The Diamond Club is the premium hospitality suite at Emirates Stadium. Under the leadership of head chef Tommy and his highly-skilled team, this restaurant has been providing Michelin-star quality food for our supporters since the stadium opened its doors back in 2006.
But it isn’t only exquisite food that Tommy dedicates his time to. Sustainability is also a passion of the team at the Diamond Club, and they have been working hard to change towards making it a more sustainable operation.
Prior to Covid and the lockdown in 2020, the restaurant was a member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA). The SRA was set up to help the catering hospitality industry to become more sustainable.
They do this by assessing and crediting restaurants across a wide range of areas. For example, the restaurant is lit by LED lights, which use up to 30 per cent less electricity than conventional lighting. But it is in the sourcing of the food where Tommy and his team have achieved the most. They have been able to source 80 per cent of their fresh ingredients from the UK, cutting down on the emissions from transporting to Emirates, while all fish is sustainably sourced as well.
As with all catering operations, managing food waste is always a tricky process. Where possible, food from across the stadium after a matchday is donated to City Harvest.
By taking food and distributing it across their charity network, City Harvest are working to help feed those most in need. Any food that cannot be donated for human consumption is collected by Veolia and taken for anaerobic digestion, a process that is helping to generate power from waste food.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
