Vermaat launched its Food Vision 2027 with ambitious goals across three pillars: People, Product, and Planet. To delve deeper into the Product pillar, we spoke with Mychel Jansen, catering manager at Triodos Bank.
Mychel Jansen, catering manager at Triodos Bank, champions a 100% organic and predominantly plant-based food offering. Together with Triodos, his team, and of course the guests, he’s always ready to take on a challenge to make his restaurant even more sustainable. “We never stop learning,” he says.
To get straight to the point: what defines the best collaboration here at Triodos?
Triodos’ new office was built on the Reehorst Estate. The Lievegoed Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting individuals with barriers to employment, is also located here. Together, we cultivate a piece of farmland where we grow our own vegetables. We truly collaborate with nature, source our products hyper-locally, and provide 15 hard workers with an extra helping hand.
The restaurant primarily serves vegetarian meals. How do you keep everyone happy?
Over 40% of what we offer is plant-based, and the vast majority is vegetarian. We don’t focus on meat or fish, but on flavor. You can emphasize flavor with herbs, and by beautifully displaying the herbs, dishes become even more appealing! The more attractive and colorful your buffet is, the less people will notice that there is no meat and fish.
Your products are 100% organic, and you prioritize local sourcing. How do you manage food waste?
We have various strategies to combat food waste. Our large team during lunch allows us the capacity to prepare extra portions halfway through service. This way, we can better adjust quantities to the number of guests. We also use ingredients from ‘nose to tail.’ For instance, we roast cauliflower leaves. Did you know the leaves contain up to ten times more nutrients than the cauliflower itself?
What does the future of food and beverages look like to you?
We need to make more balanced choices and adopt new eating patterns. My grandfather was a butcher, so my father was used to eating meat every day. That wasn’t common at all at the time. Now, you can buy everything daily at the supermarket for a much lower price. I think we need to return to a time when it wasn’t so readily available—a time when meat and fish are luxury products, not something you can have daily. If everyone bought their meat from the butcher, their fish from the fishmonger, and bread from the baker, it wouldn’t be as convenient as it is now. I think a lot would change.
The video below shows how we, together with Triodos Bank on the Reehorst Estate, shape our partnership and achieve our goals.
The strength of working together
Triodos Bank and Mychel Jansen are leading innovators in sustainability, health, and social impact. “We never stop learning,” as Mychel aptly stated in the introduction. This valuable collaboration has been instrumental in the creation of the Product pillar of the Vermaat Food Vision 2027.
