{"id":553,"date":"2009-04-21T10:00:13","date_gmt":"2009-04-21T10:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/04\/top-green-chef.html"},"modified":"2009-04-21T10:00:13","modified_gmt":"2009-04-21T10:00:13","slug":"top-green-chef","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/04\/top-green-chef.html","title":{"rendered":"Top “Green” Chef?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maureen Dowd\u2019s last article in Sunday\u2019s Times<\/a> got me thinking…<\/p>\n

\n

We all know it\u2019s great to eat locally grown food and to cook your own meals, and I wonder: Are restaurants bad for the environment?<\/p>\n

I did some research and the answer seems to be: Well, it depends…<\/em><\/p>\n

See, herein lies the problem.<\/p>\n

I can cook this:<\/p>\n

\"p41902681\" (spinach baked ziti with part skim ricotta and mozzarella)<\/p>\n

But not this:<\/p>\n

\"chickentikka\" (chicken tikka masala, i.e. heaven in a bowl)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Four years ago I tasted Indian food for the first time, obviously at a restaurant because no one I knew back then actually knew how to cook Indian food. Then I tried sushi. Then Thai. Then Ethiopian. I don\u2019t know how to cook these things \u2013 believe me, I try. There are so many incredible, unique restaurants in New York City, and the sense of taste is one of my favorites to experience. So naturally I enjoy eating out on occasion, especially if it\u2019s a type of cuisine that I don\u2019t consider myself adept at cooking (which, sadly, is most of them).<\/p>\n

\n

I don\u2019t know much about it, but I\u2019d imagine that restaurants require:<\/p>\n

\n

-Large quantities of cleaning chemicals<\/p>\n

-A lot of energy to power the lights, stoves, heat, AC, etc<\/p>\n

-Wasting food that goes bad if it is not ordered by the customers that week<\/p>\n

\n

However, I would also assume that restaurants:<\/p>\n

– use silverware and plates that can be washed daily instead of throwing them away<\/p>\n

– would attempt to conserve as much food as possible in order to turn the highest profit<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure some restaurants do a better job of it than others (not even to get started talking about take-away containers). Take a look at the Green Restaurant Association: http:\/\/www.dinegreen.com\/<\/a>. This website lists restaurants that are \u201ccertified green.\u201d According to their site:<\/p>\n

\n

Certified Green Restaurants\u2122 meet the following standards:<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Use a comprehensive recycling system for all products that are accepted by local recycling companies. <\/em><\/li>\n
  2. Free of polystyrene foam (“Styrofoam”) products. <\/em><\/li>\n
  3. Commit to completing four Environmental Steps per year of membership. <\/em><\/li>\n
  4. Complete at least one Environmental Step after joining the GRA.
    \n<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \n

    The steps are pretty comprehensive, listing specifics<\/a> regarding the types of plates and napkins allowed, to cleaning supplies, to water efficiency, green power, composting, sustainable food, pollution prevention, the list goes on.<\/p>\n

    \n

    This section of the site gives a list of Green Certified restaurants<\/a>, as well as how many \u201csteps\u201d they\u2019ve completed (ie. how green they are).<\/p>\n

    \n

    A few New York examples are Blue Water Grill<\/em> at 8 steps in Union Square, Caf\u00e9 Metro<\/em> at 14 steps on West 52nd<\/sup> Street, a ton of branches of Le Pain Quotidian<\/em> at 25 steps, and others.<\/p>\n

    \n

    I\u2019d hope that there are more that are just not yet listed on the site. If you know of any more environmentally friendly restaurants, please do share!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Maureen Dowd\u2019s last article in Sunday\u2019s Times got me thinking… We all know it\u2019s great to eat locally grown food and to cook your own meals, and I wonder: Are restaurants bad for the environment? I did some research and the answer seems to be: Well, it depends… See, herein lies the problem. I can…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-media"],"yoast_head":"\nTop "Green" Chef? - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/04\/top-green-chef.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Top "Green" Chef? - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Maureen Dowd\u2019s last article in Sunday\u2019s Times got me thinking… We all know it\u2019s great to eat locally grown food and to cook your own meals, and I wonder: Are restaurants bad for the environment? 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She is a freelance writer for the Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s International Perspective, and her writing has been published in Sentient City, the ID Project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s online literary magazine. Emily is also a playwright and winner of the Young Playwrights Inc. National Playwrighting Competition for her one-act play \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Assemblage.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Her writing is influenced by art, artists, psychology, and spirituality. She has run drama and arts workshops in schools in NYC and Long Island, and teaches children with autism. Emily is working on her M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction at Columbia University School of the Arts. Emily has been attending classes and workshops at the ID Project since 2005.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/author\/eherzlin"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}