducing your carbon footprint, so at EthicalChef we are strictly vegetarian. Many of our products are also suitable for vegans, but we do use Welsh organic cheeses, milk and cream from Calon Wen in our non vegan products. When purchasing food from us please rest assured that it is ethically sourced and contains no meat products or by-products.
Food Waste:
At EthicalChef food waste is kept to an absolute minimum. All our vegetable peelings are composted or fed to animals. Our leftover food is either distributed throughout our staffing system or donated to the homeless.
Banking:
EthicalChef uses The Co-Operative Bank which is highly respected for its ethical policies. They have a series of tests for prospective banking customers, and I believe they turned down over £10 million of custom in just one year because of their strict ethical guidelines.
Raising awareness:
EthicalChef strives to raise awareness of some of the many food related ethical issues around us, and promotes the following organisations:-
Thank you for reading this. I hope it goes some way towards explaining what EthicalChef is all about.
Please do get in contact if there are any more questions you have.
Deri