Sustentable: The gastronomic guide that fuses exquisite flavours with sustainability

What if we could savour the delicacies of haute cuisine while joining the fight against climate change? The Valencian Community, famous for its exquisite cuisine, becomes the epicentre of a bold innovation: Sustentable, the guide that values environmental sustainability, how local the product is, and gastronomic excellence in the restaurant sector. Discover how the most delicious flavours can join the preservation of our planet!

Excellence and sustainability

The restaurant guide began to be developed in 2014 by María Diago, project director, biologist and environmental consultant. After working all her life on sustainability indicators and after developing great interest in gastronomy, she came to a valuable conclusion: in the 21st century, to be considered excellent, gastronomy must be sustainable. And this is how the Sustainable guide, the initiative that aims to join the revolution against climate change, was born.

The project soon received the support of the Conselleria de Agricultura, the Diputación de Castellón, the Diputación de Valencia, and other Valencian institutions and entities at the national level. Today, for the first time in history, the Valencian Community has a restaurant guide (although it also includes wineries and oil mills) with three sections of information:

  • a gastronomic review of the restaurant
  • the presence of local and seasonal products
  • and the degree of environmental sustainability.

Now, what must a restaurant have to be part of this guide?

The crème de la crème

First of all, it must work on gastronomic excellence, and then it must have a degree of local produce and environmental sustainability. “We are a team of 30 people, including highly regarded food critics who go to the restaurants, taste the dishes and carry out an evaluation”, Diago explains. “Immediately afterwards, the restaurant chef must complete a survey that we take into account in the analysis”, he adds.

Some of the indicators measured in the questionnaire are:

  • the percentage of local foods on the menu
  • whether they have stable agreements with local farmers, livestock breeders or fishmongers
  • water use
  • and the type of energy used.

More conscious decisions, more sustainable restaurants

Thanks to Sustentable, diners can make conscious decisions based on objective and quantifiable criteria, since it includes relevant and discriminating information. We can’t promise you that the choice will be easy, but the good news is that in Sustentable you have an unbiased ally, as it is free of advertising.

This initiative is also an incentive for restaurants to improve their practices and offer increasingly sustainable proposals. “The 21st century must be sustainable no matter what. It has to be made the century of cooperation or it won’t be, and the Sustentable guide has arrived to cooperate and make its contribution”, Diago points out.

Want to know which one is at the top of the list? The book is available in all bookstores in the country, although you can also consult its APP.