The Sustainable Restaurant Association explores what it means to celebrate provenance in your procurement strategies, in your kitchen and on your menu. 

Provenance can be described as the story behind your food: where and how it was grown, raised, caught or made, and who was responsible for doing so. More than ever, diners want to feel reassured by knowing the details on everything from animal welfare to food miles. People are also eager to feel more connected to their plates, and this can make their dining experience infinitely more memorable.

1. Choose local.

Sourcing food locally has plenty of benefits: building short, resilient supply chains, supporting small-scale businesses, keeping money in the regional economy and appealing to customers. Without weeks of refrigeration, it also often means produce at its best. 

• Make a commitment to serving more local food. This could be increasing the overall percentage of local ingredients, or focusing on one food at a time – e.g., aiming to source 100% of your meat locally by 2026.
• Organise team visits to farms and producers, giving your staff a more tangible understanding of where your food comes from.
• You could also explore dishes, ingredients or cooking methods traditional in your area, connecting customers with local food heritage.

2. Cook with the seasons.

Allowing your menu to be led by the seasons brings greater variety and creativity to your kitchen, offering your diners new flavours and unique stories. Sourcing seasonally also builds anticipation and excitement, for both chefs and customers; waiting for those summer strawberries or the first carrots of the year makes them taste all the better.

• Throughout the year, let your menus be inspired by the foods in season in your area.
• Work closely with growers and fishers so that you know when certain foods will be ready for your kitchen. This lets you plan ahead, while guaranteeing that you’ll purchase a particular quantity can provide financial peace of mind for producers.
• Encourage chefs to start experimenting with the wild foods native to your area. This could include providing expert training in foraging.

3. Who are faces behind the food?

Don’t forget to bring a human aspect to the story. 

• Choose small-scale suppliers and cut out the middleman where you can, putting direct trade agreements in place. 
• Cultivate long-term relationships with the farmers, producers and fishers with whom you work. Get to know them on a personal basis.
• Work to gain visibility over your supply chain and ensure that human rights and labour rights are protected at every step. 

4. Transparency is critical.

Without traceability, you can’t manage or minimise the social and environmental risks in your supply chain.

• Look for producers and suppliers who have robust environmental and social standards in place for how they do business. 
• Create written agreements for suppliers, outlining minimum standards for things like fair terms of trade, sustainable agricultural practices, deforestation, biodiversity, soil health, water stress and animal welfare.
• Demand visibility over every ingredient you buy. Shorter supply chains make this infinitely easier.

5. Put biodiversity on the menu.

Building consumer interest in more diverse ingredients can strengthen food systems, support farmers, improve public health and boost creativity in the kitchen.

• Feature a wider range of plant foods on your menu, including those that are less common, like ancient grains.  

• When it comes to meat, look for heritage breeds unique to your area. Raising animals in their native climates, on natural diets and with the integrated use of manure is likely to result in healthy animals while also supporting soil, plant life and biodiverse ecosystems. 
• If you serve seafood, avoid the ‘Big Five’ (cod, haddock, salmon, tuna and prawns) and choose species that are less likely to come from overfished stocks.
• Invasive alien species are one of the biggest drivers of biodiversity loss. One solution is to put these on menus, creating demand that controls populations and protects local ecosystems. 

6. Agricultural methods matter.

Agricultural systems make an enormous contribution to the climate and biodiversity crises, soil and water degradation, and deforestation. Use the transparency in your supply chain to support restorative practices.

• Serve less meat, but better quality. Where possible, switch to free range or organic meat, dairy and eggs, and explore options from regenerative or agroecological farms. If cost is a barrier, focus on one item at a time: could you start buying only organic eggs?
• Look for farmers who limit the use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers.
• Clear your supply chain of products that contribute to deforestation. The biggest culprits are beef, soy and palm oil; be aware that these can behidden in other products. 
• When it comes to seafood, how was it caught? Fishing methods like gill nets and dredging are extremely damaging to marine environments.

7. Share the story with everyone.

By openly sharing all of the above, you can please your customers while improving accountability and encouraging good practice from others in the industry.

• Use your menus and/or social media to showcase where your ingredients have come from, including the names of the producers you work with.
• Use your website to go into greater detail about your sourcing policies and how you’re supporting restorative agricultural practices.
• Provide training for your front-of-house staff so that they have the knowledge and language to discuss your food’s provenance with diners.

For more insights, visit www.thesra.org, follow The Sustainable Restaurant Association on Instagram and Linkedin and sign up to our newsletter!