Sustainability and catering are like George Bush and common sense: they just don’t go well together. After each meal, acres of plastic wrap, mountains of disposable silverware and stacks of aluminum-foil serving trays are trashed, while excess food enters the great garbage hole in the ground.
That’s why one steamy summer Saturday, deep inside Staten Island, was such an anomaly. At the NYC chapter of the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC) annual picnic, members enjoyed an all-vegan boxed lunch (served in biodegradable Bagasse containers, crafted from sugarcane) stuffed with tofu bánh mì, New York–area apricots and cherries, handmade pretzels and cake topped with Hudson River–harvested mulberries. The edibles were almost 100-percent organic and locally grown. Better yet, wastes were driven to the Lower East Side Ecology Center to be composted.
“We’re trying to change the culture of catering,” explains Louisa Shafia, the owner of Lucid Food. Her one-and-a-half-year-old catering company takes the organic, locally grown movement and injects it with environmental sustainability. Out with waste, in with flavorful, sustainable fare.
The idea was born of burn out. In April 2004, Shafia helped launch Union Square’s high-end vegan restaurant Pure Food and Wine. Being a sous chef was rewarding, but “I was working 14 hours a day, six days a week,” explains the 36-year-old with long, curly black hair. So in December 2004 she quit her grinding gig and, “because I still needed to pay my bills,” embarked on her catering career.
The problem was, her concept was hardly snowflake unique. “Everyone was doing the seasonal, local, organic thing—and so was I,” Shafia laments. “So the question was, ‘How do I stand out?’”
By emphasizing environmental consciousness and healthy, not “hippie,” nibbles, she says, as if it’s a four-letter word. “The difference between hippie food and healthy food is that hippie food is usually presented as a big lump,” she explains. “I learned the importance of plating.”
Lucid’s early meals were as visually enticing as they were delicious. At a buffet dinner for a childcare benefit, sauteed leeks and leafy greens with hints of garlic and chili flakes jibed beside basmati rice with chickpeas and orange zest. For dessert? Pear galette with almond crust and ginger sorbet. The simple delicious, nutritious sustenance attracted the notice of the USGBC.
“We sought a caterer who embraced the same ideals as the organization and its members: energy efficiency, local and organic materials, less waste and beauty on a conventional budget,” explains USGBC member Daniel Bowman Simon, who helped organize the Staten Island picnic. “We like healthy, comfortable, practical buildings and we like to be healthy, practical, earth-friendly people.”
This is an aspect that Lucid Food, too, must work on. It’s the small environmental wastes, like using Saran Wrap to keep food warm, that rankle her. “Caterers just use reams and reams and reams of it,” she says, admitting that she, too, falls into the trap. And people are reluctant to use reusable plates, which can add hundreds of dollars to each event’s tab.
Even when her clients don’t want to shell out extra dollars, Shafia does her darnedest to curtail trash. She recently received her master composter certificate from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (“I just need to get some worms, and I can start composting at home,” she says gleefully). And she’s purchasing a full line of biodegradable cups, silverware and plates from World Centric (the same company used by earth-conscious Fort Greene eatery Habana Outpost).
As for the future, Shafia is optimistic about Lucid Food. She has a full roster of upcoming events, including a wedding reception and a fashion show offering organic wine, cheese and fruit, as well as a cocktail party featuring organic hors d’oeuvres. And besides, New Yorkers’ built-in environmentalism might be a boon to business.
“If you give New Yorkers earth-friendly choices, and you make those choices convenient, affordable and of good quality, people are happy to support them,” she says in her mission statement. “Who doesn’t feel good about riding the subway and saving energy? For most of us it’s the only way to get around, but still, we feel good when we hear we’re preventing pollution just by doing what we do normally.”
For more information about Lucid Food, visit
lucidfood.com or call 212-465-3457.
