How the Michelin Guide went green

Michelin, alone within the hospitality industry, possesses the ability to provoke elation or tears in professional chefs. If you thought the victims on the receiving end of an expletive-laden tirade from Gordon Ramsay were a sorry sight, just imagine the faces of the poor broken chefs who lose one of their coveted Michelin stars. Some may claim that they are an outdated measure of excellence and that they do not give a jot about them — the enfant terrible of the British restaurant scene, Marco Pierre White, even famously returned his, citing the crippling pressure they brought— but Michelin retains the power to reduce grown men to sobbing infants with one sprinkling of their stardust.

But the institution has faced unsurprising criticism recently for the extravagant style of food its stars often promote. It’s probably unfair to blame it on Michelin — and gone are the days when only haute cuisine was deemed star-worthy — but there’s no doubt there are issues within the fine dining restaurant world and in particular when it comes to food waste. When I did a stint as a stagiare at a multi-Michelin starred restaurant after leaving the City, I was horrified at the waste: I recall vividly piles of wasted off-cuts from the smoked salmon resulting from the decision to produce perfectly rectangular slices for the dainty afternoon tea sandwiches. It was a crime that they weren’t put to another use.

Which is why Michelin’s green stars piqued my interest. Included in the Guide for the first time last year, they appear to be an attempt both to make fine-dining more green and no doubt also to maintain the Guide’s appeal with environmentally-conscious millennial diners. The new scheme has not been immune from criticism: the green stars (or, strictly speaking, five-leafed green clovers) are meant to be a ‘Sustainability Emblem’ but the criteria for success are unclear and the review process has been brandished superficial — in some cases based on little more than a single phone call or a tick-box questionnaire. But while not perfect (and the verdict should still be out) they will no doubt help our fine-dining bastions to take a fresh look at food waste. While much of the wider sustainability/net-zero debate can be fiercely political, it is hard to argue with the basic good sense of minimising wasted food and sourcing locally (supporting British producers in the process) which appear two key criteria to bagging a green star.

In the latest Michelin list for the UK released a couple of weeks ago, there are nine new additions to the green star list, bringing the total number of restaurants listed in the UK to 31 (two in Wales, one in Scotland, and the rest in England).

There are some unsurprising names: Boujis Cotswolds favourite Daylesford Organic Farm and Richmond’s excellent Petersham Nurseries Café being two examples. The latter is lauded as 'fundamentally connected to nature'. Michelin point out: 'Herbs and leaves are plucked from their kitchen garden and barely anything is stored – the fridges are nigh on empty at the end of each day and, apart from the daily sorbet, nothing is frozen'. Meanwhile another green star winner, Silo in Hackney, is well-known as an early pioneer of sustainability and claims to be the world’s first zero waste restaurant. Food aside, the crockery is made from recycled shopping bags and crushed wine bottles and the restaurant’s lightshades are made from mycelium grown on used brewing grains.

They are joined on the list by less obvious inclusions: the OXO Tower Brasserie in Southwark is not your typically imagined bastion of sustainable eating. But Michelin notes amongst other things its chef’s commitment to upcycling: 'From corks and wine bottles to crates and furniture, we return, donate and sell items to be reused or upcycled. Our team also take part in regular Thames Beach clean-ups'.

I can vouch for others on the list: The Small Holding in a former village pub in Kent is wonderful: rustic British meets Nordic and with a focus on self-sufficiency. Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir in Oxfordshire is a classic destination with a bountiful kitchen garden, though it is painfully expensive.

In Scotland the sole inclusion is Inver, situated in an isolated spot on the shore of Loch Fyne. In Wales your choice is between Henry Robertson at Palé Hall or CHAPTERS in Powys. There are sadly no Northern Irish restaurants listed, though there are three in the Republic of Ireland.

The list is far from exhaustive. There are many other chefs and restaurants doing great things especially to counter food waste. One of London’s best dining secrets is the ‘scratch menu’ at Skye Gyngell’s Spring in Somerset House where for £25 you can have a three-course menu based on perfectly good ingredients that would otherwise be wasted by dint of being ugly, misshapen or just surplus to requirements. Meanwhile Adam Handling (who appeared on last week’s Great British Menu episode using the likes of otherwise-wasted lobster brain and cauliflower stalks), is one of the country’s most exciting sustainable-minded chefs. His restaurant in Cornwall, Ugly Butterfly, catered for last year’s G7 summit. As he said to me: "There's no such thing as an Ugly Butterfly, in the same way that there is no such thing as food waste. It’s all about utilising parts of ingredients that would otherwise be wasted, showing that zero-waste can be luxurious. You can turn the most humble waste ingredients into memorable dishes'.

There’s plenty of reason for cheer then that food waste is being taken increasingly seriously in the world of fine dining. Good old fashioned ‘waste not want not’ is as powerful a restaurant principle as a housekeeping one. Green stars all round.

Michelin’s full UK list of Green Star restaurants is here.