Organic restaurants offer mainly or exclusively food and drinks in organic quality. In most cases they also set value on regionality and seasonality. In addition, there are gastronomic establishments where individual dishes or components are offered in organic quality.
However, the designation as “Slow Food - restaurant” cannot be done by the establishments themselves. Instead, the NGO Slow Food labels restaurants which follow the slow food criteria of good, clean and fair food: hand-made dishes from regional and seasonal ingredients without flavor enhancers, artificial flavors and convenience products.
Moreover, there are single restaurants that committed themselves to further sustainability goals, as for example the Association >Restlos glücklich< in Berlin that uses food which would otherwise be discarded.
The objective is to achieve sustainability in gastronomy. Organic restaurants primarily support organic farming by increasing demand and offer their customers high-quality food. By focusing on hand-crafted production the Slow Food guide supports smaller businesses in agriculture and gastronomy as well as sustainable production methods apart from organic certification. Organic certification and Slow Food labelling provide guidance and transparency for customers.
It is not known when exactly the first organic restaurant opened up, partly because operators could apply their own criteria to define “organic” in the beginning due to a lack of certification. There are restaurants which advertise that they are the oldest organic restaurant in their region, for example the restaurant ›Schanzenstern Altona‹ which was opened as an organic restaurant in Hamburg in the early nineties. Some restaurants even claim that they are the first organic restaurant all over Germany, as for example the restaurant ›ROSE‹, which already has used organic products from their farm since 1950. Since 2003 restaurants have to undergo a certification process if they use food from organic farming and indicate them accordingly (e.g. in their menu).
Slow Food Italy compiles a guide for restaurants with a genuine, regional kitchen and original hospitality since the mid-nineties. Members from Slow Food Germany have also been testing restaurants for some time now. Since 2012 these restaurants have been awarded with a guide certificate and since 2013 there is the Slow Food guide for Germany.
In 2010 there were 1850 kitchens with an organic certification, in 2014 there were already 2500. In addition to that, it is estimated that at least twice as many kitchens offer organic dishes without certification. Hence, the niche is clearly growing. Currently, according to the Slow Food guide, there are about 400 restaurants.
The partly higher prices for dishes which could lead to an exclusion of lower income groups.
Organic restaurants offer mainly or exclusively food and drinks in organic quality. In most cases, they also set value on regionality and seasonality. Slow Food restaurants follow certain criteria of good, clean and fair food. Organic certification and Slow Food labelling provide guidance and transparency for customers.
The niche is currently growing. Organic and slow food restaurants mainly have indirect positive sustainability effects. The partly higher prices for dishes are less attractive for lower income groups. The sustainability and transformation potential could be increased with innovative concepts (for example through participatory quarter canteens).
[1] Land Berlin (2018): Bio-Restaurants in Berlin. Web, 06.06.2018. https://www.berlin.de/special/bio-und-fairtrade-in-berlin/3090779-3089636-biorestaurants-in-berlin.html.
[2] Slow Food Deutschland (2018): Genussführer Convivium Stuttgart. Gasthäuser, getestet und empfohlen vom Convivium Stuttgart. Web, 06.06.2018. www.slowfood.de/slow_food_vor_ort/stuttgart/genussfuehrer.
[3] Schanzenstern Altona (2018): Bio im Schanzenstern Altona. Web, 06.06.2018. https://schanzenstern.com/altona/mittagstisch-catering/schanzenstern-altona.html; ROSE (2018): Bio-Vielfalt seit 1950. Web, 06.06.2018. www.tress-gastronomie.de
[4] Slow Food Deutschland (2017): Slow Food Genussführer. Web, 06.06.2017. https://www.slowfood.de/slow_food_vor_ort/bergisches_land/genussfuehrer/; Slow Food Deutschland (2018)
[5] a’verdis (Hrsg.) (2017): Mit einfachen Schritten zur Bio-Zertifizierung. Der Leitfaden für Gemeinschaftsverpflegung und Gastronomie. Münster: a’verdis, S. 4. Web, 06.06.2018. www.gfrs.de/fileadmin/files/biozertifizierung-gastronomie.pdf
