Sustainable Kitchen Consultants

17/06/2026

I get asked this constantly: “So, is sustainable hospitality just code for going vegan?” And here’s why it isn’t.

Sure, we create a lot of plant-forward and completely plant-based recipes for clients, as part of sustainable menus. But whether a menu is sustainable or not is not as simple as how plant-forward or plant-based or not it is.

In this podcast hosted by David Chenery from Reassemble we talk about this very point.

Menus in restaurants can account for upwards of 60-80% of a venue’s measurable carbon impact, and meat and dairy are often the biggest single contributor within that. So it’s an easy leap to make: cut the meat, solve the problem.

But it’s not that simple. Well-farmed meat isn’t the enemy. Pasture-fed beef, for example, is nutritionally superior to a lot of the alternatives people reach for instead. The research on this is genuinely hard to argue with.

Sustainable hospitality isn’t about meat or no meat. It’s about redefining what “good” actually looks like, across 3 pillars - people, planet and profit.

That’s the approach we take, to help our clients run sustainable and profitable businesses, and customers still deserve to eat what they want, just with a clear picture of where it came from.

Because the real question isn’t “meat or no meat.” It’s: do you know how it was produced? That’s where provenance and traceability come in, and it’s the standard I apply to every single ingredient on a menu, not just the meat.

Link to full episode in comments

10/06/2026

If carbon is the only sustainability metric shaping your sourcing decisions, you’re missing most of the picture.

The food sector has done important work on looking at carbon impact of their operations, including supply chain. And supply chain is often where the most carbon is emitted, so looking at the carbon impact of ingredients is not unnecessary work, it’s vital to help get to net zero.

But in focusing on it as a singular metric, we risk creating a new version of the same problem, which is optimising for one number while ignoring everything else.

Soil health. Biodiversity. Nutrient density. Flavour. These aren’t soft, secondary concerns. They’re indicators of whether a farming system is genuinely regenerating our environment and our human health.

And for food businesses, that distinction matters. Because your customers aren’t eating a carbon score. They’re eating the food. They want to know more than just its carbon impact. In survey after survey they’re more often valuing health over environmental concerns.

The most powerful sourcing question isn’t ‘what’s the carbon footprint?’ It’s ‘what kind of system produced this?’ That’s the holistic approach, which has better outcomes for all.

Watch the video for more on why, and I’d love to know how your business is thinking about this.

04/06/2026

04/06/2026

If your sustainable sourcing strategy doesn’t include biodiversity, it’s not as sustainable as you think. Supply continuity of your ingredients are only as resilient as the farming system behind them.

Biodiversity is one of the most overlooked factors in sustainable sourcing.

When farming systems lose diversity, through monocultures and heavy chemical inputs, they become fragile. More vulnerable to disruption. More dependent on intervention to keep producing.

The knock on effect? Less stable supply. More price volatility. Greater long-term risk for the businesses buying from those systems.

Conversely, farming that actively supports biodiversity, through regenerative and organic practices, builds resilience from the ground up. Healthier soils. More stable yields. A food system that can actually sustain itself.

As a food business, your sourcing decisions are market signals. What you choose to buy, and what you’re willing to pay fairly for, shapes which farming systems get supported, and which don’t.

Is your business considering biodiversity in your sourcing strategy? Let me know your thoughts.

28/05/2026

A handful of wheat varieties feed most of the UK. But that’s no longer efficiency; it’s fragility dressed as efficiency.

Historically, in the name of process efficiency we’ve optimised wheat for yield, consistency, and processing efficiency. In doing so, we’ve lost resilience, diversity, human health considerations, and a lot of flavour.

When you look across UK fields right now, much of what you’re seeing growing is winter wheat. Still green, still growing, but part of a deeply standardised system that has steadily narrowed over recent decades.

Heritage grains like einkorn, emmer, and spelt often grow outside those systems. They’re older, less uniform, and in the last 50 years or so have largely been absent from mainstream supply chains. But they bring something the current system is missing: genetic diversity.

That diversity matters. It’s what underpins resilience to disease, weather volatility, and the kind of supply shocks food businesses are increasingly exposed to.

It also shows up in the end product better too. In flavour, in nutrition, and in how ingredients behave in cooking and baking.

Reintroducing heritage grains isn’t nostalgia. It’s a practical shift towards more resilient sourcing and more interesting product development.

The questions for food businesses are simple.

Do we want maximum efficiency, or a system that can actually hold up under pressure?
And one that provides better human health outcomes?

With UK and international studies showing c1 in 10 adults self report food intolerance to gluten or wheat-containing foods, then the customer market is also a compelling case.

Curious to hear others’ thoughts on how we balance productivity, resilience, biodiversity and human health in the food sector.

20/05/2026

“Eat less but better meat” has become a common sustainability message.
But we spend far less time talking about what better meat actually means.
Spring lamb is a good example of why that distinction matters.

These animals are often part of mixed farming systems where they play an active role in how the farm functions, grazing pasture as grass grows, cycling nutrients back into the soil, and helping maintain the landscape as part of a wider regenerative system.

Remove animals entirely, and you don’t just remove meat production. You fundamentally change how those farms work.

That’s why “less but better” can’t just be about reducing quantity. It has to include how meat is produced, what role the animal plays in the farming system, and whether that system contributes positively to soil and biodiversity regeneration.

For chefs and menu developers, this should also change how we think about menu design.

Meat stops being the automatic centre of the plate and becomes something more intentional, and yes, seasonal. In the same way we celebrate asparagus season or forced rhubarb, we should also start thinking about meat seasonality more pro-actively.

So Sustainable menus aren’t just about removing ingredients.
They’re about understanding the systems behind them.

Want to have more conversations about creating sustainable menus? Get in touch, and check out our work with food businesses centred around sustainable sourcing and menus.

12/05/2026

Regenerative agriculture isn’t just a farming conversation. It should be changing the way we design menus too. Because as farming systems move towards more diversity, more seasonal production, more mixed rotations, and lower-input approaches… then our menus need to reflect that reality.

Too often, menu development still happens in isolation from how food is actually grown.

Often they’re built around consistency, availability, and familiar formats, even when those expectations are completely disconnected from seasonal UK production.

But regenerative menu design should look different.

It should ask:

What’s genuinely in season here?

What crops are farmers trying to build back into rotations?

What ingredients support biodiversity and healthier soils?

How do we use more of what’s already being grown, rather than relying on the same narrow range of ingredients all year round?

And how do we create plates with more dietary diversity built in?

That might mean:

Designing dishes around rotational crops

Using companion crops and secondary ingredients more intentionally

Thinking beyond prime cuts and obvious ingredient formats

Embracing visual diversity rather than stripping plates back to minimalism

Building menus that change more dynamically with UK growing conditions

Because diversity on farms and diversity on plates need to be connected.

The more we simplify farming systems, the more we simplify diets. And neither is particularly good for long-term resilience.

So the question isn’t whether flowers “belong” on plates.

It’s a question of whether our menus are actually reflecting the sustainable farming systems we need to support.

So that means designing dishes that make sense within the realities of seasonal UK agriculture, and using ingredients in a way that supports healthier soils, more resilient farms, healthier human health, lower waste, and greater dietary diversity at the same time.

Get in touch to find out more about how we use this diverse approach with our clients to create sustainable, profitable, healthy menus.