Good for the guest, planet and Sodexo
For our chefs catering for a huge and diverse customer base, part of the job is to continually respond to changing trends and consumer demands. But as our Culinary Ambassador, David Mulcahy, explains, they also uniquely positioned to help drive behaviour change; encouraging customers to take small actions that cumulatively can have a big impact.
With COP26 taking place later this year, there is an increasing focus on the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions to help protect our planet for the future. 
So we have an opportunity to help people understand how the impact of the food industry on the environment can be lessened.
We have seen already increasing numbers of people turning to vegetarian, plant-based or flexitarian diets for their own health, but also to benefit the planet.
The challenge for our chefs is how we tempt our more traditional diners to ditch the meat for one or two meals a week.
With plant-based ingredients, using an array of global flavours combined with methods of cookery such as barbeque, grilling or roasting can really change the perception of a delicious meal and move us away from a dependence on meats normally associated with these styles of cooking.
An alternative approach
The true innovation in this arena are alternative meat products. They mimic the look of a hot dog, burger, chicken fillet or minced beef but with a completely different impact both on our diets and our personal carbon footprint.
But it’s not enough to offer this choice: it has to be what people want to eat.
Together with partners in the global Future Food Collective, which includes Unilever, Rational and the Food for Climate League, Sodexo has embarked on an exciting project to significantly move the dial towards us offering 33% plant based offering across all menus.
Under the Future Food Collective, our team of chefs, have developed a range of dishes to include in menus from this spring which capture the imagination and encourage discerning diners to try something different together with a positive environmental impact.
Building on the work we have done with the Future50 project, the Unilever and Sodexo culinary team has worked with The Vegetarian Butcher range of products to create a new selection of exciting dishes.
As The Vegetarian Butcher brand becomes more familiar with shoppers, we are confident that this recognition will engage our guests and build momentum and interest with diners.
We have launched dishes including sticky NoChicken teryaki, NoChicken tikka filled naan; ultimate tex mex sloppy joes; Egyptian koshari, NoMince and yoghurt dressing; and braised eggs with spiced NoMince, smoked aubergine and tomato using The Vegetarian Butcher products, as well as meat-free versions on more traditional dishes such as burgers, curries and lasagnes.
We are particularly excited by the fact that this approach has positive health and environmental impacts, as well as improving animal welfare with less dependence on intensively farmed animals.
Learning for all
And it is not just the guest that is learning about alternatives and options for familiar favourites or new dishes.
Our chefs have also been gaining new insight and taking different approaches to these ingredients which often require less cooking time, and take on flavours in a different way.
We are also working with Rational ovens to understand how using these products, which require less cooking than meat dishes, has a positive impact on carbon reduction.
Once it is safe to do so, we plan to host tasting days in restaurants, pop up events and even run competitions to create even more exciting dishes for menus into 2022 and beyond.
The UK and Ireland has been the first region within Sodexo to develop dishes and launch menus and now we will work with our other regional colleagues to drive this initiative across our global business.
There is no doubt that this project is certainly Good for the Guest, Sodexo and the Planet.
Find out more about how we are reducing our carbon footprint through our sustainability commitments.