In the high-end dining scene, sustainability is now more than a buzzword: it’s a layer of design and operations built into the fabric of a new dining venue, with budding restaurateurs and top chefs alike keen to limit waste and make the most of what’s local and seasonal to them. In fact, the world’s cutting-edge hospitality moguls know that making a restaurant greener can be huge fun, finding innovative ways to channel sustainable power sources, or out-of-the-box ways to use food waste in everything from biofuel to sauces and cordials. 

Sustainable fine dining is one of the most progressive categories of all, with luxury consumers eager to spend on lavish dinners they can feel good about.

Fyn, Cape Town

Photo credit: @fynrestaurantcpt on Instagram

South African pioneer Fyn won this year’s Flor de Caña Award for sustainability in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards. With a name inspired by the country’s national fynbos flower (pronounced “Fayn”), Peter Tempelhoff’s restaurant employs hyper-local ingredients and uses Japanese techniques to make delicate creations; the team pays close attention to foraged local wonders like kelp, sea lettuce and dune spinach, as well as partnering with the country’s most ethical producers and fishermen for meat and fish. 

More than half of the menu is vegetarian or vegan-friendly, and staff are trained in foraging and careful water management to avoid waste. There’s a social enterprise element, too: they work with a Cape Town initiative to train up young chefs from disadvantaged backgrounds.

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nôl, Tokyo

Photo credit: @nol.jp on Instagram

This moodily-lit, chef’s table style restaurant was awarded the Michelin Green Star this year, taking Tokyo’s Green Star restaurants to 11 ‒ the most sustainable fine dining restaurants in a single city. Chef Tatsuya Noda refers to the dining room as a “kitchen space”, creating dishes passed down through his family, such as his grandmother’s home pickles and his mother’s roasted rice, for just a small group of diners. 

Noda’s “Garbage Soup” was singled out by Michelin as an exceptional waste-preventing dish; another low-waste initiative includes creating dishes from sturgeon fish, which are usually discarded after their caviar is removed.

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Apricity, London

Photo credit: @apricityrestaurant on Instagram

Vegans will feel right at home at this soothing, light-filled space in London’s Mayfair, with veg-stacked dishes like butterhead lettuce with cultured miso aioli and crispy kale and celeriac orzotto with confit chestnut gracing the a la carte menu. 

Awarded a Michelin Green Star in 2023, Chantelle Nicholson and team have also won Innovator of the Year at the National Restaurant Awards and a Grosvenor Sustainability Award for its circular economy values. Pared-back, distressed walls are pepped up with hanging plants and trendily upcycled furniture and fixtures: recycled tiles and chairs made from old Coca-Cola bottles, saving them from going to landfill.

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Toyo Eatery, Philippines

Winner of the Flor de Caña sustainability award 2023 in the 50 Best Restaurants in Asia, this Manila restaurant does everything it can to champion Filipino people and their produce. Shockingly for a Filipino eatery, there’s no beef on the menu ‒ owners Jordy and May Navarra deemed cattle farming methods too harmful to the environment, and, though they serve other meats, there’s an entirely vegan tasting menu option. 

Every ingredient here is local, organic and traceable ‒ think black rice, coconut, banana and taro ‒ making sure local workers benefit from the supply chain; and the team has bought forest and farmland with an aim to become zero-waste by 2025, growing their own produce using any food waste as compost. 

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Aponiente, Cadiz, Spain

Seafood lovers should sail, paddle or swim to this waterside spot in southwestern Spain, where chef Ángel León is on a mission to showcase the marine ingredients we don’t typically see on a Michelin-level plate. Abundantly available fish like mackerel and hake crop up on his menus, but also sea urchin, tuna milt, deep sea algae and sardine scales ‒ plus inventive moments like “sea bacon” made from thinly sliced sea bass. It’s an approach that’s earned him three Michelin stars and the 2022 Flor de Caña award for sustainable fine dining. Set inside an old tidal mill with a newer, wow-factor building attached, this is a real sensory experience.

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Locavore, Bali

Photo credit: @locavorenxt on Instagram

Simple, polished wooden tables, a charcoal-grey bar and a high, barn-like ceiling set the scene for Locavore, a champion of Indonesian produce and cooking. Set in the island’s spiritual old capital, Ubud, it was named both Asia’s Most Sustainable Restaurant and Indonesia’s best restaurant overall in 2019. It’s a showcase for all things Balinese: 95% of ingredients are sourced within the island, from coffee to beef and salt, while crockery and ceramics are all made locally by artisans. They have a vegetarian and non-vegetarian tasting menu, with quirky and intriguing dish names like “Who says lobsters don’t like chocolate?” Dishes might include prawn ceviche with plenty of garden herbs and spices, or roasted bone marrow in a pandan broth.

