New Scenic Café

• WHO: Scott Graden, chef/owner
• WHAT: An artisan dining experience along the scenic North Shore of Lake Superior
• WHERE: 5461 North Shore Drive, Duluth, Minnesota

"When it comes to sustainability, I consider two different facets. First is the matter of whether an item can be produced in a responsible and sustainable manner. Undoubtedly, this is very important. Second, and perhaps even more critical to my ability to make decisions about our menu, is whether a producer can offer enough of a product to sustain our needs as a business. We put quality of products first...if it then happens we can get a product we want in the quality we want locally, all the better."

The New Scenic Café, nestled along the beautiful North Shore of Lake Superior, is a destination for thousands of Minnesota travellers all year long. And now the café is proud to share that it reached its twentieth anniversary on 1 April, 2019. The occasion is being celebrated during the entire month of 1 April with a Classics menu featuring customer favourites from the last twenty years. Congratulations!

To read more about New Scenic Café, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

Gigi Pizzeria

• WHO: Marco & Daniela Matino
• WHAT: Gigi is a plant-based pizzeria and member of Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana
• WHERE: 379 King Street, Newtown, Sydney, Australia

"We are most passionate about creating amazing flavours with ethical and sustainable ingredients using only plant-based produce. Whilst ethics and sustainability were major contributing factors for moving to a plant-based menu, we also had the health and well-being of our customers in mind. The dairy free cheeses we use on some of our pizze are also a much healthier option."

"We have also made other changes; we stopped using plastic straws, now only giving paper straws on request and switched to biodegradable T/A packaging, and we don't stock any drinks in plastic bottles. We are constantly looking at ways to be as sustainable as possible."

To read more about Gigi Pizzeria, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

Gigi Pizzeria, Sydney, Australia

Café St Honoré

• WHO: Neil Forbes, chef director
• WHAT: Café St Honoré serves the best Scottish ingredients in an authentically Parisian interior
• WHERE: 34 Thistle Street North West Lane, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

"It is so worthwhile to place sustainability at the heart of what we do on a daily basis. It is more profitable and environmentally-friendly serving organic where ever possible, thinking about how we use energy with greener energy tariffs. We installed a new eco-friendly kitchen four years ago and focus on lighting, induction and how we save water, yes in Scotland! Ethical meat and sustainable fish are a given, if it doesn’t fit the set criteria then it doesn’t go on the menu. We choose to keep menus small, local, seasonal, and ethical, focusing on a lot more vegetables in season, reducing portion size and giving doggy bags too."

To read more about Café St Honoré, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

Café St Honoré, Edinburgh, Scotland

Embassy

• WHO: Pol Kimsan & Sok Kimsan, chefs
• WHAT: Elegant Khmer fine dining rooted in seasonal local produce run by an all-women Cambodian team
• WHERE: Embassy Restaurant, Street 27, King’s Road Angkor, Siem Reap

"Our menu changes every month in order to follow the seasons and we always choose our new dishes depending on what is available locally. All of the produce we use at Embassy is locally sourced. We buy all our vegetables, fruits and herbs from local farmers who also grow it organically and for our meat, we always pay attention to the living conditions of the livestock. We are very careful to work with partners who respect the environment and animals."

In early May, Chefs Pol and Sok Kimsan are opening a new space, just for them, called The Kimsans Lab. Located in bustling Siem Reap, the Lab, which is born from the idea of continuing to innovate and push the boundaries will be dedicated to expressing their creativity; searching and experiencing new recipes and combinations with no limits or constraints. Other Chefs will also be welcome to come and share some cooking time with the Kimsans.

From time to time, a dozen lucky guests will have the opportunity to visit The Kimsans Lab to sample their very latest discoveries during pop-up dinners. The first event will be an eight course dinner, with two guest French chefs.

To read more about Embassy, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

Embassy, Siem Reap, Cambodia

NOON All Day

• WHO: Kerry Glancy, Sher Rogat & Margherita Sagan
• WHAT: Your neighbourhood kitchen, serving tasty, nourishing food all day long
• WHERE: 690 Indiana Street, San Francisco, USA

"Using seafood as an example; we buy from a local purveyor that knows the name of the captain on the boat where the fish were caught. We have a personal relationship with the purveyor, and he has personal relationships with the fishermen. That level of trust and commitment is how we ensure the quality and integrity of the food we serve."

"It's simply good business to have as one of our core principals, a commitment to wasting nothing. In the kitchen, we find a use for everything. For example, all parts of the chicken are used: braised chicken on your salad, fried chicken bites, chicken 'stracciatella' soup. We found a way to repurpose day-old pizza dough into crackers, and we use our pizza dough as a pita-like pocket for a sandwich. Past-their-prime cookies are turned into cookie crumble for our buffalo milk soft serve ice cream."

To read more about NOON All Day, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

NOON All Day, San Francisco, USA

Fat Pig Farm

• WHO: Matthew Evans, owner/chef
• WHAT: A working farm with an open kitchen for Friday feasts
• WHERE: Near Cygnet, Huon Valley, Tasmania, Australia

"Our market garden is run according to the organic standard and our livestock are free-range on regeneratively managed pasture. We are transparent about how we farm and encourage customers to join us on a tour of the farm during lunch. Pretty much everybody who comes to eat here is expected to get their feet dirty by seeing where their lunch has come from. We have a handful of indigenous native plants outside the kitchen door, and have begun working with the local aboriginal community and bush foods experts to create a bush foods garden with upwards of forty indigenous plants for use in the kitchen, just outside the deck of the restaurant."

"All our organic waste is composted on the farm, and we separate food scraps so we can use them for pigs, chooks, the dog, worms etc. We have also commissioned local winemakers to supply our wine in kegs to reduce the number of bottles we are recycling each week, and are carbonating our own water rather than buying it in."

To read more about Fat Pig Farm, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

Fat Pig Farm, Huon Valley, Australia

Oleana

• WHO: Ana Sortun, executive chef/co-owner
• WHAT: Fresh ingredients, mostly our own vegetables, flavourful spices with an emphasis on Turkish cuisine
• WHERE: 134 Hampshire Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

"Although our spices are not local, most of the other ingredients that we work with are. When we source olive oil, spices and condiments like pomegranate molasses from afar, we look for small producers that are likeminded and have similar values. One example is that we helped to bring organic pomegranate molasses into the country which is made in a women’s cooperative in the mountains of Lebanon. Our wine program follows the same principles. We use filtered water, biodynamic wines, and love imperfections and 'seconds' in the vegetable world."

"Recycling, composting and using no chemicals is high priority for us. The chemicals have always been an obstacle but we are finding better alternatives for dishwashing and cleaning every year."

To read more about Oleana, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

Oleana, Cambridge, USA