Sam Bray - Trip Report

The word sustainability is thrown around so casually that it often loses its meaning. What does it actually mean? More importantly, how can restaurants—the very places that feed and shape culture—take meaningful steps to improve the world, rather than simply jumping on the greenwashing bandwagon? My Tranche Scholarship journey began with this question in mind.

Throughout my journey, I encountered forward-thinking professionals and projects tackling the question of how food culture can be sustained for generations to come.

What I learned is that the future of food is not just about technological innovation but about looking backwards to move forwards. The old ways of doing things—regenerative farming, using whole animals, minimizing waste—are essential for survival in a rapidly changing world. This isn’t just about survival though; conscious, ethical choices can actually drive creativity, leading to more beautiful and delicious outcomes. True luxury, it turns out, is small, slow, and deeply connected to nature, not flashy or fast.

But sustainability isn’t one-size-fits-all. The report touches on the varying approaches across different regions: while Europe focuses on grand-scale carbon reduction, Australia hones in on smaller, more visible efforts like eliminating single-use plastics. Both approaches are valuable, but how can we strike a balance that not only reduces our carbon footprint but also enriches the dining experience?

From Copenhagen to Brussels to the UK, I met with restaurateurs, farmers, and innovators who are working with purpose and authenticity. These are people who pick their lane and stick to it. Their teams are happier and more motivated because the business isn’t just about profit—it’s built around a purpose. When a restaurant is values-driven, every person on the team knows exactly why they show up each day, and that passion translates into the food they create.

In the end, my journey probed deeper questions: how can sustainability not only preserve the earth but also enhance the joy of delicious, beautiful things? The answer might lie in understanding that sustainability, when done right, creates more than just environmental benefits—it builds culture, fosters creativity, and leaves a lasting impact on the way we experience food. The compounding value of a great idea, passed from person to person, is what has always moved civilization forward, and it’s what will help us build a more sustainable and delicious future.

Copenhagen.

Mad Academy

Spending five days at Mad Academy was an incredible way to kick off an exploration into the world of sustainability. We dove straight into the pressing need for change in our global food systems, equipping ourselves with the tools—both literal and figurative—to take responsibility within our professional spheres around the globe.

Being surrounded by 25 passionate hospitality professionals in one of the world’s great restaurant cities was a true delight. I relished sunny mornings in bakeries, savoring exceptional coffee and indulging in delectable pastries. We debated the finer points of hospitality and deliciousness over natural wine at Rosforth & Rosforth on the harbor. Copenhagen embodies a culture where quality, sustainability, and luxury are intricately
intertwined.

Sustainability is often regarded as a “broken word,” one that has been misused since its rise in popularity in the 1970s. It is frequently applied to products and businesses that benefit from greenwashing, failing to accurately define the challenges our food systems face or the solutions we need. In essence, sustainability revolves around accepting responsibility for our actions—whether organizational, personal, or global. Eating, cooking, and procurement are inherently agricultural acts, making them environmental acts as well. The choices we make in procurement significantly impact the environmental toll of our operations.

Throughout the week, we were reminded that the “low hanging fruit” often has the most significant impact. Simple changes in menu design, such as substituting carbon-intensive beef with duck or pork, can dramatically reduce CO2 output. Supporting local regenerative growers can shorten supply chains and boost biodiversity. Most importantly, these low-hanging fruits can kickstart an organization’s sustainability journey.

Douglas McMaster from Silo shared his insights on how waste is a byproduct of an industrialized food system and a failure of imagination. His mission to create a restaurant without a bin draws on traditional food production practices, such as direct trade, composting, and whole food preparation, which naturally foster a circular food economy. In nature, there is no such thing as waste.

Douglas has distilled Silo’s approach into “closed-loop cooking,” a method that fully realizes an ingredient’s potential before it reaches the kitchen. Waste streams are established to ensure

every scrap of edible material finds a purpose. By harnessing the magic of koji and other fermentations, they transform less desirable kitchen offcuts into cornerstone ingredients for their culinary repertoire. This approach not only creates value but also fosters a positive narrative in which guests are active participants. Financially, it pays off, as Silo maintains an impressive 10% food cost.

A key takeaway from Silo is that change is challenging. It has taken a decade of trial and error to develop a system with no loose ends. This evolution has involved years of small changes rather than one monumental effort. Such change is only possible with driven individuals committed to their cause.

