Shopping, cooking, and eating as much and as cheaply as possible – all without caring much about the environment and sustainability? That was yesterday. Today, more than ever, we are called upon to take a sustainable approach to how we think and behave. Sustainability is also a major topic of concern for us.
In this article, these professional chef’s would like to point out how easy it is to shop, cook, and eat in a more environmentally friendly manner – all while saving time and money.
Name: Joseph Antonishek
Position: Karma Group Executive Chef
Venue: Karma Kandara
Q: Can you tell me about any of the local producers you use?
A: We primarily use two vendors for our local ingredients. Alam Sari for most of the unique rare ingredients found across the archipelago. And we also work closely with a sole vendor who shops daily for us at the fish market-even on Sundays to ensure we offer the freshest local seafood available. This secret vendor also has contacts in Bedugul where our produce is picked for us the day before and delivered directly to us to ensure vitamin packed fresh organic local fruits and vegetables.
Q: How often do you change your menu? Do you have plant-based menu options?
A: di Mare we change our menu three times a year and are always evolving and incorporating new found discoveries of ingredients. In addition to our signature menus we also offer a 30+ Item Vegetarian/ Vegan Menu which is offered all day.
Q: What do you do to reduce food waste in your restaurant?
A: The first thing we do is smart menu planning incorporating what is called “Menu on Menu.” This is where you take usable trim from one preparation and turn it into an additional menu item. A good example of this would be the Japanese Miyazaki A5 Wagyu Steak in di Mare. We take the trim pieces, and skewer them into yakitori with shishito peppers which are served at Karma Beach.
Q: What strategies do you use to maintain food cost while ensuring quality?
A: There really isn’t any secret to maintaining food cost. It’s pretty standardized starting with menu creation, stock takes, keeping your ordering tight, monitoring loss, and proper month end inventories. It’s not really all that complicated. However, the one thing that I have always applied is sourcing the best possible ingredients for our guests and pricing accordingly. I have found that people are willing to pay a little bit more for high quality products. And your food is only as good as the ingredients you start out with!
Name: Joshua Purwo Caroko
Position: Executive Chef
Venue: REVIVO Wellness Resort Bali
Q: Can you tell me about any of the local producers you use?
A: Our selection of local producers reflects our commitment to sourcing high-quality, environmentally conscious products. These partners prioritize natural ingredients and sustainable practices, aligning with our mission to promote eco-responsibility and positive environmental impact.
One notable partner is ‘Treenut Cheezery,’ an artisan vegan cheese producer located in Sukawati, Gianyar regency. Their dedication to crafting premium-quality vegan cheese resonates with our values.
Additionally, we collaborate with local farmers from Tabanan, who cultivate fruits and vegetables in the highlands using natural methods and fertile soil. Embracing the farm-to-table concept, we also grow some produce on-site to further reduce our carbon footprint and promote a healthier environment.
For poultry, we’ve forged partnerships with farmers in Ubud, Singaraja, and Karangasem. These farmers adhere to free-range practices, ensuring their chickens receive natural feeds and roam freely. This results in lean, clean meat that meets our standards of quality and sustainability.
Q: How often do you change your menu? Do you have plant-based menu options?
A: We still feel very new to the existing menu concept, since we were founded in 2018, but 2 years have been cut short by the pandemic, we are still using the menu we originally designed, with several changes to the presentation, sauces, dressings, etc. We are still in the early stages of introducing our concept and identity to Bali and the surrounding area.
While we don’t offer a specific plant-based menu, we do provide a variety of vegan dishes to cater to our guests’ preferences. Our restaurant embodies the Vital Kitchen concept, which integrates traditional medicinal cooking practices to promote health and longevity. Our primary goal is to offer dishes that utilize the best ingredients and optimal combinations to support the body’s natural detoxification processes and overall well-being.
Q: What do you do to reduce food waste in your restaurant?
A: We implement standard practices common in many restaurants and hotels to minimize food waste. This includes stringent protocols for storage, labeling, and adhering to the FIFO (First In, First Out) method to ensure older ingredients are used first. Additionally, we carefully monitor our production levels to avoid over-preparation, adjusting quantities according to our current capacity.
