His name is a byword for fi ne dining
in Australia but Shannon Bennett
knows that serving up unsustainable
produce, no matter how delicious, is
a no-go. “Chefs have a responsibility,”
says Shannon Bennett, Creative
Director at Vue de monde. “If chefs
don’t buy a particular product doing
harm to the environment, then
that practice will stop. So chefs
have to wake up and realise their
responsibilities, and I think that
if they start talking to partners like
Nespresso, they’ll learn a hell of a lot.”
Bennett, who uses a Nespresso
Professional machine at Vue de
monde, is referring to Nespresso’s
sustainable farming relationships.
The company reduced the carbon
footprint of a Nespresso cup of
coffee by 20% between 2009 and
2013 and has a strategy in place to
source 100% of its coffee sustainably
through the Nespresso AAA Sustainable
Quality™ Program, use 100%
responsibly sourced aluminium
(through the Aluminium Standard
Initiative) and have 100% carbon
effi cient operations by 2020. “I think
Nespresso are ahead of their time
and they were talking about land
management back then. When I
visited the farms [that Nespresso works
with in Brazil] a number of years ago,
it was pretty amazing to see no sprays- everything was natural. Yields and
weather patterns were talked about.
They have studied the conditions and
climate.” For Bennett, sustainability
is all about fi nding the right produce
and asking his suppliers questions.
“I have learnt from my suppliers
about sustainability and I tried
to transfer a lot of those principles
back into the restaurant.”
COMMON GROUND
BEST PRACTICE
For Shannon Bennett and James Viles, ingredients must not just be the best – they must
also be sustainable. The chefs explain how what’s good for the planet is good for the plate.PASSION POINTSShannon’s approach
to a greener plateAAA SUSTAINABILITY
Nespresso builds environmentally
sustainable farming practices
while fostering long-term
relationships with 70,000
coff ee farming families across
12 countries.SHANNON BENNETT
Creative Director, Vue de monde
Nespresso aff ogato.NARRATIVE
Impressed by
how ingredients in
Japan all have a
complete “narrative”,
Bennett replicates
the philosophy in his
kitchens – for instance,
baking bread in house
with organic flour.SOURCING
Bennett makes a
commitment in his
kitchen to use —
wherever possible —
natural produce grown
without chemicals.SEAFOOD
He uses Sydney rock
oysters and angasi
oysters that are native
to Australia and
therefore adapted to
the environment rather
than Pacific oysters,
which are from Asia.NESPRESSO COFFEE
One of the reasons
Bennett chooses
Nespresso for Vue
de monde is because
of its sustainable
management of coff ee
farms and use of
recyclable aluminium.Shannon at a
Nespresso coff ee
farm in Brazil“[The farmers in Brazil told me] they were producing ordinary coffee then Nespresso
came along and said look, let’s show you how to get the best out of your coffee plants.”
SHANNON BENNETT Creative Director, Vue de monde