Pasture first restaurant in Wales to gain top sustainability award

An ethos of sourcing locally, championing seasonality, and eradicating food waste has seen The Pasture Restaurant group secure a 3* ‘Food Made Good’ Rating from the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) – making them the first independently owned restaurant in Wales to achieve the respected accreditation*.

Pasture restaurants are a celebration of fire-based cooking and incredible local ingredients; in-house butchers handpick and prepare the very best meat from selected local farms raising grass fed cattle, and a team of chefs use it to cook modern dishes which change with the seasons.

Sam Elliott is the 35-year-old Chef-Owner behind The Pasture Restaurant group – which comprises two restaurants in Bristol (Pasture, opened in 2018, and Radius opened last year); and two restaurants in Cardiff (a second Pasture, which opened in 2020, and Parallel which opened earlier this year). In 2024, Sam will also be opening Prime by Pasture; a butchery, deli, cookery school and burger joint in the Redcliffe Quarter, Bristol; and PastureBirmingham at Fifteen Colmore Row in Birmingham city centre.

Since Sam founded Pasture in 2018, he has always been passionate about working closely with local suppliers to operate in a responsible way.  Under Sam’s ways of working, Pasture has scored exceptionally highly in all three categories assessed by the SRA for its ‘Food Made Good’ rating – environment, sourcing and society.

• Environment: Pasture’s highest scoring category, the SRA commented on the group’s ‘extensive steps’ to tackle food waste – including composting all inedible food waste in an on-site anaerobic digester. Staff are also trained on food waste prevention, all used cooking oil is recycled, all cooking charcoal is sourced sustainably, and suppliers are carefully chosen for their own commitments to environmentally sustainable practices.
• Sourcing: Pasture excelled this category by maintaining direct and transparent relationships with its small-scale, local suppliers. Additionally, Pasture runs its own farm, Buttercliffe Farm just outside Bristol, where heritage produce is grown for the restaurants, and where staff are taken to learn about provenance and seasonality.
• Society: Pasture was commended for demonstrating its commitment to wider society by working only with suppliers who share its values, and by using profits from filtered water sales to donate to local charities tackling homelessness and mental health issues.

Sam explained, “My vision for Pasture was always to champion the best possible produce made in the best possible way, so it feels great to have our efforts officially recognised. The Sustainable Restaurant Association awards its Food Made Good rating to restaurants that meet a very specific set of criteria, and we are very pleased to have achieved the maximum three-star rating. It means the world to the whole team, who all work exceptionally hard to make Pasture what it is.”

Pasture’s Head of Culture and Sustainability Alec Wilkinson added, “To achieve this rating meant going through an extensive deep dive of our whole operation – but through such a rigorous process, we’ve been able to accurately evidence our commitment to sustainability for the first time. We’ve also seen this have a knock-on effect with our staff who are coming to us with new ideas – and also with producers in our supply chain; many of those we work with are now looking at ways to improve, formalise or communicate their own sustainable actions and commitments moving forwards, which is great to see.”

Juliane Caillouette Noble, Managing Director at the Sustainable Restaurant Association said, “The Sustainable Restaurant Association is delighted to award Pasture with a three-star rating in the 2023 Food Made Good Standard. Our comprehensive, rigorous and holistic certification assesses the sustainability of hospitality businesses across their entire operations, from transparent and responsible sourcing practices right through to the culture they create for their staff. A three-star accreditation is a truly incredible achievement and indicative of an outstanding dedication to sustainability from the entire team at Pasture.”

Pearl Costello is the Sustainable Food Places Coordinator at FoodCardiff – the city’s rapidly growing food partnership, and the organisation behind the campaign to make Cardiff one of the UK’s most sustainable food places by 2024 (find out more). She added, “It is wonderful to see the first independent restaurant in Wales with a 3* SRA accreditation based right here in the capital city. Cardiff has a growing ‘good food movement’ and the hope is that where Pasture has set this example, more local restaurants will soon follow.”