Global chefs encourage food industry to go local

CHENNAI: Chefs may have flown in from various countries for the global culinary enclave in Chennai, but the focus of the event was clearly on keeping things ‘local’. Day one of the three-day International Chefs Conference organised by the Indian Federation of Culinary Associations (IFCA) threw the spotlight on why sustainability is critical in the food service industry. “Sustainability in its simplest terms means, when we die, we leave something for the world to be the same or a better place. We can do this in many ways ——from supporting local cuisine to reducing wastage in the kitchen to conserving energy,” said Chef Christopher Koetke, when he took the stage on Friday.“We, in the food service industry can make a difference just by changing the way we do things,” he said. “If everyone lived like an average American, we would need four earths to sustain life in 2050, when there will be more than nine billion people on this planet,” said Koetke, the vice president of the culinary arts programmes at Laureate International Universities and director of Kendall College in Chicago, USA.He added that he was impressed with some of the sustainable methods used in Indian hotels, especially how they conserve water. “In the US, chefs thaw items by holding them under running water. Imagine the of litres of water that gets wasted in a year,” said Koetke, who added that culinary schools in the US are now focusing on sustainability in their curriculum. “Schools now have organic gardens, we have courses in beekeeping, energy and waste auditing, and studies in local cuisine as part of the curriculum in Kendall,”he said.Over the last few years, arround the world, the idea of locavore cuisine —a cuisine that focuses on local or regional food usually procured within 200 km of one’s location – is gaining popularity as a means to support sustainability.In Chennai too, several restaurants have added locavore sections to their menus. Last year, ITC Grand Chola for instance, the venue of the conference, added locavore sections on its menu at all its restaurants. At Friday’s session, local flavours such as the rose from Auroville were highlighted in the lunch served to delegates.Dr Chef Soundararajan, conference director, and IFCA general secretary said, he is working on collaborating with the World Association of Chefs Society in a ‘feed the planet’ programme, which focuses on training chefs on sustainability practices. “The certification programme will include training on developing organic gardens, recycling methods, using local ingredients, and managing kitchen wastage,” Soundararajan said.Chef Manjith Singh Gill, president of IFCA, and one of the core members behind the government of India’s culinary institutes coming up across the country, says sustainability is a part of their curriculum.