Restaurant openings seem more the exception than the norm in the Covid-era . One bright spot: Chef Traci Des Jardins, the noted award-winning Bay Area chef and restaurateur, is launching a new restaurant in Los Altos called El Alto. In celebration of this occasion, we’re sharing, with permission, the official remarks from Chef Des Jardins’ Keynote at our Climate Friendly Cuisine conference on September 11, 2018. Acterra is also grateful to Des Jardins for providing additional images from her personal collection. These remarks have been lightly edited and condensed, but the full transcript is available on request.

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Origins

About 17 years ago- when Jardinière was about 4 years old, we initiated an unprecedented campaign to look at our own business practices and contemplate how we might be better at what we were doing. I was well aware of the daily environmental footprint as I was constantly dealing with the dumpster being overly full! Cardboard and bottles were hauled off by the ambitious guys with in dubious trucks, but still about 90 percent of our trash was going into landfill. Today, it is about 7 percent.

We started a composting program–at the time this was no easy feat. We had to give green waste back to our farmers. Soon the city followed with their program which made this much easier.

We hosted ESL classes for our non-English speaking staff. This solidified their loyalty and gave them a sense of place. We had health care for our employees, which made us among the few in the restaurant business who did. We analyzed the supply chain of all of our products and created a rating system for fish specifically — Monterey Bay Seafood watch was only in its infancy at this point.

17 Years Later

But here we are. In the midst of business leaders and in beautiful Northern California, with a room full of people who are not just interested in talking about, but also committed to finding pathways towards sustainability.

So it’s no small exaggeration to say that I am glad to be here. And glad that you are here too, perhaps even more glad about that.

All those years ago, I believed in sustainability for the very same reasons that I do today. Cooking is a privilege. We have the ability to touch people’s lives through food. We are part of that amazing first date, memorable birthday, landmark anniversary, important business deal, weddings, memorial services – we touch people’s lives at these important junctures, and it is our immense privilege to do so.

And, as you all know, many of us are in people’s lives up to three times a day. It’s possible that some of you feed some people more than anyone else ever will in their lives. You become their home. You earn their trust. We have the power to compliment moments, to provide refuge and to entertain or comfort with our food. And all of us, big company or 40-seat restaurant chef, all of us cook to feed people. To nourish.

Sustainability is the Core

The core of that nourishment lies in sustenance. Sustenance which gives all of us the energy to go about our daily lives; to love, to live, to make change, to inspire, to just go about the daily drudgery of washing dishes. Without sustenance, nothing would be possible. And without sustainability, we will have nothing in the future.

When we talk about sustainability, it’s easy to focus on small fixes and easy solutions, but the approach is holistic. It’s an acknowledgment of our role in people’s lives, and the world. It’s an acknowledgment of the farmers, the ranchers, the fishmongers, the bakers, the bussers, the runners, the dishwashers, the accountants, the managers and the diners. We all have a vested interested in a more sustainable food system. Because it is the right thing to do, because it is our future to impact as we will. Because it is why we got into cooking in the first place, to sustain. Because we all must support each in other in accomplishing these goals.

I entered the food industry because I had found a passion. I grew up on my father’s grilled chicken and my grandmother’s hand-made tortillas. I fell in love with whole hog rendered into carnitas and fish on a stick on the beaches of Mexico. My job, for the last thirty years, has been to turn those memories into meals, and then into moments.

Food service takes those moments and makes them available at scale — so the fish inspired by that beach moment years ago might be found in your kitchens as much as it would be at Jardinière. Many of the cooks that I have had in my kitchens are probably working for many of you. Your kitchens likely know, not just about whole-hog cookery but also about the giants of my restaurant years: of Robuchon, Troisgros, Bocuse.

But as much as the world of dining and the business of food have changed during my tenure in the industry, so have the circumstances within which we all cook. The fish are less plentiful in our oceans. A combination of overfishing, climate change and invasive species have drastically altered what fish swim where, what fish we can eat, and how we think about seafood generally. Years of industrial-scale farming have meant that there are fewer and fewer family farms raising hogs. That consolidation is no longer sustainable when earnest, hard-working family farmers must give up their land to satisfy scale. We end up with less delicious, more homogenous products. We increase our risk for devastating losses with monoculture.

Certainly, it sounds difficult. And I’m living proof that policy changes can drastically alter the bottom-line of a business that you’ve built over the years. Not all of this change will come easy, and likely very little of it will come for free. But these are investments. And, since we are all long-term thinkers in this room, building companies that will outlast ourselves, we can approach an industry that values sustainability and changes in climate with the full knowledge that the business case is not just apparent, but essential for anyone who wants to continue to compete.

