Taranta was featured on FOX 25 News today, a special report on basics of energy conservation, and some of the practices we have implemented. It was a great report that will help us to spread the word about Recycling, Composting, and Going Green. Sure, you try to recycle and be good to the environment. But did you know where you choose to eat dinner can have a big impact? Restaurants use five times more resources than other retail businesses, which is why, as FOX25’s Frank Mallicoat shows you, the move is on in Boston to make your favorite dining spots more eco-friendly. To watch the video Click here http://media.myfoxboston.com/news/specials.html

I am happy to receive the Chefs of Chefs Award last saturday at the Food and Wine Rendezvous Grand Tasting & South American Chef Showcase where 50 restaurants and 30 visiting chefs from around the world most featuring organic, sustainable & local foods competed for the Waterford Crystal Chef of Chefs award! The night closed with a live auction benefiting the Green Building Council of Houston. I presented our Yucca Gnocchi paired with a Haras El Pirque Caracter, Cabernet Sauvignon. http://www.wineandfoodweek.com/

???????? ????? ??????????????We have finalized, after a long selection process, our Organic, Sustainable farming and Biodynamic wine list. The selection process was not easy at all, very confusing as many producers claim that their product is organic and when we asked for some sort of certification they claimed that it was too expensive to get and was not worth it. In the meantime more interest on Biodynamic and Sustainable farming was shown by wine importers and distributors and wines are available with certificates from the country of origin. We also found an “Carbon Neutral” wine from Cono Sur, Chile, made with organic grapes and carbon neutral, Cono Sur buys wind energy credits in Turkey to offset the carbon emission. We are please to announce our new wine list, to be in effect next week. The wines we selected are from Italy, Argentina and Chile.  

We found that Culinary Classics will manufacture 100% Organic Cotton chefs coats for $5 more on certain models, so we have ordered our chefs coats, made of organic cotton! 

I am in Cafayat, Salta Argentina, the highest known area for wine production in the Northern Region of Argentina. Michel Torino has a line of wines called CUMA, a Malbec, Cabernet, and a Torrontes. The wines are exceptional specially the Torrontes, we will be featuring this line at Taranta as a part of our new all Organic, Biodynamic and Sustainable Farming wine list. The wine is certified organic, no pesticides, no herbicides, all the fertilization is natural.

We are featuring Fonseca “Terra Bella” Organic Port, to continue our greening process we started to select few organic and Bio products. Terra Bella is a new port made with organically grown grapes and fortified with organically grown brandy from Fonseca. It’s vibrantly fruity, the glowing purple liquid edged with peppery spice. It’s intense enough to be dessert in itself. Enjoy!

A video explaining how we recycle our cooking oil.

Mayor Menino awarded Chef Jose Duarte for his efforts on greening his restaurant and his leadership within the industry. Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s Second Annual Green Business Awards was given to businesses located in the City of Boston that demonstrated extraordinary performance related to sustainable environmental, practices, such as water conservation, solid waste reduction, the promotion of alternative transit, energy conservation and on-site renewable energy production.

We are so happy to have completed a long sizing, testing and installation process of our Tankless water heaters. Back in January our 100 Gal AO Smith Tank water heater broke, no guarantee, and it was installed 3 1/2 years ago. The cost of replacing a similar tank was way over 10K. We then started research on what can we install that is Energy Efficient and Environmentally friendly. We found TAKAGI, a Japanese company, with commercial applications of the product. Takagi USA did a sizing based on our hot water demand and concluded that we needed 2 TM199, self combustion to supply enough hot water. We contacted a plumber certified by Takagi and he insisted that we only needed 1 TM-1 unit, and that was going to be sufficient, unit was installed and we did not get enough flow, plumber was negligent and I fired him. Then we got Takagi involved and a different plumber and they recommended 3 TK-3, we just installed them and we have plenty of hot water. During the time the TM1 was in place we saved about $150 monthly comparing to last year’s gas bill. We are also receiving a $300 rebate per unit from Keyspan. The cost of installing the equipment was less than replacing the AO Smith, and we will be saving at least 40% more gas than running a tank.  For more information visit www.takagi.com