Working together for a sustainable food culture

One sausage, please! Oh, and a pair of gloves.

In 1897, Royal Djurgården hosted the Stockholm World Fair. In addition to marvelling at the innovations of Swedish industrialism, visitors were able to enjoy hotdogs as fast food in Sweden for the first time. But instead of a hotdog roll, the sausage was served with a pair of white cotton gloves. This was in order to stop people’s hands from getting messy or burnt.

After eating the sausage, the customer would simply return the gloves for re-use! While the hygiene standards were certainly questionable, this idea of re-use is still very much relevant today. When lots of gloves began disappearing, the venture soon became too expensive and sausages started being served in hotdog rolls. And the rest is history.

Food done right

The ways in which we produce and consume food have a major impact, not least on our health and the environment. At Djurgården, we want to be a driving force for a sustainable restaurant industry. We have made ’a sustainable food culture’ one of our key focus areas. This is how we see it: if there’s lots of us working together as part of a network, inspiring and learning from one another, we can make a real difference. Plus, it makes it so much more fun.

With around 30 restaurants to choose from, there’s a huge variety of food options and dining experiences available at Djurgården. You’ll find everything from historical restaurants that carefully cook traditional Swedish food, to new and trendy places that dare to experiment and serve up the food of the future. Here, you can enjoy everything from fine dining to a hotdog…

Sustainable restaurants

This was why no fewer than 18 of Djurgården’s restaurants took part in the national network ’Sustainable restaurants’ training and workshops in 2019.

When we carried out our analysis of our sustainability work in 2019, 15 restaurants said that they weigh their food waste and place great emphasis on minimising waste. This had a ripple effect and many of our other restaurants have followed suit.

Working together for a sustainable food culture

Rosendal’s Garden, the Vasa Museum and the Museum of Spirits’ restaurants and Oaxen Krog & Slip have all created their own kitchens and herb gardens. These pollinator-friendly gardens not only provide organic, locally-grown food; they also promote biodiversity as bees and butterflies thrive in them.

For many restaurant owners and chefs, the pursuit of a sustainable food culture drives the work that they do. In 2020, Rosendal’s Garden and Oaxen Krog & Slip won White Guide’s sustainability prize. Tekniska by Pontus focuses on educating young visitors on the relationship between food and sustainability.

These are just some of the examples of how we work for a sustainable food culture here at Djurgården. More needs to be done, and our work is constantly evolving.