TORODE’S AIM FOR THE LUXE – A SIZE ZERO CARBON FOOTPRINT

Legendary London restaurateur and TV food critic John Torode hasn’t lost his straight-to-the-point Aussie attitude, not even after eight years of running Smiths of Smithfield, one of the City’s busiest and most successful eateries. His Masterchef performances play to this strength, as much as to his passion for food.

As a successful restaurateur he applies that same passion and focus to his business – and especially his commitment to the environment, which he sees not only as ethical, but good business sense too.

Smiths of Smithfield (SOS) is regularly packed to the rafters (almost literally – it’s now open on four floors), and he’s about to launch his latest venture in Spitalfields, called The Luxe. Again he’s focusing on energy saving and the environment: he plans to ensure the new restaurant has a carbon footprint size as near to zero as possible.

"It’s eight years since we opened Smiths and the biggest cost after staff, ingredients and rent is energy," he says. "So even if you’re not interested in the environment – and God knows we all should be – then it still makes commercial sense to cut energy use." 

Torode has introduced a raft of carbon-footprint reducing initiatives at Smiths which he’ll be transferring to The Luxe. All waste is segregated – paper, plastic, glass and food. If possible, glass is sent for reuse rather than recycling – something that Torode wants to see encouraged, and he’s appalled at the amount of glass used simply for transporting drinking water. Food waste now goes to be converted to biofuel – Smiths supplies about seven tonnes of food waste a month. "We’ve cut our waste from twelve euro bins of rubbish a day to just one," he says.

One of his bugbears is air conditioning. "We spent a fortune on plant in Smiths [the ventilation ducts are an interior feature] and we spend a fortune running it. Replacing it would cost about £300k. But you know what? People open the window anyway and make all our cooling or heating obsolete – you might as well be chucking cash into the street."

Like Smiths, The Luxe will be housed in a Grade II listed building and installing air conditioning would cause problems. "So why bother?" asks Torode. "The building has beautiful big windows. You want it cooler, we’ll open them. You want it warmer, we’ll close them." In fact, The Luxe will also have oscillating fans to boost cooling, and to boost heating Torode is investigating several ingenious ideas – such as running still-warm ‘grey’ water through the bar foot rails. One thing is for sure – the cost of cooling or heating at The Luxe will be significantly lower than in traditional restaurants. 

The kitchen is another big energy-consuming area, "Which is why buying the right energy-saving equipment is very, very important," adds Torode. Most dishwashers guzzle water, energy and chemicals so they’re a particularly high profile consideration – but Torode knew what he was getting for The Luxe without needing to look. He’s already a convert to Winterhalter’s GS500 Energy+ machines, which are operating very effectively at Smiths.

"It’s not just the energy they save, it’s the water, too," he explains. "And you know what – our water costs are huge. Plus they save space and cost, as we don’t need to put in extra ventilation to deal with waste steam – because there isn’t any."

Saving space was critical when some of Smiths’ kitchens were refurbished recently – there simply wasn’t room for ventilation. "So Energy+ was perfect," he says.

The GS500 Series is a range of pass-through dishwashers with cleaning capacities of up to seventy racks per hour. The new Energy+ system recycles exhaust heat from the steam and hot wastewater and returns it to heat the incoming cold water. This not only slashes heating costs but also, by condensing the steam to remove its heat, it removes the need for an extractor hood or extra ventilation and makes wash area working conditions much more pleasant.   The Energy+ system reduces the total connected load by up to 6 kW, which Winterhalter estimates will cut running costs by around 23%.

The GS500 series also has a new cost-saving rinse system. It uses a radical new design of water jet that actually gives better rinse results even though it uses up to 25% less water. Less water reduces consumption of energy (because there is less water to heat) and chemicals, cutting total running costs by around 20%, according to Winterhalter’s figures.

"I’d say Winterhalter’s estimates on savings are conservative," says Torode. "We reckon our Energy+ machines paid for themselves in less than 18 months. Not only in running costs, but also because we didn’t have to fit extra ventilation."

Torode says it’s time the hospitality industry bucked up its efforts in terms of the environment: "It’s not just about saving the planet, it’s about making the right commercial decisions, too." Which is where technologies that are both resource-saving and money-saving, like the Energy+, come in.
"There are plenty of moves we can all make as restaurateurs," he says. "We’re trying to do our bit at Smiths, and we’ll be doing plenty more at The Luxe."