IL BUCO
… and the never-ending pursuit of the sustainable restaurant
“There really is no such thing as a sustainable restaurant. That means having not just a zero environmental impact, but a negative one. Which is practically impossible,” says Christer Bredgaard, owner of Il Buco. “But that doesn’t stop me from trying to get as close as possible.”
Il Buco is Italian for “the hole”, and is a cavernous restaurant in an industrial warehouse in a backyard in Copenhagen’s Islands Brygge neighborhood.
It’s also a tour-de-force in planet-friendly restaurant practices, although that’s a bit of an open secret.
When it comes to sustainability, Bredgaard is more about practice than preach. He has quietly been at the forefront of the environmentally conscious wave sweeping across Copenhagen’s restaurant scene in recent years. Still, he has gone somewhat under the radar and avoided becoming the city’s poster boy for cooking sustainably.
In fact, he is skeptical about the very word: He prefers “responsibility” to describe the philosophy behind Il Buco. Here, they serve Italian-inspired food made as responsibly as possible.
And the “inspired” part is crucial: Some of the rules Bredgaard and his team live by would probably cause outrage among purists.
“Being sustainable means having not just having zero environmental impact, but a negative one. Which is practically impossible”
An Italian restaurant with no olive oil?
When you want to cook responsibly, that means bending some of the rules found in traditional Italian cuisine. For instance, a fixture like olive oil has been swapped for rape seed oil. This is because everything (except some wines and spirits, coffee and tea) served at Il Buco is exclusively sourced from Danish growers and producers.
In fact, the front page of the menu shows you without telling it: It’s a map of Denmark with some of the restaurant’s supplier locations dotted on it. A simple, yet effective piece of storytelling.
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Il Buco are quietly at the forefront of responsible restaurant practices across the board. They are part of securing Copenhagen’s reputation as a green city when it comes to dining out and have in many ways been ahead of the curve.
We also applaud them for supporting and showcasing many local growers and suppliers.
Bredgaard’s own transition to the restaurant industry also happened organically: He has previously worked as a furniture maker, a ship’s assistant, and wine importer, the latter of which led him to eventually open what is now Il Buco.
His latest step in the gradual process is the shift towards using produce from regenerative agriculture. This means that farmers cultivate the land in a way that rebuilds the soil and restores biodiversity. Basically, the opposite of what usually happens with industrial farming.
However, it requires care and consideration to balance the green ambitions with the food itself.
“There is a limit to how far you can go before “the project” starts eclipsing what’s on the plate,” he concedes. “We are very aware of that, and I am in constant dialogue with my team of chefs to make sure we don’t compromise on taste and quality.”
Making meat green
One of the places where he won’t compromise is having meat on the menu: At Il Buco, you’ll find beef from retired milk cows from Svanholm, slow-raised organic pigs from Birthesminde, and local game.
It may seem counterintuitive, since the words “meat” and “environmentally friendly” are rarely heard in the same sentence. However, Bredgaard insists it can be done in a responsible way, pointing to specific examples of CO2-neutral farming which includes cattle farming as part of the holding.
To minimize waste, Il Buco follows a strict “nose-to-tail” principle of using as much of the animal as possible: Pretty much only the bones are finally discarded.
Beyond the plate
Il Buco’s ambitions don’t stop at the plate: Christer Bredgaard has modified the reverse-osmosis system (installed in most restaurants to remove salt and minerals from freshwater) in the cellar. The modification allows part of the wastewater to be recycled for certain purposes, such as toilet flushing and hand-cleaning.
They've also parted ways with plastic bags for waste management, saving around half a ton of plastic annually across Il Buco and Christer’s other restaurant, La Banchina.
They have also introduced overtime payment (a relatively rare sight in the industry), as well as a pension plan and health insurance for both fulltime and part-time employees.
“Whether all of this is financially sustainable remains to be seen. The food we serve should really be priced considerably higher – though I am not in it for the money. But I am convinced that we are ahead of the curve in terms of how future generations, who will likely be more aware of these issues, will spend their money when going out,” Christer Bredgaard says.
“I am convinced that we are ahead of the curve in terms of how future generations will spend their money when going out”
Christer Bredgaard’s tips
We asked all interviewees for their best advice based on their own experiences in the industry. Here are Christer Bredgaard’s tips for you, if you’re a restaurateur, chef or entrepreneur within the restaurant business:
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When it comes to responsible initiatives, every little bit counts. I recommend you ditch the “S-word” itself, as it’s misleading to talk about sustainability as such in terms of a restaurant.
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This is probably as much a piece of advice to my younger self, as it took me a while to get the operations and economic management right, which we now do, thanks to working with great people. It’s difficult to have an ambitious concept and agenda if you don’t.
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If you want to run a more environmentally responsible restaurant, shifting your produce to organic or majority-organic is the lowest-hanging fruit. When you venture into local, biodynamic, or even regenerative, things get more complicated.
