A restaurant in Saint-Gilles has become the first frites shop in Brussels to be awarded the Good Food label in recognition of its sustainable business model.
Patatak, located in the bustling Parvis de Saint-Gilles, is the latest food shop to be added to the label's list, which already comprises 53 restaurants since its launch in April 2018.
The award comes just under a year after the frites shop opened in November of last year, as a result of the owners' ambition to offer clients "real fries," made out of locally produced potatoes.
"When I opened this restaurant, I wanted to recreate the taste of fries cooked by my grandmother for a Sunday lunch," Patatak co-owner Adrien Dewez told BX1. "For that, there's no secret: you have to find good quality potatoes and return to a practice that has become rare nowadays: peel, cut and cook them to perfection."
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In addition to buying their products from local farmers, the restaurant also recently put in place a sustainable waste disposal system, managed in partnership with Waste, a local non-profit offering organic waste and recycling solutions.
"Today, all of the waste produced in our kitchen is picked up by a cyclist and composted in the Brussels-Capital Region, thereby reducing the amount of waste which ends up at the burner," Dewez added.
The Good Food label was launched by the environment minister of the Brussels-Capital Region, as a way to respond to growing local demand and to help residents better distinguish restaurants who embraced sustainable practices.
In order to be awarded the label, food establishments must comply with five mandatory criteria, including that they only use organic and free-range eggs, that they provide vegetarian alternatives.
Additionally, restaurants looking to be awarded the label must give up fifth range goods such as produce which has been cooked sous-vide, pasteurised, sterilised or that is ready-made.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
