Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper), The European Union’s Farm to Fork Strategy is at the heart of the European Green Deal which aims to make food systems fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly.
Food systems cannot be resilient to crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic if they are not sustainable and the EU strategy aims to accelerate the transition to a sustainable food system
But to enable and accelerate this transition to a fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly food system everyone must play their part.
And how much, for instance, does the Horeca sector do to meet such laudable objectives?
Well, there is at least one establishment that is doing its fair share of this. It is called “Sentro” and it has come up with a particularly novel way to comply with the much-lauded EU policy.
The resto, located at the heart of Brussels, has introduced what it calls “climate labels” to dishes on its menu.
These labels seek to categorize the food by its environmental impact. Each dish has a rating, from A to E, which reflects its “climate impact” based on the carbon footprint of a standard 400g meal. The relevant data is provided by Klimato. the company which has teamed up with the restaurant as its sustainability partner.
Klimato provides restaurants from food trucks to global fine dining brands with science-backed sustainability data and reporting.
So, it means that if a dish is marked with an A it is deemed to have a “very low” carbon footprint while B is “low” and so on. This ranges to an E class, considered at the other end of the scale, as “very high.”
Fortunately, there are hardly any on the menu here with an E beside them but lots with A’s and B’s.
This is not by chance, of course, because the whole policy here is to serve not just delicious and lovingly presented dishes but food that is genuinely sustainable and easily traceable, two of the key planks of the EU farm-to-fork policy.
The overall idea at Sentro is to “shape a greener future where we eat with conscience and learn together.”
Its head chef Vincent Masson, backed by his sous chef Abdel Ramdani, is fully committed to “this journey of sustainability.”
It is an innovative and different way to help support such policies and a refreshing change from restaurants that also may make such claims but, in practice, do little about enforcing it.
The menu is relatively small but changed every four months or so to make it as seasonal as possible. Currently, you will find some lovely dishes on it, such as ribeye steak, fillets of sole, Parmentier of endives beef cheeks, and white Belgian asparagus. There is a small but nice sweets selection and a pervasive and impressive wine and drinks list, including some great Belgian beers.
The restaurant itself is on the ground floor of the Hilton Brussels Grand Place which, currently, boasts another great reason to visit: an art exhibition by the celebrated Brussels-based artist Francois Coorens.
His wonderful modern art is displayed in various parts of the hotel as part of a year-long residency that aims to showcase the work of local artists.
Some of his art is also on view at Sentro, a relatively small, but cozy, eating space (it can seat up to 35 people) which, with its large windows, allows great views of the local neighborhood. Vincent and his team even visited Coorens’ workshop which they say has helped inspire their work in the kitchen.
Unlike a lot of “hotel-based” restaurants it does not rely just on guests to fill those seats as there are an equal number of non-residents who dine here. That is a good sign and indicative of the quality of both the food and service, provided by friendly team members such as Michael, who hails from Ecuador, and Mauricio, from Chile. The multi-national mix of staff (Abdel, who started with Vincent and has always worked at high-end hotels, is of Moroccan descent) nicely reflects the cosmopolitan nature of Brussels itself.
The food served by Vincent and Abdel is terrific and, given the quality, very reasonably priced.
That is no bad thing, not least as a recent survey showed more and more Belgians are now opting to eat at home or in fast food joints rather than better quality eating establishments such as this one.
Sentro is also doing very nicely, business-wise, which contrasts sharply with another disturbing report just out that shows that Brussels restaurants face an uncertain future amid skyrocketing costs.
The hotel, unlike so many other places, did not close during the pandemic and Sentro is now reaping the dividends and able to implement its very commendable environment-friendly food policy fully.
Sentro, 3 Carrefour l’Europe, Brussels, t: 02 548 4710
