BEST PRACTICE
For Shannon Bennett and James Viles, ingredients must not just be the best – they must also be sustainable. The chefs explain how what’s good for the planet is good for the plate.
COMMON GROUND
His name is a byword for fine dining in Australia but Shannon Bennett knows that serving up unsustainable produce, no matter how delicious, is a no-go. “Chefs have a responsibility,” says Shannon Bennett, Creative Director at Vue de monde. “If chefs don’t buy a particular product doing harm to the environment, then that practice will stop. So chefs have to wake up and realise their responsibilities, and I think that if they start talking to partners like
Nespresso, they’ll learn a hell of a lot.” Bennett, who uses a Nespresso
Professional machine at Vue de monde, is referring to Nespresso’s sustainable farming relationships. The company reduced the carbon footprint of a Nespresso cup of coffee by 20% between 2009 and 2013 and has a strategy in place to source 100% of its coffee sustainably through the Nespresso AAA Sustainable Quality ™ Program, use 100% responsibly sourced aluminium (through the Aluminium Standard Initiative) and have 100% carbon efficient operations by 2020. “I think
Nespresso are ahead of their time and they were talking about land management back then. When I visited the farms [that Nespresso works with in Brazil] a number of years ago, it was pretty amazing to see no sprays – everything was natural. Yields and weather patterns were talked about. They have studied the conditions and climate.” For Bennett, sustainability is all about finding the right produce and asking his suppliers questions. “I have learnt from my suppliers about sustainability and I tried to transfer a lot of those principles back into the restaurant.”
“[The farmers in Brazil told me] they were producing ordinary coffee then Nespresso came along and said look, let’s show you how to get the best out of your coffee plants.” SHANNON BENNETT Creative Director, Vue de monde