Profile | Michelin-star chef’s war on waste and sustainable eating push, and how he gets staff and Hong Kong diners to embrace change

Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong culinary director Richard Ekkebus tells Bernice Chan how he gets staff and diners to buy into its sustainable eating agenda

From teaching chefs to reduce waste and make ‘humbler ingredients delicious’ to changing customer tastes at Amber restaurant, it takes constant education

Reading Time:5 minutes

Richard Ekkebus, the culinary director of the Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong and its fine-dining restaurant, Amber, pushes its sustainability message to staff and diners. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 12:45pm, 18 Jan 2022Updated: 3:56pm, 1 Jun 2022

“I was born in the 1960s but already in the early ’70s, global warming was on the agenda. I watched Jacques Cousteau films and in the ’70s, he was already saying there was a depletion in biodiversity – but what have we done since? Very little. In 50 years, I have seen a decline that is significant and that is in my lifetime. And now that I have two children and a grandchild, I feel that definitely the time has come to make a change.”

How do we make more people aware?

“When new employees start working at the Mandarin Oriental, they learn about our sustainability efforts. We tell them about our waste management, energy and water consumption. If you want to drive a sustainable agenda, you need the buy-in of everybody.

“In the canteen, we have different messages on the tables about energy consumption, why you should eat less animal protein, why we need to eat a more plant-rich diet, and when you go to serve yourself, take what you need to bring down food waste.

“We want to change the mindset of the staff and hope they will bring some of these positive changes to their personal lives. I also speak multiple times a year at hotel schools about anything sustainable.”

Amber’s bell pepper, fruit tomato, bannou-negi, winter leek. Photo: Amber

How did you cut down on plastic use at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental?

“Ten years ago, we started to eliminate things like straws, but there weren’t a lot of solutions for replacement of single-use items that we would use in the kitchen. We have developed some of the replacements with manufacturers in the past three years, such as cling film and vacuum pouches. But since December 2020, we haven’t used any single-use plastic within our operations, so all our vacuum pouches and cling film are plant-based.

“The straws are natural, no plastic or paper coasters, everything is home recyclable, which means if it ends up in the landfill, it will break down in a matter of months.

“Three years ago, we started to work with a company that produces cling film from corn. In the beginning, it was US$80 per roll, so we cut down our consumption of it by three-quarters, with simple solutions like using stainless-steel containers and lids. Then, it was three years of going back and forth – the cling film was not strong enough, not elastic enough and didn’t stick onto the container.

“We worked with another company in the UK on vacuum bags. We needed the right thickness, it had to be temperature resistant, so that we could do sous vide cooking. Now, we have had the solution for more than 1½ years. The prices of these products are extremely high, but because we’ve reduced the amount of cling film and vacuum bags we are using, we’re not spending more money than before.”

SCMP Series

The sustainability issue

[ 18 of 19 ]