Description
•Going natural - In all 3 restaurants, we have a big commitment to showcasing natural, organic, biodynamic and sustainably farmed wines
- The wine-making principals of minimal human and chemical intervention resonates deeply with me, and we want to educate people on this by sharing these amazing labels.
- Not only does minimal human intervention create the most interesting outcomes and showcases the grape varietal in its truest form, but by showcasing these winemakers, we are supporting a new way of farming that eradicates the use of pesticide and chemicals in the soil and sulphites added during the fermentation process.
- However, many Singaporeans are still not familiar/receptive to such a concept, and while there is no doubt education being done by natural-wine focused brands like RVLT and Le Bon Funk, they are speaking to an audience that already buys into the idea. For us, we are speaking to an untapped audience so there’s a higher degree of education that needs to exist in the way we deliver our wines
• Food waste
- It is extremely challenging for private F&B operators in Singapore to look into food composting, there isn’t any existing infrastructure and the local farms are overloaded as it is - One size no longer fits all, especially when it comes to carbs like pasta, and at Bar Cicheti we overcome that by offering two sizes of pastas, which guests with smaller appetite and/or want to share a wider selection tend to appreciate. Just by a simple gesture that we anticipated and took, hardly any food goes to waste.
• Fresh, not processed
- Processed food goes through many industrial intermediaries that cause more emissions during transport and production
- At Cicheti, as a tradition we’ve kept alive since our early days and chef Aun and his daily visits to Tekka Market, we still get our seafood and vegetables from the local markets daily
• Less meats = less emissions
- High meat consumption means more animals are bred who then emit a lot of methane gas. - Getting creative with vegetarian dishes like offering unique pesto pastas at Bar Cicheti or an entire dedicated vegetarian a la carte menu at Caffe Cicheti helps communicate the value in eating green to guests
Most immediately, we’ve converted all Cicheti’s to an in-house water filtration system to phase out importing bottled mineral water, which will help reduce the emissions caused from importing as well as disposal of glass bottles. We also have reduction at the heart of all we do – our four-hands dinner with Ben Fatto earlier this year featured a zero-waste menu inspired by Capannori, a town in Northern Italy that saw the birth of the Zero Waste movement in Europe.
We engage a public relations specialist to help communicate our sustainability practices with the media and wider community. Through him, we were connected with the recently formed F&B Sustainability Council, an industry-led initiative and council formed by some of Singapore’s top F&B players who are engaged and involved in their own sustainability initiatives. Through this network we are able to further amplify and streamline our sustainability intiatives and learn best practices.
In October 2019, our director Liling appeared against Ben Swan of Sustenir to discuss the future of food with A Magazine. In early 2020, The Cicheti Group was featured alongside memebrs of the F&B Sustainability Council in several publications including CNA Luxury, Tatler Singapore and The Straits Times to share more on their efforts
