Kylie Kwong Cooks Carbon Clean
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 04. 1.08
Photo on left by: Jennifer Soo
Kylie Kwong is a well known Australian celebrity chef. What is probably less well known is her passion for the environment. A commitment well demonstrated via her Sydney chinese restaurant, Billy Kwong.
It prepares meals only with organic and biodynamic fruit and vegetables, poultry, meat and noodles, right down to the Xinjiang-style spiced biodynamic lamb fillets. All the soy sauces, sugar, vinegar and oils they flavour the food with are organic. The tea, coffee and chocolate are Fair Trade.
Kylie observes on her website that they made the transition to organic and biodynamic ingredients in 2005. “What followed was a tremendous learning experience: because the flavour and texture of such produce is so true and intense, discipline is needed to let the natural ingredients speak for themselves...”
In late 2007 they went a step further and teams up with carbon-offsetter, Climate Friendly, to become the first restaurant in New South Wales to become carbon neutral. "It's fantastic to be able to neutralise the restaurant's emissions through credits from a wind farm project in China, as we have so many cultural and culinary ties with that country."
Customers can also voluntarily contribute. For $1 per meal they can buy 45 kgs worth of carbon credits. Apparently sufficient to neutralise the embedded emissions resulting from the production and transport of their food and wine. ::Billy Kwong Restaurant, via Landline and Daily Telegraph