Saint Peter, Sydney

Photo credit: @saintpeterpaddo on Instagram

Another fish fanatic, Josh Niland, is the brains behind this Sydney destination restaurant; his brand of sustainable fine dining is using available and plentiful fish (working carefully with local fishermen) and the shelf life of each fish to serve them at the perfect time, minimizing waste.  Like Spain’s Ángel León, Niland makes use of the offal or less-loved parts of the fish, from crispy skin crackers to fish-liver pates, with bones used to make stock and “fish-eye chips” just one signature snack. The trendy, modern restaurant has exposed brick walls and a long marble counter, with plenty of exciting Australian wines on the menu.

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Amber, Hong Kong

Photo credit @rekkebus on Instagram

Michelin green-starred since 2022, as well coming out on top in 2022’s Food Made Good sustainability awards, Amber is a Hong Kong institution. You’ll find it in the city’s Mandarin Oriental hotel, a striking white-and-pine dining room with fluid-looking gold light fixtures and dainty ceramics. All seafood here is sourced sustainably, with fair-trade policies on tea, coffee, chocolate and vanilla; meanwhile only ethical egg and meat producers are used, and no dairy products are featured on the menu, to eliminate any carbon emitted by dairy production. There’s also a strict 35:65 ratio of animal products to plant-based products when it comes to ingredients.

Tèrra, Copenhagen

Photo credit: @_terrarestaurant_ on Instagram

Named for mother earth, this high-end Italian in Denmark’s capital was awarded a Michelin green star in 2021. A zero-waste kitchen, its menu is largely based on seasonal vegetables and fruit, topped up with seasonal and ethically-sourced meat and fish here and there. Dishes might include “Celeriac and mussels”, with the root vegetable forming an oyster-like shell, creative bite-sized snacks made from offcuts, kombucha or cookies made from coffee grounds, and foraged flavors like sea kale and violets. A pared-back dining room of stone walls and simple seating puts the focus on the dishes, served New-Nordic style, like little works of art.

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Restaurante Manu, Curitiba, Brazil

Photo credit: @manubuffara on Instagram

This exciting destination venue in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná won the most sustainable restaurant award at Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants awards earlier this year. An impressive 80% of its suppliers come from within a 300km radius, while the chefs actively connect with family farming businesses and smallholdings to support the local community. They’re obsessed with biodiversity, nurturing local species and even keeping their own beehives; curious combinations might include seared fish with bacon and caramel, or lamb with seafood and custard apple.  Even more feelgood? The team feeds the homeless, distributing 400 healthy meals per week to unhoused residents in Curitiba.

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Harbor House Inn, California

Perched on the wild California coastline of Mendocino, Harbor House is a beacon of sustainable American cooking. Chef Matthew Kammerer was awarded a Michelin green star in 2020, while the restaurant holds a rarefied two stars from the foodie guide; 90% of his ingredients come from local sources, including their own cattle ranch and kitchen garden. Porcini mushrooms are foraged from nearby woodland and lichen from the clifftops, and the building itself is 100% powered by sustainable energy, including solar and geothermal. Little details make it charming: fryer oil is turned into candles for the tables, for example. Even more soul-soothing is the wild sea view from the classic wood-paneled dining room.

Even though he makes scores of them per week, chef Ben Kelliher isn’t sick of the Beef Wellington. In fact, this classic English dish ‒ a star of his menu at the English Grill in London ‒ is a personal favourite.

The English Grill is the in-house restaurant at The Rubens at the Palace, the 5-star central London hotel Luxury Gold guests stay at during our British Royale journey.

“I often tell our guests a bit about the history of pies and pastry in the UK, and why this is something quite special to cook and present,” he tells me. Getting the puff pastry casing just right and slicing through to rose-pink beef is still a thrill. “It’s a real treat when you go out to a restaurant and see this dish on a menu; you really don’t see it that much around London,” he says. Luxury Gold customers can taste this historic dish on a visit to the Grill during the London leg of our British Royale journey.

A dish is born

The first Beef Wellington was created in 1815, made in celebration of the Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, and his victory at the Battle of Waterloo in June that year. But this pastry-swaddled beef dish has endured in British culture, becoming fashionable at the height of 1970s dinner party culture and remaining a home-cooking showstopper today. British cooking royalty from Mary Berry to Gordon Ramsay have championed its sturdy charms in recipe books and restaurants. 

