Bon Appétit Management Company

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In celebration of Earth Day, the cafés at Adobe’s four North American sites highlighted a dual focus on reducing food waste and cutting food-related carbon emissions by serving all meatless specials for one day.

The Meatless Monday celebration, which also extended to Adobe offices without a Bon Appétit presence (including international offices), was presented in partnership with Adobe’s Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility teams. Bon Appétit chefs were challenged to get creative with enticing plant-based proteins in specials at every station in their cafés, as well as at salad and deli bars. The messaging around the one-day event emphasized the carbon savings from eliminating meat from one’s diet once a week; the overall carbon savings from Bon Appétit’s cafés totaled 3,927 kilograms of carbon dioxide, which is the equivalent of removing the emissions from 4,190 pounds of burned coal from the environment!

Adobe – San Francisco’s Landmark 193 offered an IDP photo booth, while the Adobe Café in Lehi, UT, and Watermark Café at Adobe – Seattle offered vegetable butchery demos to help educate guests about the proper way to break down vegetables to make the most of the edible parts of the plant.

At Adobe – San Jose, Executive Chef Brian West and Bon Appétit Chief Strategy and Brand Officer Maisie Ganzler brought the topic of food waste to life. With a dramatic large-screen projection of their actions for guests in the bleachers and a media feed delivering their demo to those elsewhere in the café, the pair educated and inspired Adobe guests.

Maisie kicked off the event by giving an overview of the three major ways chefs at Bon Appétit Management Company minimize food waste. Brian followed by offering a litany of creative ways guests can revive and rescue food from their own refrigerators, including: reviving droopy basil by dunking it briefly in ice water; using ice cube trays to freeze extra herbs in olive oil or melted butter for quick use down the line in pastas or sauces; adding herb stems from cilantro, thyme, oregano, or even rosemary to stocks; and brushing stale bread with olive oil and crisping it in a 350°F oven before pulverizing it into bread crumbs to store in freezer bags. (Alternately, take that oiled, crisped bread and use it as the base for pan con tomate, a simple Spanish-style tapa.) Brian also demoed several dishes, including a stock and a quick marmalade made from beautiful citrus rinds.

During a lively Q&A, attendees peppered the pair with questions, and when the event wrapped up, guests continued to seek answers to their remaining questions, approaching Brian and Maisie for more advice on how to make better use of the foods they love so that far less of them goes to waste.

Submitted by Emilie Zanger, Food Program Manager, and Cheryl Sternman Rule, National Marketing Manager. Photos: Charlotte Fiorito

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