This Michelin-starred Bangkok restaurant is aiming for a zero carbon footprint
Few Michelin-starred restaurants avowal eco-credentials as impressive as that of Bo.lan's. The charming 85-seater eating house, located off the beaten track in Bangkok, serves native Thai cuisine fabricated with wholly sustainable organic produce.
It was started by married man and wife squad, Thailand-born Duangporn Songvisava (nicknamed Bo), and Australian-built-in Dylan Jones. The proper noun Bo.lan is derived from the combined names of Bo and Dylan.
The couple met while they were honing their skills in the steamy kitchens of David Thompson's quondam London outpost, Nahm. They married 7 years later and decided to get-go Bo.lan and serve authentic Thai food "equally it should be," without any dumbing down of flavours to cater to Western preferences.
Their menu has the total strength of the state'south fiery and circuitous flavour profiles. It has since get one of the most respected fine dining restaurants in Bangkok, and Songvisava was voted Asia's Best Female Chef in 2022 past Asia's 50 All-time Restaurants guide.
Apart from growing their own vegetables and herbs in a keyhole garden behind the eating house, the pair has adopted multiple green practices in their aim to achieve a nearly cypher-carbon footprint.
"We used to utilize bottled water similar almost other restaurants in Thailand, which meant that we would have this pile of plastic bottles at the back of the restaurant every night. One of the first things we did to eliminate plastic waste was to introduce a water filtration organization that could process drinkable water," shared Jones.
The next step was to find a way to recycle waste through composting in their garden, built with recycled glass bottles. "Our policy is no food should go into landfills. Our kitchen uses the vegetables and herbs that we grow in our garden, and at the centre of the garden itself, is the compost. So, we're feeding the garden the whole fourth dimension with our kitchen waste," he added. To boost the pollination procedure, the couple fifty-fifty introduced native stingless bees into their garden.
Securely committed in seeking the best sustainable practices, the couple would travel throughout Thailand to meet artisanal food communities, farmers, fishermen, artisanal producers and craftsmen. Their fervent efforts in sourcing for sustainable, fresh and non-GMO produce has ignited a movement within the network of chef and community producers.
"In the first year they started, Bo and Dylan went in search of local suppliers with expert quality food, so they started introducing them to other restaurants and chefs. With their pioneering efforts, an unabridged community of chefs and local producers was formed," explained Kay Khun, founder of Nutrient for Change & Biothai Foundation.
Besides advocating support for local producers, Songvisava and Jones also acquit public awareness programmes to touch on on the importance of supporting local. Songvisava shared that the good quality of ingredients and diversity of food resource volition disappear if zilch is washed to protect them. She upholds that the food business should be sustainable, environmentally-conscious, season-centric, and hyperlocal.
At Bo.lan, ecology sustainability goes hand in hand with preserving Thai food heritage. For example, all their spices, such every bit the back-scratch paste, are still pounded with a mortar and pestle. "Nosotros savour and champion a lot of traditional cooking methods. We think it is important to maintain tradition and pass them on to the side by side generation," enthused Songvisava.
Instead of having dishes served course-by-grade in a typical Western restaurant, Songvisava feels that it is important to serve everything together as an authentic Thai dining experience should exist. "This is how Thai people consume, how the royal families eat and how the peasants consume. We relish communal dining," she quipped.
A broad range of local flowers and citrus fruits is used in their menu, which is a great testament to the biodiversity of the local produce available in Thailand. "In a fashion, nosotros are also trying to motivate locals to value our ain history, culinary wisdom, ingredients and produce," she attested.
Later 7 years of existence partners in life and in the kitchen, Songvisava and Jones keep to innovate.
"Our ultimate goal is really to push our limits in terms of what we're capable of doing. We are planning to scale down with an off-filigree x-seater eating house on a plot of land where nosotros would grow our own produce, generate our ain electricity and recycle our own waste product and h2o, while notwithstanding working closely with local nutrient communities. Nosotros too hope to keep things fresh past opening only four months in a year," Jones revealed.
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/remarkableliving/michelin-star-bangkok-restaurant-bo-lan-177021
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