How (and why) Miel is leading the way for sustainable restaurants

Guest Article Written By Chef Jason LaIacona at Miel

Chef Jason Lalacona

How do we compost? The hard part of composting has already been taken care of for us by Compost Nashville. They collect and process it for us; all we have to do is empty our food waste into the provided container. The question why compost has an easy answer: because we can. As cullinarians, we carry an enormous responsibility, whether we want to face it or not, for the waste we produce. We produce a lot. In some restaurants, it’s truly unimaginable what and how much of it gets thrown away on a daily basis. According to the USDA, nearly 40% of the food prepared in U.S. restaurants is discarded–  some of it before it even reaches the guest. That’s billions of pounds of food waste every year, costing the industry an estimated $162 billion annually. 

At Miel, we offset that as much as humanly possible…literally! It takes commitment from our entire team to keep waste down to a minimum. It starts on the front end by ordering light, serving reasonable portion sizes, and using scraps and leftovers to prepare Family Meal each day for our employees. But, it takes more than that. It’s on us, the leaders in the industry, to set the standard and educate our teams. Then, it’s on them to follow us in doing the right thing and implementing their education on a daily basis. After that, the responsibility is shared by us all, and we can proudly hold each other accountable.

Once we are taught and trained how to properly compost, it’s difficult to deviate because the action itself is truly simple. All we’re doing is scraping food waste into a separate container. THAT’S IT. Really. Then that container is emptied into a different bin than the dumpster. End of story.

When we bring on new staff, they’re typically surprised and sometimes stunned by the lengths we go to divert waste from landfills, including glass, plastic, paper, cardboard, and tin. However, when former staff visit, they always say how funny it is when they start at their next restaurant and immediately get funny looks from their team when they grab a pan for their compost. Funny or not, I believe the outlier should be those that don’t actively compost, not the ones who do. I’m confident we can get there. Composting is an easy action that makes a noticeable impact in our community and in our mindset about what it means to be sustainable. It’s easy, and it starts with us.

Thank you Compost Nashville for doing the heavy lifting for us!