Michael Caines: Chefs are ‘driving’ sustainable change

Michael Caines has urged chefs to continue to play an “important” role in making sustainable food tourism more accessible to customers.

Speaking at Aspire’s Leaders of Luxury conference held at London’s BAFTA Piccadilly yesterday (14 June), the chef-patron of Michelin-starred Lympstone Manor hotel restaurant in Exmouth said chefs were already “driving change” by looking at emissions from food miles, using local and seasonal produce and working with suppliers.

Lympstone Manor is one of over 580 Relais & Châteaux properties around the world and is committed to “mak[ing] sustainable food tourism more accessible for guests” under its 2014 pledge to UNESCO.

Caines added: “Whether or not you are leaving an area to be wilded, introducing bees on the property, planting trees and working with farmers that encourage regenerative farming, finding locally sourced but rare breeds or cereals that might go extinct, and adopting ingredients that will reduce food miles, some of these initiatives are a net gain in both carbon reduction and costs.

“There are lots of things that we can do and empower our staff to do to make a big difference.”

His comments come after Caines told The Caterer last June that he was keen to drive sustainable change within the Relais & Châteaux association and hospitality more widely.