Sustainability

SMH Good Food Guide Awards 2012

Stefano Manfredi's restaurant Manfredi at Bells, part of Bells at Killcare Boutique Hotel, Restaurant & Spa, was this week honoured with the Good Living Sustainability Award at the 2012 Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards.  This award is the culmination of more than four years work, with Manfredi and his chefs building up the Bells at Killcare gardens into more than 500 square metres of land now cultivated for food.  In addition to the gardens, Bells at Killcare houses approximately 50 chickens that keep the kitchen well supplied with fresh eggs.
"As an Italian, gardening is in my DNA.  Italian cooking is very simple and relies on the quality of the primary produce.  There is nowhere to hide.  So to win the Sustainability Award says a lot – it means a lot to me and the team at Bells.  It is one of which I am most proud," said Manfredi.
"I can't thank Bells proprietors Brian and Karina Barry enough for supporting us so wholeheartedly in our quest to provide this high level of home-grown produce to our customers."
This dedication to growing his own produce ensures Manfredi's long held tenets of quality, simplicity and seasonality are maintained.  More than 15% of the Manfredi at Bells menu comes from his garden.
"Manfredi brings the same level of passion to growing his own produce as he does to cooking,' said Good Living journalist Nick Galvin.
The 2012 Good Food Guide Awards proved fruitful for Bells at Killcare, with Manfredi at Bells also winning Best Regional Wine List for its impressive collection of both local and international – particularly Italian – wines.  This has been a labour of love for proprietor Brian Barry, who has collaborated with Manfredi over the last four years to build the impressive list.

Manfredi at Bells also retained its One Chefs Hat status, which it has held since its first year of operation in 2008.

EVERYDAY Sustainability

Bells at Killcare actively supports a greener and more sustainable environment. We do this in the following ways;

In the kitchen, the Manfredi approach to values of sustainability in food use and production, has found its home. Stefano's seasonal menu offerings are designed using large amounts of homemade, organic, and local produce from local suppliers (ie: mushrooms, seafood, some vegetables such as beans and snow peas that is not grown in our garden).

The Bells estate houses a lush vegetable garden, which is harvested daily, forming the basis of much of his menu. Chefs are constantly planting new, seasonal seedlings and hand picking produce to use that day. We have approximately 50 chickens on site, that produce free range eggs and we only use grass-fed beef. We don't buy endangered species of seafood such as large tuna and swordfish, and we also adopt the “nose to tail’ principle whereby wastage of produce is minimized.

Bells recycle all organic material from both kitchen and garden, and create compost for the garden and for the chickens. The property uses rainwater from a tank, for the garden and the kitchen chemicals we use are fully biodegradable. We have our own small orchard, including olive trees and quince trees and we even use our rose petals in our homemade sorbetti.

We stock chemical and preservative free wine, from Margaret River, and purchase from a number of international and local organic and bio-dynamic wine suppliers.

Charity

We generously donate to many local organisations and give back to various communities, both local and international, wherever possible.

We chose to supply LI'TYA products in the day spa, for a few reasons, but one of the main attractions for us was their generous efforts with donating a percentage of profit back into Indigenous communities throughout Australia.

We are actively involved with WORLD VISION by sponsoring four children on a monthly basis. We have done this since 2008 and will continue to offer our support.

Other charity groups we support are;

STARLIGHT CHILDRENS FOUNDATION, INDIGO PIAF CHARITY, CHILDRENS MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, CAMP QUALITY, THE BELLA DINNER (MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART), GLOBAL VOLUNTEER NETWORK FOUNDATION AUSTRALIA, GIANT STEPS, TARONGA FOUNDATION ZOOFARI, VICTOR CHANG CARDIAC RESEARCH INSTITUTE, ROOM TO READ, YWCA NSW and many more.