We also visited Jørgen Peder Steffensen at the Niels Bohr Institute, where we explored the world’s largest collection of ancient ice cores to understand the unknown impacts of a rapidly changing climate. We met with Johanne Schimming at Hegnsholt Farm, who is dedicated to reforming outdated agricultural legislation, allowing Danish farmers to produce eggs and pork solely by feeding animals food waste.

Our visit to Dansktang introduced us to seaweed farmers creating new markets for delicious, carbon-negative food sources sourced from poorly managed Danish seas. Peter

DuPont from Coffee Collective demonstrated the potential of purpose-driven business, roasting and serving exceptional coffee while ensuring fair compensation for coffee growers—a radical concept two decades ago. Portia Hart shared similar principles, discussing her efforts in building a sustainable resort in Colombia that prioritizes the local environment and community.

Finally, we engaged in a collaborative workshop (with Lego, very Danish) to envision what a restaurant might look like in 2050. Discussing the myriad challenges our industry and planet face was both comforting and inspiring. Understanding the obstacles ahead enables us to tackle them head-on and proactively plan for a sustainable future.

This experience at Mad Academy has profoundly shaped my perspective on sustainability within the hospitality sector. By embracing innovative practices, learning from trailblazers, and focusing on actionable change, we can forge a path toward a more sustainable and delicious future. The journey ahead may be complex, but with collective commitment and creativity, we can transform our food systems and redefine what it means to operate sustainably in our industry.

Brussels.

European Commission Consumer Food Waste Forum

I made contact with Marine Therzon from HOTREC, the Europe-wide association representing the hospitality sector to the European Union. Marine invited me to join her at the European Consumer Food Waste Forum, a conference that brought together stakeholders, researchers, and policymakers dedicated to addressing the global issue of food waste. Below is a brief overview of my key takeaways from the conference.

The European Commission has set a target of reducing consumer food waste by 30% by 2030, and Australia has made similar commitments.

Food waste accounts for approximately 16% of the overall emissions impact of the food system (with food production contributing around 25-30% of global emissions). The EU has prioritized this issue in its efforts to combat climate change.

Food waste is both tangible and easy to understand. It’s hard to argue in favor of wasting food. Yet, it often slips through the cracks, revealing itself as an insidious issue behind closed doors. The feelings of abundance and perceptions of value are frequently linked to portion sizes. As a result, restaurants tend to overfill plates, while customers typically respond poorly to smaller portions.

Before tackling food waste on a massive corporate and governmental scale, it needs to be measured and rationalized—no small task given the problem’s complexity. Self-reporting by businesses is currently the only method for gathering large-scale data, but this approach comes with its own challenges. People often provide socially desirable answers, and food waste reporting tends to fall low on the list of priorities and down the chain of management. Those dealing with waste firsthand are often the lowest-paid employees, who receive little education or support in adopting this concept. Consequently, filling out the required paperwork is frequently forgotten or overlooked by stressed and overworked kitchen staff.

A broad-scale approach is necessary to address this multifaceted issue. Management must occur at all levels of government, from global organizations to local councils. Businesses will not make the required changes without financial incentives to do so. Governments have the power to make it financially unviable to continue down the wrong path. The financial carrot must be dangled before employing the environmental whip.
History has shown us the ineffectiveness of environmental guilt in promoting sustainability. Shaming people for their poor environmental choices often breeds resentment and inaction.

Instead, we must provide solutions that positively impact the bottom line and help build a truly sustainable business.
Behavioral science offers the best chance to change individual behaviors. Shifting the way people operate at home and in the workplace presents a significant opportunity to embed lower waste behaviors into daily operations. Simple changes, like a well-organized produce section in a restaurant’s cool room or optimized prep lists to minimize food waste, can have a substantial impact on restaurant waste.

Marine Therzon also arranged for a number of visits to businesses doing incredible things in the world of sustainability and environmental impact. The following is a small snapshop of these operators.

Recyclo

Recyclo started with an incredibly simple concept. Use an e-bike to collect organic waste from restaurants, and turn it into compost. They have developed their own fleet of incredible cargo e-bikes (pictured right), capable of carrying hundreds of kilos of waste. Using Brussels’ cycling infrastructure to get around in a super efficient manner. They have had to constantly push through mountains of red tape to make anything happen. Despite proof of concept and developing a strictly regulated and hygienic composting system, the finished compost is illegal to sell, donate or use. Despite the demand for high quality compost. This roadblock is mostly thanks to Belgium’s ‘biofuel’ approach (burning trash for energy), which leaves no allowance for composting. Depriving the agricultural sector of valuable organic matter and life for heavily farmed soils of Belgium. The incredible passion held by the entire Recyclo team is truly inspiring. They persevere despite the wall of bureaucracy blocking their path.