Furthermore, we track the popularity of dishes to anticipate demand and reduce unnecessary waste. We also minimize trimming and segregate waste into wet and dry categories. Wet waste is repurposed for composting or transformed into eco-enzymes using fruit peels, contributing to our sustainability efforts.
Q: What strategies do you use to maintain food cost while ensuring quality?
A: To uphold food cost management without compromising quality, we prioritize several strategies. Firstly, stringent control over food waste, efficient storage practices, and precise preparation techniques are essential. We ensure that these measures are in place while maintaining consistent quality standards.
Moreover, fostering strong partnerships with our suppliers is paramount. By nurturing collaborative and committed relationships, we guarantee access to high-quality ingredients that align with our standards and mission. Consistency in taste, appearance, and texture is maintained through these quality raw materials.
By maintaining these positive supplier relationships, we not only ensure the quality of our offerings but also stabilize prices, allowing us to deliver value to our customers while upholding our standards.
Name: I Wayan Joni Arthanawa
Position: Executive Chef
Venue: Alila Ubud
Q: Can you tell me about any of the local producers you use?
A: At Alila Ubud, we grow several herbs at our Organic Garden wich totally local produces from our farm, several of the ingredients are the most comes from the local markets around our resort, which the local markets nearby and also the local farmers for our main rice supplier at our resorts. All of our products are coming from local producers
Q: How often do you change your menu? Do you have plant-based menu options?
A: We are not changing all the menu, however, every 6 months, we review all the menu, which menu is the most selling that we highlight and the low performance menu items, we change it and create something new. Yes for the plant based menu it will be by request from our guest.
Q: What do you do to reduce food waste in your restaurant?
A: At Alila Ubud, we strictly maintain our food waste to minimize as minimum as possible. Our first initiatives that we have that we can see from our breakafast, where our breakfast is a’la carte and that plays a significant role in reducing our food waste. Any waste, such an example the bread from breakfast, we make it as the bread crumb or the waste of roasted tomatoes we make it as the tomato sauce, any food waste from the special evetns we make as a special menu at our restaurants so we minimze the waste as minimum as possible.
Q: What strategies do you use to maintain food cost while ensuring quality?
A: From our a’la carte menu, we can control the quality of each of our food while maintaining the food cost, also from point’s number 3, all of our initiatives also plays significant role in maintaining our cost but keeping the quality of the food above all the aspects.
Name: Benjamin Haselbeck
Position: Cluster Executive Chef
Venue: Hyatt Regency Bali and Andaz Bali
Q: Can you tell me about any of the local producers you use?
A: At Andaz Bali, we work with local suppliers and local artisans. So this is why we spent a lot of time doing research in Bali. I heard from a lot of friends or colleagues that it was super difficult to get products in Indonesia, and especially in Bali. And I have to say in the last 5 or 6 years, it seemed more people coming to Bali but also the Balinese by themselves are understanding that the tourism is looking for artisan products. So this was quite interesting, but also on the other hand, challenging because of course the environment here is a little bit different than in other areas. You have a lot of laws and a lot of restrictions to follow. For a company like Hyatt Regency Bali, we cannot work with every artisan together because we also have inquiries for hygiene and for tax numbers and for licenses. So this was a balance in between. But we found a few ones, one of them is Plaga Farm in the Bedugul area where we supply for vegetables. It’s a beautiful land upstairs there in the mountains. And they have an amazing product. Then we have a cooperation with Marder Tea, what we have as our signature tea at Anmars. Also, our coffee is Tadamera coffee, so we are not importing illy coffee from around the world or something like this. We’re trying to be as local as possible. Add on on this, we have our Anders beers, like from Stark. Then Barley Dairy, I think, our cheese and milk supplier. Yeah, these are a few. We’re already starting to looking for more. But, yes, at the end, it’s our mission to have as much as possible. On the other hand, we also need to see that it’s sometimes difficult because of this around hiatus, the licenses, the hygiene procedure, because a lot of artisans in Bali, they are not so looking forward to have all this license. Sometimes it’s for them easier to sell to a free-standing restaurant and they don’t have all these procedures and SOPs in place like Hyatt Regency Bali has.
Q: How often do you change your menu? Do you have plant-based menu options?
