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Alexis Rowell, waitress Kate Holloway and deputy manger Phil Morgan |
Alexis shows you can go green when eating out
Former BBC foreign correspondent Alexis Rowell is on a mission to save the planet, writes Peter Gruner
FORMER BBC foreign correspondent Alexis Rowell – dubbed “nut roast” by his political rivals – has had a Damascene conversion to the green movement and is on a mission to save the world.
It all started after he became depressed by the realisation that the North Pole was melting, due to the polluting activities of mankind, and people were not taking it seriously.
So Alexis, 42, who gave up journalism to go into business, decided he personally would set an example by changing his old “wasteful” ways and helping to spread the word by going into local politics.
A former Labour supporter, he dismissed the Greens as too left wing and sees the real potential for change with the Liberal Democrats.
He’s been a campaigning Lib Dem councillor on Camden council for Belsize Park ward for just nine months and is chairman of the Sustainability committee.
Where better to meet, Alexis decided, than London’s new eco friendly Acorn House restaurant, off Gray’s Inn Road, Kings Cross, which opened just four months ago.
This is a restaurant which boasts impressive green credentials. For example, it has eight different recycling bins. They grow their own vegetables in the garden and compost all the old food. There’s a wormery for kitchen waste. Even the tables and chairs are made of recycled material.
Food is locally and seasonally sourced as far as possible, rather than air freighted across the world.
For example, salads are not grown in winter, so instead the restaurant serves an array of succulent winter root vegetables such as carrots and broccoli. They are lightly cooked, cooled down, and then served with a tasty dressing.
Alexis says he recycles 80 per cent of his own household waste by composting and using charity shops. To avoid supermarket bags he has an organic box delivered once a week
He tries not to use planes for business but when he does he pays into an environmental charity.
“I finally persuaded my fiancée Laura to get rid of her car and join a car club,” he said. “She now shares a vehicle with 20 residents at a fraction of the cost, instead of one person one car.”
If that’s not enough, he has also installed pipes from the bathroom and shower which divert water to the garden in case of a drought.
We both started with a delicious glass of pear cider (£2.50 each) followed by a small soup (£4.50 each). I had watercress and parsley and Alexis the beetroot, cardamom and sour cream. It was extremely good and quite filling.
Then we had a vegetable salad (£7 each) – but this was not your typical piece of lettuce with a slice of tomato. There was fresh savoury broccoli, braised Swiss chard, yellow beetroot in gorgeous ginger, coriander and vinaigrette dressings. There was also fantastic tasting borlotti beans and sun dried tomatoes. We finished with a cup of camomile tea (£2 each).
Alexis only had one minor criticism; they provided bottled water, which he says is a waste of energy when tap water is perfectly acceptable, particularly if it is filtered.
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