Entropy

Chef Elliot Van De Velde has built his restaurant, Entropy into something more than a restaurant. He started with a social enterprise in mind built around a fine dining restaurant, At first offering omnivorous menus but found himself leaning on meat and dairy less and less. Eventually the whole restaurant served only plant based menus. He called out greenwashing in his own business and backed his ethos with action. Entropy relies heavily on produce from highly skilled growers in the region. Pulling from centuries of market garden traditions blended with regenerative practices and modern technology, they are getting incredible yields from comparatively tiny patches of soil. On the side, Entropy has “Hearth” , an enterprise focusing on feeding hungry people with recovered food and running workshops with chefs on zero waste and sustainability principles.
Savage
Savage is a plant based restaurant (with meat and fish as optional extras). The chef/owner Joel Rammelsberg serves only a four course dinner (or 2 course lunch) with an optional meat or fish as add ons to each course. This prompts the guest to reflect on what they truly wish to eat. At first Joel found most guests adding animal protein to all courses, eventually discovering most guests prefer plant based tasting menus, despite the delicious animal based options on offer.

The place is almost zero waste, with a bakery and providore across the road helping to make sure everything can be used. If it’s not first used on the tasting menu at Savage, it’s pickled, dried, baked or fermented into something delicious (and profitable).

Helsinki.

Ravintola Nolla

Albert Sunyer and the whole team are doing something pretty special. They simply don’t have a bin, and anything that can’t be eaten, fermented, dried or reused ends up in the composter which takes pride of place right in the dining room. Placed right in the centre of Helsinki’s Design District, Nolla represents the quietly cool elegance Finland does so well.

They change the whole menu every five weeks, and will only use ingredients from the often brutal Finnish climate, with a growing season lasting barely six months once the blanket of snow and darkness of the long winter has lifted. This exclusionary approach to procurement is a driving creative force for the kitchen.

While these lofty ethical guidelines could pose challenges, they actually foster innovation. The team is compelled to think outside the box in their quest for deliciousness, collaborating to create diverse and intriguing dishes from a limited selection of produce. Juicy stuff.

Similar to Silo, Nolla approaches ingredients holistically. The concept of waste is reframed; every ingredient that enters the kitchen is fully utilized, with each part designated for its specific purpose. This philosophy is consistently applied across the three venues in their group, with products often being shared between locations

The meticulous attention to detail at Nolla rivals that of any Michelin-starred establishment around the world. Here, this focus extends not only to creating delicious food and providing attentive service but to every

aspect of the dining experience. They have eliminated all unnecessary chemicals and their associated packaging from the restaurant. An electrolysis system produces “holy water” for cleaning, and anything that can’t be cleaned with this e-water is treated with liquid soap made locally from the restaurant’s used fryer oil. Uniforms are crafted from ex-hotel linens, and broken plates are repurposed into artwork in the dining room.

The summer time at Nolla means full steam ahead in the kitchen. The team has to think not only of the summer menus, filled with luscious Nordic berries and vibrant herbs but also of the dark winter months. Where nothing could possibly grow underneath the blanket of dark nights and thick snow. Sourcing Finnish seafood provides another set of challenges. The Baltic is barely even brackish, and is heavily fished. So Albert looks to the 180,000 or so lakes teeming with under-utilised fish, like pike perch. The Finnish population has developed a taste for anything but local seafood, outside of the ubiquitous muikko. (The tiny little salmonoid fish normally served crispy fried in butter) It’s taken three years to get guests on board with Nolla’s ethical stance. The zero waste aspect is easy to grasp, but Albert has had to persuade Helsinki diners that a menu without an imported rib-eye or chunk of farmed salmon is worth eating.

What the team at Nolla is accomplishing is genuinely inspiring, and I firmly believe that if Australian restaurants adopted even a few of these straightforward ideas, we could significantly reduce our collective environmental impact.

Cornwall.

Argoe

Rolling into Argoe to meet the whole crew on the restaurant’s third birthday was quite the introduction. To me, great restaurants should feel like arriving at a friends house for a dinner party, and Argoe fits the bill. There’s an almost Tasmanian sensibility to Cornish folks and that shines through in the dining room and kitchen. Situated right on the harbour in the working fishing port of Newlyn, the restaurant feels that it truly belongs where it is.

