This is a call to action!!
We take electricity for granted.
We take our planet for granted.
If you are a restaurant that cares,
join the Blackout movement.
For one hour on March 25, 2020, buildings, landmarks and entire cities will turn to darkness. Earth Hour – the world’s largest grassroots movement against climate change – sees businesses, communities and individuals switching off all electrical devices to call on world leaders to rise to the challenge.
Taking place in the run up to Earth Hour, Blackout Dinners explore the role of electricity in dining – and what it means to do without it. While participating in Earth Hour itself requires little more of restaurants than to prop up a few candles, Blackout Dinners “unplug” the entire experience, relying on produce and ways of preparing food with little to no electrical footprint.
Says initiator Matt Orlando:
“The first Blackout Dinner in 2014 was something of an accident. We lost power in the restaurant and ended up cooking over fire and by candlelight. At the time it was a nightmare. A few days afterwards, it really started to sink in and we all started to realize the impact that it had on us as a team. So, we said, “Let’s do it on purpose to see what kind of reaction we can get out of people. It was a success. We always thought about trying to go global with it and after a couple years Billy Wagner reached out to us about participating. He rallied the troops in Berlin and all of a sudden it went international. Micha Schäfer and Billy Wagner have been key in the spread of this movement. The rest is history.”
The event now takes place all over the globe. Each Blackout Dinner is a collaboration between different chefs, restaurant owners, bakers, and other food producers, facilitating exchange around sustainability and climate change while raising awareness around these issues beyond the scope of the individual event itself.
While the size of each event and local circumstances no doubt influence how un-electrical a Blackout Dinner can (safely) be, we encourage participants to pay attention to these factors:
… Produce
What’s the “electrical footprint” of products before they arrive in our kitchens?
Let’s pay closer attention to how our ingredients are grown and manufactured – e.g. if you are thinking of serving meat, find a butcher who works manually; use vegetables not grown in greenhouses. As for drinks, we encourage you to look into low-intervention wines, craft beers and other artisanally produced and/or manually bottled drinks.
… Preparation
How do we prepare and store food without the usual shortcuts and conveniences?
From cooling to cooking – nearly every step from product to plate requires electrical appliances. Let’s discover what it means to go back to the roots, without electrically powered ovens, induction plates, Thermomix and co.
… Experience
What does it mean to eat & serve food “Blacked Out”?
Let’s celebrate dining in its purest form – enjoying mindfully prepared food amid candlelight, without the distractions of cameras, phones and other technical gadgets.
Of course, there are some ways in which even the most intricately planned Blackout Dinner might not be able to do without electricity entirely. After all, it makes sense to advertise the event on social media or through other online platforms. The idea of these guidelines is not to be a restrictive set of rules, but to provide food for thought and to question what we take for granted. If you find that for one reason or another you do have to rely on an electrical workaround – e.g. in printing menu cards – this of course does not disqualify you from participating.
This is a call to action!!
We take electricity for granted.
We take our planet for granted.
If you are a restaurant that cares, join the Blackout movement.
For one hour on March 25, 2020, buildings, landmarks and entire cities will turn to darkness. Earth Hour – the world’s largest grassroots movement against climate change – sees businesses, communities and individuals switching off all electrical devices to call on world leaders to rise to the challenge.
Taking place in the run up to Earth Hour, Blackout Dinners explore the role of electricity in dining – and what it means to do without it. While participating in Earth Hour itself requires little more of restaurants than to prop up a few candles, Blackout Dinners “unplug” the entire experience, relying on produce and ways of preparing food with little to no electrical footprint.
Says initiator Matt Orlando:
“The first Blackout Dinner in 2014 was something of an accident. We lost power in the restaurant and ended up cooking over fire and by candlelight. At the time it was a nightmare. A few days afterwards, it really started to sink in and we all started to realize the impact that it had on us as a team. So, we said, “Let’s do it on purpose to see what kind of reaction we can get out of people. It was a success. We always thought about trying to go global with it and after a couple years Billy Wagner reached out to us about participating. He rallied the troops in Berlin and all of a sudden it went international. Micha Schäfer and Billy Wagner have been key in the spread of this movement. The rest is history.”
The event now takes place all over the globe. Each Blackout Dinner is a collaboration between different chefs, restaurant owners, bakers, and other food producers, facilitating exchange around sustainability and climate change while raising awareness around these issues beyond the scope of the individual event itself.
While the size of each event and local circumstances no doubt influence how un-electrical a Blackout Dinner can (safely) be, we encourage participants to pay attention to these factors:
… Produce
What’s the “electrical footprint” of products before they arrive in our kitchens?
Let’s pay closer attention to how our ingredients are grown and manufactured – e.g. if you are thinking of serving meat, find a butcher who works manually; use vegetables not grown in greenhouses. As for drinks, we encourage you to look into low-intervention wines, craft beers and other artisanally produced and/or manually bottled drinks.
… Preparation
How do we prepare and store food without the usual shortcuts and conveniences?
From cooling to cooking – nearly every step from product to plate requires electrical appliances. Let’s discover what it means to go back to the roots, without electrically powered ovens, induction plates, Thermomix and co.
… Experience
What does it mean to eat & serve food “Blacked Out”?
Let’s celebrate dining in its purest form – enjoying mindfully prepared food amid candlelight, without the distractions of cameras, phones and other technical gadgets.
Of course, there are some ways in which even the most intricately planned Blackout Dinner might not be able to do without electricity entirely. After all, it makes sense to advertise the event on social media or through other online platforms. The idea of these guidelines is not to be a restrictive set of rules, but to provide food for thought and to question what we take for granted. If you find that for one reason or another you do have to rely on an electrical workaround – e.g. in printing menu cards – this of course does not disqualify you from participating.