Sustainable Gastronomy at Heritage Restaurant: Mindful Eating Made Easy
Heritage wants to be more than simply a restaurant with great food, friendly service, and a warm ambiance. Running our restaurant in an environmentally and socially responsible way is important to us. We prioritise sustainability in everything that we do, from sourcing our ingredients to limiting the use of packaging. In our never-ending quest to simplify mindful eating for you, our valued customers, we take great delight in our forward-thinking approach. We would like to share with you some of the numerous steps we’ve taken so far to win over environmentally concerned consumers, minimise our environmental footprint, and create a more sustainable future.
Although we draw inspiration from Latin American cuisine, we are extremely careful to use locally and ethically sourced ingredients. We're proud to work with local farm Groentegem, under the Chef Supported Agriculture (CSA) model. The vegetable garden there is maintained for us, and in return, we get access to fresh produce that goes into our dishes. With the CSA model, we can cover a significant percentage of our annual needs: 70-80% in winter and 90-95% in summer. The setup allows us to take only what we need for our menus, and any extra produce goes to the other participants in the Groentegem project, reducing unnecessary waste.
Our menu is designed with a focus on vegetables, as we believe in and want to promote a plant-based diet as much as possible. We offer two menu options: The Garden Menu, which is 100% plant-based, and the Sea Menu, which contains three out of the five dishes with fish or shellfish. Meat is not part of our menu. Besides Groentegem, we source products from a number of great partners based in or nearby Ghent. Some examples include vegan cheese from Omage, Micro’s microgreens, Johannes beer, and coffee beans from Sao Paulo. We serve organic Colombian coffee ‘Manos de Mujer’ produced by female cooperative members in Prado, Tolima. The Manos de Mujer project focuses on female growers and helps differentiate their coffees.
We also make sure to keep an eye out for ways to reduce our carbon footprint in other areas. For instance, we use energy-efficient lighting everywhere. We're also implementing plans to install double glazing for our windows and have replaced bar fridges with more energy-efficient ones. Additionally, we're careful with water usage and avoid hand-washing dishes in favour of using the dishwasher and routinely checking our appliances for leaks or other maintenance needs.
There are many things we do to limit the use of plastics and packaging. Thanks to our cooperation with Groentegem, there is little-to-no single-use plastics involved for the fresh produce we use in our kitchen. We make a variety of products in-house, such as pita bread, hot sauce, kombucha, and cookies, which eliminates packaging, and we store our ingredients in efficient reusable boxes. Furthermore, all of the drinks we serve are served in glass bottles, and we are considering installing a tap water system to significantly reduce our use of bottles.
As a restaurant committed to sustainable practices, we also take care of our staff. We advocate for a good work-life balance for our employees and have established procedures to make sure we uphold it. For instance, each employee works a maximum of 8 hours per day, and a break is provided for everyone to eat together, promoting a positive work culture and team spirit. Additionally, we work to recognise our employee's contributions, and we conduct weekly meetings, where everyone has a chance to share ideas and give feedback. We identify the good and work together to improve the less positive points.
At Heritage, we believe that food should be more than just a source of nourishment. It should also feed your soul and keep the environment in mind. We continuously strive towards a more sustainable future. Sustainability is not just a trend for us, it is a way of life, and we want our guests to experience that in every bite. We welcome you to come and join us for an innovative and delicious dining experience that is kind to the environment. See you soon!