Owner Rich Adams has a deep family connection to the fishing industry, with his parents running a seafood wholesale business
just across the road. He bridges the gap between the rugged fishermen of the harbour and the diners eager to catch a glimpse of the often mysterious fishing industry. In a world where social status is increasingly measured by experiences, authenticity—much like sustainability—has become a new luxury. Argoe delivers both in abundance.

Many restaurants I visited during my travels claimed sustainability as a key part of their ethos, often using the term as much for marketing as for genuine kitchen practices. In contrast, Argoe has sustainability woven into the very fabric of its existence.

The sustainable fish selection starts at the market, where Rich and his buyers are deliberate in choosing specific boats to purchase from. By selecting vessels based on fishing method and size—favoring smaller boats and avoiding trawlers—they minimize harm to local ecosystems while ensuring the highest quality fish. Less desirable but incredibly delicious spider crabs feature prominently on the menu and are pulled straight out of the water before each service.

Rich champions a “whole net” approach to sourcing, utilizing bycatch alongside more popular “sustainable” species. We’ve seen the damage that arises when one fish is placed on a pedestal; for example, blue mackerel, once considered a sustainable choice, is now overfished and overpriced due to its newfound status.

Once the fish reaches the kitchen, not a scrap goes to waste. Smaller fish are served whole, on the bone, while larger fish are broken
down into manageable portions, also served on the bone. Fish offal enhances the flavour of the house soupe de poisson, and bones are simmered down into gelatinous stocks to glaze fish and create sauces. Hake throats, known as kokotxas in the Basque region, are showcased as a delicacy at Argoe, served alongside a portion of the fish. This unique preparation highlights the restaurant’s commitment to utilizing every part of the catch. Anything that can’t be used in the kitchen is collected and sent, along with fish waste from local processors, up to Scotland, where it is transformed into animal feed and cosmetic products.

While the menu still centers on fish, it reflects a classic British approach. The influence of Head Chef Ben Coombs, formerly of Rochelle Canteen, is evident in strikingly simple dishes that emphasize balance and flavour. Less desirable or bony fish are cleverly repurposed into luscious fish meatballs or smoked and cured preparations. Local growers deliver vegetables daily, from farms within a stones-throw of the harbour.

During one of my final nights in town, Rich arranged for us to spend the night aboard a traditional Cornish sardine ring netter. Despite the challenging conditions, we departed Newlyn Harbor in search of sardines, knowing that our adventure could take anywhere from 4 to 14 hours. With a crew of just three (plus Rich and me as observers), they managed to catch an impressive 7 tons of sardines by evening standards, though this was considered a modest haul for the Cornish summer.

Final Thoughts.

It was a truly unforgettable experience to witness sustainable fishing practices firsthand. Using a combination of sonar technology and local expertise, the crew targeted sardine schools with remarkable precision, minimizing bycatch and ensuring that any unintended catches were carefully returned to the water. Amidst the prevalent environmental concerns, it was incredibly heartening to see sustainable food production in action.

In every aspect, Argoe exemplifies how a restaurant can embrace sustainability while providing an authentic dining experience that connects diners with the local fishing community, Something I would love to capture in our Tasmanian dining culture. Rich and his crew made me feel so incredibly at home. After two weeks of living in Penzance, i felt i could have been there for months.

My journey through the world of sustainable food has been a transformative experience. From the bustling harbour-sides of Copenhagen to the rugged shores of Cornwall, I've witnessed firsthand the incredible work being done by passionate individuals and businesses to create a more sustainable and delicious future.

I've learned that sustainability is more than just a buzzword; it's about making conscious choices that benefit both our planet and our communities. Traditional practices like regenerative farming and whole-animal butchery can offer valuable solutions to modern challenges, demonstrating that the past can inform the future.

Sustainability and creativity go hand-in-hand. By embracing sustainable practices, restaurants can unlock new culinary possibilities and create more meaningful dining experiences. Purpose-driven businesses are more likely to succeed and to train and build up the next generation of hospitality talent we so desperately need.

As I look to the future, I am inspired by the potential for the Australian hospitality industry to embrace true sustainability. In a future that will see Australia heavily affected by a changing climate, we have so much to lose through inaction. By learning from the examples I've encountered during my travels, we can create a more sustainable and delicious food culture that benefits both our planet and our communities.