Food Made Good Awards

On Tuesday 22nd March, the 5th Sustainable Restaurant Awards was held, newly rebranded as the “Food Made Good” awards.

Paper Round were sponsoring the “Most improved Sustainability” category. Those shortlisted included The Brookwood Partnership, Gather and Gather and The Roebuck, Parched Pubs.

The Brook Wood Partnership are an independent schools’ caterer. Their philosophy is “to provide a food standard that can’t be bettered”. Finding fresh food, produced with local ingredients, which is cooked and served by a fully qualified team. The Brookwood Partnership have retained their 3 star “Food Made Good” accreditation two years’ running and were the first schools’ caterer to achieve the rating in 2014.

Gather and Gather are a catering firm who set sustainability as a top priority. Having gained a two star “Food Made Good” rating in 2014, they have now achieved the highest rating of 3 stars. They did particularly well in the critical measurement of healthy eating and treating people fairly category, scoring 100%.

Finally, The Roebuck, based in South London, is independently owned and offers a wide selection of beers and ales from around the world as well as a freshly prepared menu of locally sourced produce. The Roebuck are also a Paper Round client and have a fantastic 81% recycling rate. In 2015 they recycled 25,470kg, saving 21,080kg of CO2 and 25 trees.

The winner of the “Most Improved Sustainability” category was The Roebuck, and Paper Round were on hand to present the award, with the SRA saying:

“The South London pub has taken giant strides this year, led from the front by its owner who raised money by running a marathon. Where previously about half of the fruit and veg was locally sourced, and the same proportion of meat free range – now customers can enjoy these standards 100% of the time.”

The Roebuck wasn’t the only Paper Round client to win an award however - popular Mexican street food chain, Wahaca, also won Large Group of the Year. As a group, Wahaca achieved an 85% recycling rate in 2015. Recycling 843,692kg saving 645,510kg of CO2 and 686 trees. In addition to this, their food recycling efforts meant Paper Round donated 3,389 meals to food poverty charity, FareShare on their behalf. The SRA said:

“To meet the challenge of serving authentic Mexican food in the UK, Wahaca has been working with Riverford Organic to grow poblanos and tomatillos. Bad Boyz bakery in Brixton prison is supplying bread. The growing business is also the first Carbon Neutral restaurant group in the UK.”

There was also a Sustainable Innovation Award, which was sponsored by Belu, the UK’s most ethical water brand. The winner of this award was bio-bean who Paper Round have been working with. Bio-bean is an award-winning clean technology company that has industrialised the process of recycling waste coffee grounds into advanced biofuels. The SRA said:

"Until bio-bean came along with its smart clean technology, no one had looked at the brown sludge at the bottom of coffee machines around London and seen an opportunity to turn the capital’s 200,000 tonnes of waste grounds into fuel for heating buildings and powering vehicles."

High profile figures attending the event included Raymond Blanc, president of the SRA and Jamie Oliver. Raymond Blanc honoured Jamie Oliver with the Hero Award at the ceremony with one attendee, Olive Magazine, saying it was “A very impassioned speech”.

@JamieOliver later tweeted

“humbled to receive the Hero award from the Sustainable Restaurant Association from one of my heroes @raymond_blanc”

While @Raymond_Blanc said

“I choose @JamieOliver as my sustainability Hero. He has done so much for better food”.

Overall the event was another huge success in celebrating and publicising the continued efforts towards sustainability of many organisations in the hospitality sector.

For more information about any of the awards, visit the Food Made Good website or discover how Paper Round works with the Hospitality sector.