Beef Wellington is a classic English dish

“It’s actually one of the first dishes I made on my first job in London,” says Kelliher. “I’d make the pancakes ‒ that’s the layer between the mushroom duxelles (a paté-like mix) and the pastry.” When he began working at the Rubens at the Palace hotel, home to the English Grill, he decided to run masterclasses teaching guests how to make this British classic, as well as putting it in prime of place on the menu.

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Reimagined for the 21st century

With the benefit of time, Kelliher has been able to play with the historic recipe for a modern palate. “We’ve been through a few versions of the dish: serving it with a red-wine sauce and a truffle madeira sauce, which are both more traditional versions,” says Kelliher. “With our current Wellington, there’s a bit of a modern twist: we serve it with a lobster sauce,” he explains. Inspired by the combination of beef and lobster in surf ‘n turf dishes, this adds a little indulgence and luxury. 

Meet chef Ben Kelliher:

Though the dish was designed for meat-loving 19th-century Englishmen, it’s surprisingly versatile, says Kelliher. Faced with hosting vegetarian guests, he suggests “you could do salmon in a similar style, which would usually be called en croute, with spinach and pancake wrapped around it. You can also do vegetarian or vegan versions: we’ve used beetroot instead of beef topped with goat’s cheese, or butternut squash topped with spinach.” 

One of his favourite twists on the iconic dish is a miniature version, served canapé-style. “We’ve done bite-sized, sausage-roll style ones with a small piece of beef and the mushroom duxelles spread on top rather than all the way around. Those are great for parties or events.”

As for what he’d recommend as a complimentary starter and dessert either side of your English Grill Beef Wellington? “We’re just coming into asparagus season in the UK, so I’d say our asparagus dish with morel mushrooms, confit egg yolk, grilled spring onions and a homemade milk-asparagus mayonnaise to start.” And to finish? “It has to be the Crepes Suzette, flambéed at your table.”

“We’re always trying to find a little twist to a dish and a way to make it theatrical for guests,” he adds. “It’s a great place to come for a celebration or special occasion in London.”

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The English Grill restaurant, London

Ben’s top tips for the perfect Beef Wellington:

“We always use fillet of beef; you can use a sirloin but it would be a bit tougher. Fillet is the finer cut ‒ it should cut through like butter and really melt in your mouth. We use a centre cut of Aberdeen Angus beef from a local supplier, which is dry-aged for 28 days. We have a great relationship with our butcher and are always testing and evaluating the meats we use for the best quality.”

“We use a mixture of wild mushrooms to make the mushroom duxelles (a fine mix with shallots and butter), cooking it for quite a long time ‒ around 45 minutes or an hour. It’s crucial to get rid of the water content, or you risk making the pastry soggy when you assemble it. We also deglaze the duxelles with a bit of madeira and port to add flavor and put a little grated truffle in there.”

“When it comes to assembling, have everything prepared in plenty of time: don’t panic. You can get things like your duxelles, your puff pastry and any pancake you’re using ready well before you need to put it together, so do it in stages.”

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Chef Ben Kelliher at The English Grill, London

“Consistency is key for getting the meat perfectly pink on the inside. We’ve mastered it by cooking it at 180 degrees, for 30-35 minutes and then resting it for 15-20 minutes. That brings it up to medium rare and it largely works every time. We also advise guests in the masterclass to have a probe to check the temperature at the centre.”

“Then, when you’ve cooked it, resting it is absolutely key. You’ve got to let the beef rest for up to 20 minutes, it helps the pastry firm up, it makes the meat juicy and you’ll be able to slice it really nicely.”

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Fogón Asado is no ordinary Buenos Aires restaurant. This petite parrilla (the name for this city’s expert steakhouses), with its exposed brick and leaping flames, is more like an immersive theatre experience melded with a supper club, all designed to introduce guests to the Argentinian art of asado. In an exclusive experience designed by the owners, Argentinian Alex Pels and his Danish wife Dani Jenster, the intimate space holds a maximum of 30 diners, who are given a ringside seat to this traditional, meat-focused feast.

Luxury Gold clients, visiting the Buenos Aires restaurant on the Argentinian leg of our Grand South America tour, are among the lucky few in attendance. Sitting at the polished countertop, you’ll watch the expert chefs smoke, sizzle and slice different cuts of meat, seasonal vegetables and the local provoleta cheese ‒ all on an elaborate, custom-made barbecue that executive chef José Gilberto Garcia calls “the Ferrari” of grills. We caught up with José to find out about this very particular style of South American cuisine.

A chef at Fogón Asado shows diners the way of the asado (Fogón Asado)

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Your Buenos Aires restaurant describes itself as “asado for a fine dining audience”. Can you tell us a bit more about this?

