Understanding Guest Preferences and Improving Efficiency
10 Scotts Road, Singapore 228211
Meeting space: 42,245+ sq. ft. (60,000 indoor, 70,000 outdoor) | Rooms: 677
The Grand Hyatt Singapore has implemented numerous solutions to separate, measure, and prevent food waste in their operations. The following highlights some of the innovative solutions they have found to tackling food waste at their property.
Successes
A premier international property, Grand Hyatt Singapore is paving the way for innovative food waste diversion in the hospitality industry. In order to integrate separation and management strategy into the culture of their property, Chef Lucas, Director of Culinary Operations, along with property management, reinforced and continuously emphasized behavior change among staff. Chef Lucas at Grand Hyatt Singapore puts an emphasis on waste reduction and his enthusiasm for the cause is contagious amongst staff. Each meal prep stations has a dedicated food waste bin. Banquet chefs bring waste back from service to the kitchens, where it is manually sorted by culinary staff. Grand Hyatt Singapore views any food waste as an indication of opportunity to better understand guest preferences and improve efficiency. Chef Lucas has noted that there has been a reduction in food waste overall since his interventions began, resulting in significant hauler cost savings.
Grand Hyatt Singapore has an advanced organic waste management system where a network of vacuum tubes collects any unrecoverable food and deposits it into a digester. This machine grinds and dehydrates the food, agitating it at 70o C to create fertilizer. This fertilizer is applied to the property’s aesthetic and edible gardens and any excess fertilizer is sold.
A unique feature of Grand Hyatt Singapore food service is their event menu portfolio, adaptable for cultural preferences to ensure food items and service styles are the most appropriate for each client and event. Chef Lucas looks back at records to find information on groups and adjust their future services to reduce waste. The property is also gradually omitting controversial items from the menu, for example, shark fin was successfully removed from the menu.
"Food. Thoughtfully Sourced. Carefully Served. Our global initiative focuses on creating a positive impact on the local community and, ultimately, our planet in everything we do in food and beverage."
Chef Lucas Glanville, Director of Culinary Operations
Challenges
There are many perceived challenges with donating food, but the team at Grand Hyatt Singapore is working with a local community organization to make sure excess food is properly chilled in order to uphold food safety standards, and appropriately donated.
The culinary team still finds waste from dessert to be a challenge. They observe that clients always request them, and expect something lavish, while most attendees won’t take a serving.
Grand Hyatt Singapore has experienced some difficulty training temporary and seasonal staff on food waste management strategies. Also, since Singapore is a country that imports most ingredients, line cooks are challenged to grasp the full value of food and food waste reduction without visibility of agriculture systems. This makes behavior change and staff culture shift more tedious.
Next Steps
Grand Hyatt Singapore plans to continue implementation of the current system and would like to scale their model to other Hyatt properties.