I have two major sustainable cuisine pet peeves; first, I have a love / hate relationship with the word “sustainable”. Yes, I know the name of my cookbook is The Sustainable Kitchen but there is no real definition of the word. Second, culinary greenwashing. The standard definition is:

“making unsubstantiated environmental claims” or “the appearance of cultivating ecological awareness in hopes of getting a higher profile [and eventually money] for whatever they happen to be selling us.”

It’s bad enough when McDonald’s, Subway and Dominos do it. I believe Americans have grown accustomed to and know what it is, industrial-scale spin. But what really gets me is when a local, independent restaurant has the nerve to manipulate us. And per usual, the mainstream press happily goes along with the illusion just because they are “local”.

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