Can fruit and vegetables benefit the environment? That’s what Gunter and Fatih, our two canteen cooks at the Pullach site, asked themselves. Together with their team, they indulge us five days a week with delicious, fresh and attractive dishes. Thanks to the cooperation with Querfeld, our two chefs are able to save many kilograms of vegetables and fruit from the bin every week.

Find out here what Querfeld is all about, how many kilos are saved per week and what else our chefs have to say.

Gunter and Fatih, what are your personal backgrounds and how long have you been with HERMES?

Gunter: In addition to my training as a chef, I am a certified dietary chef and a qualified trainer. I’ve been with HERMES for 15 years now: first for 12 years at Wolfratshausen as sous chef and now for three years as Head Chef in beautiful Pullach in the Isar valley.

Fatih: After my apprenticeship as a chef in the Black Forest, during which we cooked many French and international dishes, I travelled to various restaurants and hotels across Germany and became a master chef. I have even had the chance to cook in Turkey and Switzerland. I’ve been with HERMES in Pullach for three years now, and I don’t plan to leave any time soon.

What are your favourite dishes?

Fatih: Fish or any kind of seafood.

Gunter: Everything to do with Italian cuisine, whether it’s pizza or pasta.

What do you most like cooking for HERMES employees?

I like cooking creative, exciting and lovingly prepared dishes that you can’t find everywhere. I also like vegetarian dishes … which is good, because the canteen in Pullach only serves meat once a week, which is of course of organic quality.

Where do you source your ingredients?

Gunter: We get most of our fruit and vegetables from Querfeld. Under the slogan “We deliver natural diversity,” the company is committed to making fruit and vegetables with minor blemishes presentable again, thus bringing discarded and disposed-of food (which in Germany amounts to up to 30% of a harvest) back into circulation.

How many kilograms do you save per week?

Fatih: The minimum purchase quantity at Querfeld is 75 kilograms per week; at HERMES we usually need up to 90 kilograms.

On the topic of food waste, how do you plan ahead for how many meals need to be cooked per day?

Gunter: From experience, at the moment, around 100 meals per day. We usually offer two dishes a day in the canteen and prepare 50 of each. We now know our employees so well that, depending on the department, we know who will prefer which dish. In order to reduce the amount of food wasted and thrown away, we sometimes offer leftover dishes again the next day or try to incorporate the food into the new dishes.

What is the funniest vegetable that arrived at HERMES from Querfeld?

Fatih: A picture is worth a thousand words …