How Modern Recipe blends culinary innovation and sustainability in every dish
Modern Recipe menus are crafted to meet the evolving expectations of today’s consumers, blending health, flavor, sustainability, and affordability into every dish. We are committed to maximizing the potential of 100% of our ingredients, creating delicious meals that are as healthy for you as they are for the planet.
But how do we make this happen on a global scale? What are the core principles of Modern Recipe which ensures sustainability, affordability, health and taste?
We interviewed Lloyd Mann, Global Executive Chef and culinary lead for Modern Recipe at Sodexo who builds the global Modern Recipe menus and Aimee Moffatt, Head of Marketing for Corporate Services in the UK who helps spotlight the brand menu credentials through marketing, ensuring it resonates with the UK and Ireland target demographics.
Modern Recipe is available in the US, UK, France and throughout Europe. This article shows how our global principles are being applied in the UK and Ireland as an example.
Global menus with sustainability at their heart:
Q. How do you reduce the overall carbon footprint of Modern Recipe dish creation through global menu creation?
L: Sustainability is at the heart of Modern Recipe. When we design the global menu, we aim for 70% of the dishes to be low carbon, defined as under 900g CO2 per meal and 50% of the dishes are vegetarian.
Competitions like Cook for Change! our sustainable chef challenge, local culinary events and the sustainable eating module in our chef academy help ensure that our menus are prepared perfectly around the world by chefs who are fully invested in sustainable cooking.
Q. Please could you give an example of a Modern Recipe dish where sustainability was the primary consideration in its development?
L: Certainly! We designed 25 delicious dishes based on criteria focused on health, wellness and eco-consciousness. Working in partnership with Unilever, we created these dishes which:
- Are low in carbon,
- avoid food waste
- are plant-based
- and contain Future 50 Foods ingredients
Many of these dishes are included in the Modern Recipe global menu. From a Nordic Poke Bowl with Crispy No Chicken Tonkatsu to a Savory buckwheat pancake.
Q. How do you minimalize food waste through Modern Recipe menu development?
One of the biggest ways we minimalize food waste is through using 100% of an ingredient within the same dish or on consecutive days within a menu. Some of our dishes are specifically designed to help avoid food waste. An example of this could be a soup created using carrot trimmings from the previous day.
Our chefs around the world follow a zero-waste mindset and take simple actions such as choosing the best way to store food and not peeling produce unnecessarily.
A. In the UK & Ireland, we adapt Modern Recipe menu to meet regional tastes whilst staying true to the ethos of the brand. Our central culinary team collaborates closely with supply chain to understand seasonality and ingredient availability, ensuring we offer in-season produce throughout the year. Additionally, we continually assess our dish costs to ensure we are sourcing the highest quality ingredients at competitive prices, with the goal of making our dishes 15% more affordable than comparable offerings at high street restaurants.