A: It’s quite challenging to decide really when you change something. So you have some seasonal fruits and vegetables in barley, there we try to be a little bit out of the menu, like we call it on blackboards and we have something special to offer. But overall, the menus we change four times a year. More often, it’s also very cost intensive for the hotels. You need to print new menus, you need to work on these menus, make presentation, marketing.
Plant-based menu, we try a few times. In Sanur, the market for plant-based is not this big than I see it in Canggu or Ubud. We are very long at Andaz, more customers who are looking on this, so it’s a little bit more focus on Andaz.
Q: What do you do to reduce food waste in your restaurant?
A: We try to reduce food waste by 50%. So this goal we announced I think 2018. Then 2019, we realized that not so many people are doing something actively because nobody knows where to start. So, luckily, in 2021 we started to have in all hotels a food waste management system in place, who is measuring the food waste. Because before you tackle the food waste, you should know what you produce on food waste. Because otherwise it’s just something in the bin and you don’t know exactly which product it is. We’re working at the moment with Light Blue together. Light Blue is a consulting company who have an app. And with this app you measure the food waste in specific categories, for example, fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat, seafood, and then you’re getting reports out of it. So this is the beginning, because then you really can realize how much you have and in which category. Also, it’s then related if it’s coming directly from the kitchen, so we call it produced waste, or is it more buffet waste or guest waste? And out of this, we have a green team here who is taking this data and trying to involve action plans. For example, our biggest food waste we have in fruit skins, like from the peeling and the breakfast. Here we have at breakfast around 600 to 700 guests daily, and on the other side another 300. So we’re talking about 1,000 guests who want to eat every morning fruit. So the peeling skin is something what goes directly in the food waste bin. You cannot change it. But we’re trying to start thinking about, okay, what we can do by ourselves with this to avoid that it’s going to the landfill. And there are a lot of examples. Just to call one is that we’re starting to make our kombucha by ourselves. So for this, we’re reducing the weight by in total, I think, 65%. Because at the end, when you make the kombucha, and then at the end you remove the skin from the liquid, it shrinks from the weight. Something like this. Also, we started to engage more with the guests to make them understandable about the food waste reasonable, at the buffet for example, to reduce the plates, then also recording, for example, when we have welcome cracker or the salad size, if the server realizes the food is going every time in the back and there’s still leftover, we need to reduce the size because this is the size that’s too big. And this helps at the end both sides. We’re reducing the food waste and on the other hand we are reducing cost. So it’s very much in the interest also of the company to reduce food waste.
Q: What strategies do you use to maintain food cost while ensuring quality?
A: Yeah, I think a very difficult question to answer in a short way. I will take it this way. At Hyatt Regency Bali, we believe for value for money on one hand. And then on the other hand we understand that compared to venues outside on the street, we are more expensive. We have electricity, we have our staff, we have a very high service charge, which goes directly to our server, to our employees, to have for them a better life at the end of the day. So, these kind of things we need to reduce more and more, and we did. We need to, as we call it, “value for money”. We need to bring good quality and this needs to show up for the chef every day that we are having good products, that we are cooking nicely to the customer. But at the end of the day, this cannot have a crazy price. Of course, we want to make profit because we are a management company and we want to give our owner a good margin on this. But it needs to have a healthy balance for all parties. So it means like the owner, the customer and the employee need to be healthy and around. And I think Hyatt Hyatt Regency Bali is one of the companies when I compare to other big companies, where we have a very high food cost compared to other companies, but I think also a much better quality than the other one because we are buying the best available product on the market. buying the best available product on the market. That’s it.
Name: Rai Sutama
Position: Founder
Venue: YUKI Canggu & Uluwatu
Q: Can you tell me about any of the local producers you use?
A: We source our fresh ingredients locally from Bali. We have a partnership with a grower in Java for our wasabi, ensuring the authenticity of our Japanese-inspired dishes. Additionally, we obtain our seafood from Indonesia, specifically using line-caught methods to ensure sustainability. We also employ a Japanese way of handling and killing fish, emphasizing traditional techniques. We collaborate closely with local fishermen, showcasing a partnership that involves mutual learning and respect. Furthermore, we take measures to ensure we have access to the herbs and vegetables we need by supporting local growers.
Q: How often do you change your menu? Do you have plant-based menu options?
