Winner: Schloss Schauenstein – 94%
Yesterday, Schloss Schauenstein walked away with one of the prestigious accolades awarded by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants – The Sustainable Restaurant Award.
Schloss Schauenstein has been on the World’s 50 Best list since 2010, known for its “stunningly presented plates and creative cooking but also for its warm atmosphere and beautiful, romantic surrounds in a fairy tale castle in the Swiss Alps”. Their chef, Andreas Caminada, schools his employees to take care of customers as if they were dining in their home, and the team’s work has been recognised for excelling in catering equally carefully to the needs of the planet.
We run through how they’ve been successfully working on sourcing, society and the environment sustainably:
At Schloss Schauenstein, meat is not often served but, when it is, it is sourced from local breeders and farmers,. carefully selected to ensure the highest of standards in organic feeling and animal welfare.
Thirty per cent of the fruit, veg and herbs served in the restaurants are grown and harvested by their own team in three greenhouses and the beautiful castle’s gardens. They also roast their own coffee in a small roastery next to the castle, with beans sourced from Fairtrade coffee farms only.
Nearby, at a quaint Swiss mountain lake lives a fisherman called Hanspeter Gubser, who spends the whole year fishing on the lake and he provides the restaurant with seasonal catches – primarily whitefish, perch and the occasional lake trout.
Schloss Shauenstein is also committed to giving back to the local community. In 2016, Andreas Camindada founded their own foundation – Fundaziun Uccelin: “I founded Fundziun Uccelin to individually foster ambitious chef and service talents within the gastronomic industry with the long-term goal to secure highly skilled and passionate professionals for our wonderful craft”.
The foundation now offers an internship program. Those accepted for the 20-week scholarship choose their individual stages from 70 of the world’s leading restaurants, creating a unique opportunity for the next generation to gain insights into the global culinary diversity.
Energy consumption is also a key area in which Schloss Shauenstein excels. They have a no-food-waste policy and the chefs pickle, preserve or store many seasonal ingredients for winter and autumn.
While Schloss Schauenstein were deserved winners they were run close by Amass Restaurant in Copenhagen where 90% of the 11 courses feature a by-product and recycling is a lifestyle rather than a chore, demonstrated in the use of old candle stubs as firelights for the barbecue. The Danish restaurant is also sowing the seeds for future generations of chefs and food lovers but hosting annual workshops where kids get to plant, grow, harvest and cook their own food with ‘Amass Green Kids’.
And a huge congratulations to all the sustainable restaurants involved! Here’s to seeing an increasingly green future for food.