You cannot build a business around fish that are no longer in the ocean. Nor around labor that can no longer afford to work. Sustainability has always been not just about what we can do for the environment but even more so about how we can think about every element of our businesses, and maximize both the value and the social good of that product.

Right here in California, the costs of inaction around climate change are already too clear. The fires that have burned through our state over the last two years were not only devastating, as I watched friends lose homes and businesses, but will also require significant capital to recover from. It’s estimated that the 2017 fires will cost upwards of $2.5 billion dollars. And this year’s fires, which still burn, are projected to cost even more. Those are dollars that have to come from somewhere, and the loss of property and business will mean fewer potential customers for all of us and of course affects very gravely our employees.

Charting a Path

The people in this room have the opportunity not simply to learn about best practices for today’s climate-friendly food service or restaurant, but also, and more importantly, to set the path for what tomorrow’s industry might accomplish.

We’ve seen the power of leadership in our industry. All restaurants, all food service companies, are in the business of better margins. We have to be. And cooks have often led the way in that regard, proving, again and again, that to search for beauty in the discarded can deliver something delicious.  

As cooks, we know that we reuse containers, not because it’s good for the earth, but because it is economically efficient.

As cooks, we know that ugly produce is often the most delicious, that carrot tops make for good pesto and that beet greens deserve a place on your plate. We know that food waste is very expensive. And so, we find ways to reduce it.

In applying these lessons to larger companies, to scalable solutions, even minor improvements in efficiency can have dramatic impact on the bottom line. A reduction of food cost–through the intelligent repurposing of waste streams or other approaches–by 2% would mean an entirely different bottom line for my restaurant. Imagine what it would mean for your company.

Using proteins as an accent rather than the so-called ‘center of the plate’ can dramatically improve food costs and do good for the planet at the same time. Serving plant-based meat can save so much water and land mass use that it is truly a no-brainer when the products are as good as, say, the Impossible Burger.

Ultimately, the most compelling business case lies in the forecast for demand. Diners today receive a steady stream of information regarding climate change, environmental threats and the state of our wildlife. Over one in four millennials prefer a plant-based diet and of those who do eat meat, they eat it less often. California is often the leader for these kinds of movements, and our diners are deeply knowledgeable about what their purchases can affect. And that’s a trend you can and should expect to continue to grow across the country.

Wellness apps have taken over the workplace, but we know that wellness begins with us. Good food, prepared well, served kindly, and delivered thoughtfully, offers a baseline upon which a healthy lifestyle can be built. The surge in wellness apps is not only a moment in time, but also tied to workplace productivity. Workers are happier when they are healthiest. And happy people are more productive workers that build better teams. Our food, done well, is an investment that companies and individuals can make with meaningful return.

Brand leaders that can point to investments in sustainable food practices stand to benefit as the marketplace evolves. That’s not to say that just being sustainable is enough to sell a product but rather that companies that can pursue sustainability–while continuing to deliver a product of excellent quality–will gain a competitive advantage in a marketplace that we all know is crowded. It’s powerful for the brand of the business, and powerful to be able to stand behind something that you believe in, and that you know will make a positive difference.

Today, at this conference, I ask you to remember why you are in this business in the first place. Why you believe that it’s important for people to eat well.  

If you’re like me, there’s no better feeling than delivering something delicious to someone who needs it.  You never know what that diner might need, but just in the offering, we do something generous, ambitious, and kind.

Sustainability must be at the heart of that offering in order for it to remain sincere.

We cannot ignore the consequences of inaction. And we must seek innovative solutions to the problems all around us.

We must innovate, and it must be delicious.  

We must share our efforts with each other, so that we all might benefit from this work.  

We must hold ourselves accountable for this industry that we all rely on, both for our living and for our daily bread.  

Our collective future will be defined by the actions that we choose to take, the businesses that we continue to build and the decisions that we come to in rooms like this.

I am excited to see what we are able to accomplish. Thank you.

References:

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-climate-agriculture-20180309-story.html
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/04/5-facts-about-the-minimum-wage/
http://fortune.com/2018/07/31/worst-california-fires-cost-carr-fire-ferguson-2018/
https://firstwefeast.com/eat/2015/10/traci-des-jardins-career-changing-dishes
https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/9236_Idling_Nowhere_2009.pdf

Learn more about Traci Des Jardins on her website. You can watch recordings of Climate Friendly Cuisine here.