“Certainly. Asado describes the grilling technique – over a wood fire and its embers, but for Argentinians it’s also a kind of ritual, a traditional experience. It’s a very special moment to share with friends or with family. We usually gather at weekends for an asado, where we grill different cuts of meat for many hours. Everyone stands around the grill, enjoying wine and tasting the different cuts. At Fogón, we’ve tried to recreate that feeling for a fine dining audience. We like to incorporate innovative techniques and presentations to elevate the experience. Our tasting menu is designed based on the Argentine asado, but has a modern and unique approach.” 

What’s the origin of the cooking style, and how do you engage with that?

“The history of asado in Argentina dates back to the 19th century, evolving from the cooking practices of gauchos – Argentinian cowboys. As they roamed the vast pampas herding cattle, they developed simple, yet flavorful ways to cook meat over open fires. This method became ingrained in Argentine culture, blending indigenous techniques with Spanish influences. The gauchos had their tools, like the gaucho knife, the facón, which are very sharp. They used it for fighting, they used it for cooking and that’s really all they needed. We really wanted to include these tools in our dining experience. So a selection of these knives are presented to diners during the meal in a handmade wooden box, and each person can kind of choose their weapon. That’s our way of including a little bit of the culture and the history.”

Meat is grilled at Buenos Aires restaurant Fogón Asado (Fogón Asado)

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Can you tell me about the technical aspects of the fire cooking process?

“At Fogón we use two different types of wood that are typical here in Argentina; there’s one in particular called quebracho, which is one of the hardest woods in the world. The Spanish name for it actually comes from the phrase “to break the axe”. The white kind, quebracho blanco, is what we use to start the fire on our parrilla (grill) for the bigger cuts of meat to hang over; then we add the red kind (rojo), and once there are glowing embers from that wood, we cook smaller items like the rib eye or the bife el chorizo. It really adds a special flavour to the meat.”

How do you ensure the quality of ingredients?

“Quality is key at Fogón. We meticulously source our ingredients, prioritizing local, organic, and sustainably raised meats and produce. Our partnerships with local farmers and suppliers ensure that we receive the freshest and highest quality ingredients available. Each piece of meat is carefully selected for its marbling, age, and origin, ensuring that only the best makes it to our grill. This commitment to quality extends to every aspect of our dishes, from the vegetables and herbs to the specialty condiments. Unlike other restaurants, we only do one sitting per night, ensuring that each product is treated with respect and care.”

What are some of your favourite dishes on the menu?

“One of mine is the rib-eye cap, what we call the ceja (eyebrow), which we smoke with pine cones for an hour or so, something like that. Then we chargrill it over a strong fire for six or seven minutes more, until it’s rare to medium-rare. The flavour is very smoky and we serve it with a creamy cauliflower puree and corn cooked with a local technique called rescoldo, where we cook the vegetables over the fire. It’s smoky, salty, creamy, and even a little acidic because we add a little rice-vinegar to the cauliflower. It’s like a hug for your tongue.

“Another very typical street food here is choripan, which is usually local chorizo or morcilla sausage served in a baguette. This is something we eat at concerts, at the market or football games. But because we’re taking asado to a fine-dining experience, we reimagined the choripan for our menu. We put the two types of sausage on open-face, grilled breads, with a delicious apple and quince chutney on top, and flame-grilled pepper. In Spanish we call the combination “un matrimonio” (the marriage) because it goes so well together.”

Dishes at Fogón Asado, Buenos Aires (Fogón Asado)

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What else can guests expect from the experience?

“Guests are greeted with a cocktail, a Negroni but crafted from Argentine ingredients, like mate (a caffeinated herbal drink), Patagonian elderflower, vermouth and Viognier wine. From there it’s a three-hour fireside dining experience; you sit at the bar and all the preparations are done in front of you, right on the fire. I’ll explain each cut of meat, and show you them on a big wooden board before we begin. It’s a very interactive experience, inspired by the fact that Argentinians often gather around the asado when cooking at home.

We also have wine pairings of regional and national wines; our owners don’t believe in set glasses of wine, so we are very generous with refills! You’ll try every classic asado dish that you would usually try, but in a fine-dining presentation: they’re smaller, lighter plates and a bit more creative. It’s a real performance: our team loves to work in front of people and answer questions.” 

Experience the art of Argentinian asado on our Grand South America journey

Fogon Asado has two Buenos Aires restaurants ‒ one in Palermo Soho and one in Palermo Viejo. Tasting menus from $60 for lunch and $80 for dinner; wine pairings available (fogonasado.com)