A: We change our specials menu approximately every 6 weeks, providing our customers with fresh and seasonal offerings. We also have plant-based menu options, including items such as watermelon sushi roll, mushroom katsu roll, pumpkin teriyaki, and mushroom skewers. This reflects our commitment to catering to a diverse range of dietary preferences and ensuring there are options available for plant-based eaters.
Q: What do you do to reduce food waste in your restaurant?
A: We employ various strategies to minimize food waste in our restaurant. We train our development team to avoid errors that could lead to wastage. Additionally, we utilize parts of ingredients that might otherwise be discarded, such as chicken skin, by turning it into powder. We also employ techniques like pickling, preserving, and dehydrating vegetables to extend their shelf life. Moreover, we work with a third-party organization called Urban Compost to manage our food waste, ensuring that organic waste is composted and used for farming, including in our own gardens.
Q: What strategies do you use to maintain food cost while ensuring quality?
A: We employ several strategies to balance food cost with maintaining quality. We prioritize seasonal ingredients, which tend to be more cost-effective and fresher. By locally sourcing our ingredients, we reduce transportation costs and support local producers, further contributing to sustainability. Additionally, we invest in the training and development of our team, ensuring that staff are equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to handle ingredients properly and maintain high-quality standards in food preparation and service.
Name: Tony Eka Saputra
Position: Executive Chef
Venue: Padma Resort Ubud
Q: Can you tell me about any of the local producers you use?
A: These are just a few examples of the many local producers in Bali, especially in Payangan–Ubud, who have been working closely with us since the opening of the hotel. They are not just business partners; we have grown as a family too, aligning with our commitment to sustainability.
Our wood-fired pizzas are sourced from a local village, with significant consumption each month. Additionally, our top products in terms of consumption are chicken and eggs, totalling more than a ton per month, sourced from a neighbouring farm. We also purchase fruits, vegetables, pottery, fish, and seafood locally. By supporting these businesses, both locals and tourists can contribute to preserving Bali’s natural beauty and cultural heritage while promoting environmentally friendly practices.
In the realm of food and beverage, Bali has also seen a rise in organic and small permaculture farming initiatives. For example, an organic farm in Ubud produces a variety of fruits, vegetables, and herbs without the use of synthetic pesticides or fertilisers. They supply their produce to hotels, restaurants, cafes, and markets across the island, promoting sustainable agriculture and a healthier approach.
We love working closely with local farmers and fishermen, ensuring top-quality harvests in season and the freshest produce and line-caught fish/seafood while supporting the local economy. There is always room for exploration and innovation, driven by our passion for sourcing the best produce from well-composed soil.
Q: How often do you change your menu? Do you offer plant-based menu options?
A: As best practices, we change our menu twice a year. Regular menu changes can significantly support sustainability efforts by aligning menu ingredients with seasonal harvests, encouraging biodiversity, fostering innovation, and educating staff and customers about sustainable food practices. We do offer a plant-based menu, providing options for customers following a vegan diet, such as vegetable brochettes, stuffed eggplant bayildi, wraps, stewed peas, and mushroom bruschetta.
I’m proud to share that our resort grows many vegetables and fruits. Each morning, we harvest fresh herbs, edible flowers, vegetables, and fruits from our colleague garden caretaker, grown in our well-composed agro garden.
Q: What do you do to reduce food waste in your restaurant?
A: Reducing food waste is a priority in our restaurant, and we employ several strategies to anticipate, avoid, and minimise wastage. We start with menu planning, synchronising each harvest with the seasonal calendar to ensure prime produce in our kitchen. We carefully design our menu to efficiently use each ingredient across multiple dishes, minimising unused produce. Additionally, we practise portion control to avoid over-serving and innovate with scraps of ingredients. We also utilise preservation techniques for excess harvest from our garden and donate surplus food to the community. By implementing these measures, we operate our kitchen sustainably and responsibly, minimising our environmental impact and fighting food waste.
Q: What strategies do you use to maintain food costs while ensuring quality?
A: Maintaining food costs while ensuring quality requires a thoughtful approach and regular planning. We analyse which items sell best and adjust inventory accordingly. We train our team to practise portion control effectively and rely on seasonal harvests to obtain prime produce at reasonable prices. By effectively managing purchases and upholding the quality of our menu offerings, we aim to provide a memorable dining experience while maintaining cost efficiency.
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