Where Our Food Comes From and Why It Matters
Begin with delicious
The first question we ask is how does it taste? If we’re not excited about eating it, we won’t serve it to you. We believe that pleasure is a food group and delicious is the most important macro. Flavor guides every decision we make.
Keep it local
Our chefs work in independent kitchens all over the country, not a centralized processor. That allows us to invest in ingredients produced close to where you live. Buying on a small scale means that our food is always fresh, helps us support your local economy, and reduces our carbon footprint. With every Territory meal you buy, you’re supporting farmers and producers in your community.
Carefully sourced ingredients
We care a lot about the integrity of our food, so we buy premium, fresh ingredients from farmers and producers we trust. We read the fine print on the labels and pepper suppliers with questions. If we don’t like the answers, we don’t buy it. If an ingredient includes inflammatory oils, refined sugar, highly processed ingredients, or chemicals, we won’t use it.
High-quality proteins
We work with ranchers who raise animals with respect for their welfare and without antibiotics and added hormones. Nonprofit organization Animal Equality helps us align with the upcoming requirements of the Global Animal Partnership (GAP) Better Chicken Commitment. We’re working towards using only chickens that meet the breed and housing standards (space, light, litter, enrichment), and are processed in a more humane way using CAS (or an approved alternative) in all of our Territory kitchens by 2024. Our beef is grass fed or grass fed and grain finished. Our pork is also never, ever sourced from CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations).
Our fish and seafood are wild-caught or sustainably raised. We follow the advice of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, using only their Best Choices or Good Alternatives.
Non-GMO corn and soy
Though decades of research show that GMOs are safe for consumption, GMO crops like corn and soybeans threaten biodiversity and lead to increased use of herbicides. To minimize the environmental impacts, we use only non-GMO corn and soybeans.
