HYDERABAD: Living a conscious life, full of sustainable and environment friendly choices is the one to follow. The food industry too has been trying to include things that are nature friendly and doing their bit to safeguard the environment. We got in touch with restaurants in the city to speak to chefs, managers who explain about how they have been including sustainable ways in day to day functioning.
At Terrassen Cafe, an eco-friendly place where people just chill, has its own beauty. As we find out about what new they have been doing in terms of keeping the cafe nature-friendly, we speak to Dhanesh Sharma, the owner and chef, he says, “For food packaging we use glass and paper and biryani goes in a handi which is made of mud. The handi makers do not have much demand for supply as most of the other restaurants use plastic, so I buy all these handis and paper. We have kept the cafe look every earthy, we have stones, trees and we did not do anything artificial.
The entire cafe is refurbished, from the widows to the things to sit, the entire material is bought from the demolishing sights. We want to bring consciousness among people through our cafe.” For the South Indian speciality restaurant in Sainikpuri, Anna Native, it is banana leaf to begin with for their sustainable journey. “Banana leaf is something that we use to sever a our dishes, since its a restaurant we try and do as much as we can to make our contribution to the environment. The menu at our place is a paper liner which is a table set up, it is not something you have to scan it is like a table mat. So, that is more like a use and throw thing. We also use earthen pots/ clay pots where we them for cooking food. We are trying our best to make it somehow eco-friendly,” shares Ilmas Baig, head chef, Anna Native.
At star property Park Hyatt, they have started using straws made out of palm leaves and are working towards creating a sustainable cocktail. “There are couple things we are trying to initiate at our hotel like in the bar we are using straws made out of palm leaves. The packaging containers are recyclable. One of my bartender is working on a sustainable drink where he is recycling the used coffee and making a mocktail out of it. For me sustainability plays a major role of being a chef and we thrive to source veggies locally.
We are starting a project called the Urban Bee where we have a bee hive on our terrace to source honey organically. We are trying to get permission from the government. An underground mushroom plantation is also in the pipe line, along with a herb garden. We have our own compost machine as well, but its a long term process and I want to educate the staff and the guests about all these things,” concludes Hameed Farook, Executive Chef, Park Hyatt.