Sustainability in the restaurant and catering trade will be on the menu at a summit to be staged as part of the city’s innovative Eat Drink Bristol Fashion festival.
Some 150 delegates from businesses across all sections of the food industry will take part to learn and exchange ideas at the event on May 6.
Held in Eat Drink Bristol Fashion’s iconic tipis on Queen Square, the summit will also underpin Bristol’s ambition to position itself as the UK capital of sustainable catering.
Titled ‘Building Sustainable Menus’, the day-long summit is targeted at caterers, chefs, restaurateurs, growers, farmers and suppliers. They will hear from industry experts on how to create a sustainable menu, join in with discussions on the challenges the industry faces and share success stories.
The event will be co-hosted by the Field to Fork Foundation (FTFF), a new community interest company set up by the organisers of Eat Drink Bristol Fashion.
Having previously hosted a similar summit at their 2013 festival, the Eat Drink Bristol Fashion team have set up the FTFF to improve sustainability standards in the restaurant and catering trade.
Eat Drink Bristol Fashion co-director Amelia Twine said: “We created the FTFF to realise our vision to make Bristol the UK capital of sustainable catering by 2020. The city’s current title of European Green Capital provides a pivotal opportunity to engage the catering industry and start making some real headway.
“This summit is an opportunity for catering specialists in Bristol and the South West to take the first step and join us on this journey so that this region can lead the way in sustainable best practice.”
The aim is to engage the local restaurant and catering industry’s interest through a series of events in Bristol and the South West. Each event focuses on one of the many aspects that can help cultivate a ‘field to fork’ ethos in the industry.
The summit will focus on three key themes – urban growing, slow meat and waste – and will include sessions on Bristol’s good food future with Amy Robinson from Low Carbon South West, ‘What is a Sustainable Menu’ with Devon chef and writer Tim Maddams from Green Sauce and a panel discussion on direct trade with Barney Haughton of Bristol’s groundbreaking cookery school Square Food Foundation, Alice Holden of London-based Growing Communities, Griff Holland of Bristol cafe chain Friska, Luke Hassell of Bristol’s The Story Organic, The Community Farm and chef Matthew Pennington of The Ethicurean restaurant.
Eat Drink Bristol Fashion, the two-week pop-up festival tipi village in Queen Square, will have music and food with a menu designed by Michelin starred chef Josh Eggleton. Each night the fine dining tipi will be taken over by different top chefs cooking for 100 people. For the first time this year the weekend will feature an outdoor music stage and local producers’ market.
