Part of the spa lifestyle is figuring out how to be more green in the ways you live, and making your kitchen green is a good place to start.
“Green cooking requires us to be a little more conscious about what we are doing in the kitchen,” says Chef Enzo Febbraro, co-owner and executive chef of D’Acqua Ristorante in Washington, D.C. “With a little effort, you can greatly reduce your carbon footprint in the kitchen.”
Chef Enzo, a native of Italy, offers the following tips to green your shopping, kitchen and cooking:
- When you shop, always use re-usable bags to bring everything home.
- Buy locally grown food as much as possible.
- Compare the cost of organic food versus the varieties grown with chemicals. The difference may not be as much as you think.
- When shopping, reduce the amount of packaging, especially plastics, that you bring into the home. Recycle as much as of the packaging as possible.
- Compost food waste, which will naturally break down and turn into nutrient-rich soil. (Don't put meat scraps into the compost.)
- Conserve water by not letting it run and by fixing any leaks.
- Cut back on meat-centered meals, which cause more environmental pollution than other sources of protein.
- Use cloth napkins and kitchen towels. If you must buy disposables, choose those that are made from recycled materials.
- When it’s time to buy new appliances, look for the Energy Star label to save on the amount of energy needed to run the equipment.
- Stick with green cleaning, rather than using chemical versions in the kitchen. Most kitchens can be cleaned with water, vinegar, baking soda, plain soap, borax, and lemon juice, all of which are environmentally friendly. An all-purpose cleaner can be made by mixing ½ cup of vinegar with ¼ cup of baking soda and ½ gallon of water.
