![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Hidden-Meadow-1200x1200.jpeg\")
Credit: Courtesy of Chef Jordan Kahn of Vespertine<\/p>\nMichelin Green Star restaurants Vespertine and Osteria Mozza prioritize sustainability by employing environmentally friendly techniques<\/p>\n
As the restaurant industry contributes to the ever-growing global carbon footprint, many restaurants in the Los Angeles area are pioneering sustainable practices to help keep our community and the planet healthy.<\/p>\n
By sourcing ingredients locally, reducing energy and water consumption and minimizing waste and carbon emissions, restaurants across L.A. are committed to supporting their guests and protecting the environment.<\/p>\n
In Los Angeles County, several restaurants have been awarded Michelin Green Stars for their sustainability efforts, including Chi Spacca, Osteria Mozza, Providence, Heritage and Vespertine.<\/p>\n
And although Michelin is phasing out the Green Star awards, eco-friendly commitments remain strong across L.A. dining\u2019s premier establishments. <\/p>\n
Juan Valdez, chef at Osteria Mozza, said that he thinks sustainable practices have become pillars of many L.A. fine dining restaurants because the community is particularly environmentally and health conscious. He said it\u2019s important for the restaurant to be intentional about their environmental impact, especially after the community felt the effects of global warming during the Eaton and Palisades fires last year.<\/p>\n
Osteria Mozza and Chi Spacca are both owned by well-known chef Nancy Silverton. Osteria Mozza sources many of its ingredients from local farms, and even brought in a consulting group to help them limit their waste with a new recycling and composting system.<\/p>\n
Valdez said his previous experience working in more casual eateries like diners and food trucks opened his eyes to the amount of \u201cjaw-dropping\u201d waste that the food industry generates.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt shocks you later when you realize that it\u2019s just product that\u2019s just being lost, and at the end of the day, it\u2019s really money being wasted,\u201d Valdez said.<\/p>\n
At Osteria Mozza, they make a conscious effort to use every aspect of their ingredients, and anything that doesn\u2019t get served is used for staff meals.<\/p>\n
Credit: Courtesy of Chef Jordan Kahn of Vespertine<\/p>\n
Chef Jordan Kahn of Vespertine said at his restaurant they design their menu and dining experience to connect their guests with nature through their food.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe as a chef, as a restaurant owner, as a practitioner of nature\u2019s raw materials, it is not only my responsibility, but also my humble duty to make sure that I echo what we receive from nature and make sure that that translates to the guests not only in a beautiful, delicious way, but also in an energetically intentional way,\u201d Kahn said.<\/p>\n
In addition to Vespertine, Kahn is also the chef and owner of L.A. restaurants Destroyer and Meteora. Kahn uses sustainable practices at all three, and in an effort to limit waste, ingredients are shared across the restaurants.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t believe in waste, and so we cross utilize products from restaurant to restaurant,\u201d Kahn said. \u201cWe are using turnips at Meteora, and the greens are being sent to Destroyer for green juice for someone to have in the morning. We\u2019ll use dried chilies at Vespertine for one of our courses, and we\u2019ll save the seeds and send those to Meteora.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within each restaurant, Kahn said they also try to serve all parts of an ingredient to the guest in the same course, not only to avoid generating food waste but to add more complexity and dimension to the dishes.<\/p>\n
![\"Chef](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lamag_vespertine_jkahn_0041_preview.jpg\")
Chef Jordan Kahn at VespertineCredit: Vespertine<\/p>\n
Restaurants also require a lot of energy to power their appliances, lighting and air conditioning. Osteria Mozza, according to Valdez, has changed 90 percent of the light bulbs in the restaurant to be motion-sensitive LEDs to conserve energy.<\/p>\n
To conserve water, Osteria Mozza uses low-flow faucets, and Kahn said Vespertine is working on going a step further \u2014 sourcing drinking water from a natural source, starting in the next couple of months. This is a change Kahn said he hopes guests will appreciate for its environmental consciousness, as well as its health benefits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re actually able to get fresh living water direct from the source and into the guests, so that we\u2019re not only serving something that is delicious, but also that is truly nutrient that has all of the beautiful microorganisms and probiotics that we may be missing,\u201d Kahn said.<\/p>\n
Meteora\u2019s commitment to sustainability also extends beyond the kitchen into the dining room, as the design of the restaurant is meant to immerse guests in nature, featuring over 750 live plants.<\/p>\n
This is not only a design choice, Kahn said, but serves to help limit their energy consumption because the natural air filtration system of the plants helps to maintain a comfortable temperature inside the restaurant with the L.A. heat. Because of this, they do not have to rely on air conditioning to cool down their indoor seating area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a really good example of how we incorporate biophilic design as a means to help solve lots of man-made problems,\u201d Kahn said.<\/p>\n
Valdez said he hopes to instill the importance of sustainability in his staff, and that they take with them these practices throughout their careers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the more people get on board, the more we can get back to practices that have been [used] for thousands of years that unfortunately got derailed by modern consumerism,\u201d Valdez said. \u201cI think there\u2019s a way back. It\u2019s just going to take a little bit of time and money.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michelin Green Star restaurants Vespertine and Osteria Mozza prioritize sustainability by employing environmentally friendly techniques As the restaurant…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":980498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,5337,207779,8463,1763],"class_list":["post-980497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-michelin-stars","tag-restaurant","tag-sustainability"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117038397829356983","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=980497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/980498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=980497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=980497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=980497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}