SERVING FOODS THAT ARE MORE FLAVORFUL AND PACKED WITH NUTRITION
Everyone at Bon Appétit Management Company is focused on one goal: serving the best tasting food possible. Flavor is at the heart of everything we do and has inspired our socially responsible practices. Serving delicious food allows us to support our local farmers and artisans and satisfy our guests while caring for their well being.
Healthy Cooking Initiative
Fueled by the desire to offer guests healthy food that doesn’t compromise taste, we developed a ground-breaking Healthy Cooking Initiative. The foundation of the program is our healthy cooking techniques. All of our chefs attend a hands-on class developed by our registered dietitians called “Cooking Healthy in the BAMCO Kitchen.” This training teaches them techniques for “stealth” nutrition – ways to integrate healthy options throughout the café menus in addition to those items specifically highlighted for health. For example, omelets are made with four ounces of egg whites and two ounces of whole eggs as a standard and legumes and whole grains are blended into entrees like meatloaf to increase the nutritional value. These techniques are designed to provide our guests with good nutrition, camouflaged in our day to day food. They are menuing and food preparation methods that will result in healthier foods throughout our café, above and beyond our “healthy” options.
Going beyond the hidden health practices, our Healthy Cooking Initiative also calls out 26 specific guidelines targeted at specific health-related issues. They focus on encouraging complex carbohydrates, eliminating trans-fats and reducing high fructose corn syrup. All of this without compromising flavor!
Having healthy options is only half the solution. People also have to choose to eat them. We promote good choices with point of sale signage and a Well Being menu icon. We hope that by educating our guests on the value of eating well and then providing great tasting healthy choices, we can help people make positive, long-lasting changes in their eating habits.
Circle Of Responsibility
Bon Appétit Management Company’s Circle of Responsibility takes a macro view of wellness. We have created an interactive website (www.CircleofResponsibility.com) that is designed to give customers information about how food choices affect their environment, community and well being. From analyzing issues such as fish farming and industrialized agriculture to providing personal nutrition and physical activity advice from health care professionals, this extensive site is a very valuable resource for Bon Appétit customers and the public alike.
The Circle of Responsibility is also an educational program for our staff. Three interactive on-line modules thoroughly examine how Bon Appétit’s kitchen principles support the environment, the community and personal health. After completing the rigorous training, café staff members are prepared to engage guests and teach them about our company's core sustainability principles and their beneficial effects. In addition, each café prominently displays Circle of Responsibility educational tools that help guests identify foods according to the categories of: health, vegetarian, vegan, organic, locally and responsibly sourced. This program promotes the benefits of sustainable food to thousands of people who eat in Bon Appétit cafés every day.
For more information, visit www.bamco.com.
