On June 3, the GCC gathered industry leaders, celebrated chefs and sector experts for a highly impactful event at Silo in London to inaugurate the UK launch of the Coalition. It was a truly special occasion that demonstrated the power of our coalition to reach across the worlds of fine food, property, health and climate to deliver a safe cooking future for everyone.

The UK is an important country for the coalition for many reasons: the UK has been a world leader in developing renewable energy – renewables provided 42% of total electricity in 2022, from a starting point of just 3% in 2000. Transitioning to affordable, renewable energy at scale in the short term, combined with savings from energy-efficient electrical appliances, offer a solution to the unaffordable energy bills that millions of people are struggling with today.

The UK is home to one of the world’s premier dining cultures, with chefs whose influence is felt around the world. And we’re seeing the building industry in the UK show more and more interest in going all-electric, as evidenced by our property partners’ commitments to phase out gas in their buildings.

Going electric is also crucial to protecting people’s health. The health risks are particularly alarming for children – researchers found that in the UK an estimated 11.5% of childhood asthma cases could be avoided when the risk factor of cooking with gas is removed.

As it’s been over a month since the event, we wanted to share some of the highlights, photos of the beautiful food and space and media clips with our community.

The launch featured all-electric cooking demonstrations from award-winning chefs Doug McMaster of Silo and John Chantarasak of Anglothai, MC’d by chef Chantelle Nicholson of Apricity.

After indulging in these culinary treats, we heard from our members and partners, including Ed Green, the Sustainability Director at Grosvenor Property UK, Guy Thomas, Head of Place Assets at Lendlease UK. Our property partners have committed to phase out gas from all new kitchens in their developments by 2030, and to retrofit existing properties with electric power by 2040, and we are thrilled to have them on board.

We also heard from Cristina Gamboa, CEO of the World Green Building Council on the importance of decarbonizing the build environment. Dr. Frank Kelly, Head of the Environmental Research Group at Imperial College London spoke about the dangers gas cooking poses to our health.

And that was that! A morning of delicious delicacies made by cutting edge chefs and important conversation with new partners and members, building connections across this rapidly growing movement. We want to thank all of our members, partners and collaborators who made this possible, and we look forward to continuing working together.

Media

UK media took notice of our event and we were excited to see a wide range of coverage, from specialty food publications to property media. Some selected clips are below.

CoStar – Major Landlords Serve Up Electric-Only Kitchen Challenge to Tenants

Catering Insight – Chefs back coalition to expand electric kitchen movement beyond commercial premises

Edie – Businesses and chefs rally to phase out gas cooking from commercial kitchens