Zineb Hattab: Future-Proof at KLE

With a glittering CV behind her - having worked in some of the world’s best restaurants including Osteria Francescana, El Celler de Can Roca, Schloss Schauenstein and Pujol - Zineb Hattab chose to forge her own path, a plant-based one, at her tiny restaurant KLE in Zurich.

“I trained as a traditional chef and actually the stronger, more senior chefs in these kitchens are the ones who handle the meat and fish,” says Hattab. “It was actually in KLE, our restaurant, where we started cooking vegan. It was in that moment I realised that it was my impact, it’s my choice, and I’m not cooking for anyone else. It’s my decision and I have to sleep well at night with my choices. So I thought that the quickest way to have less of a negative impact, more of a positive one, is to go plant-based."

“I still respect the places I worked at in the past. I think everybody should do what they believe in. I’d rather fail doing something I believe in, rather than succeed faking it. So this is why we went all the way, even if it wasn’t the easiest choice, because we had to learn how to do it."

“KLE is our first restaurant and it is completely vegan. It is not only sustainable regarding food, but we work with family farmers and we need to adapt to what they have. It would be much easier just to call a major supplier that can fly in anything from around the world. Instead we adapt to what they have - if the child of the farmer is sick, they may not make a delivery because they need to take care of them.”

In fact, so much of Hattab’s set-up at KLE is progressive and forward-looking. As climate change bites and food costs soar, the global supply chain creaks and labour dries up, Hattab’s KLE looks like a test lab for future-proofing restaurants.

“We are very fortunate in that case because a lot of people want to work with us,” she says. “They are in a moment of their life where they want to align their personal values with their jobs. We have very strong values. I think a lot of restaurants and business are just focused on cooking or financial purposes, but for us it’s very clear, we want to bring change, we want to have an impact. A lot of people feel engaged with that so we have a lot of chefs who want to work with us."

“We also hire on a personality basis, which makes it easier for people to fit together. So it’s not so much about skills, because we can teach you to cook, but it’s more important to be a good person and to care about what we are doing. Then, people who come and work with us usually stay, so we are not struggling with staff. We are very lucky, we have a family."

Sustainability is not something that Hattab reserves for the food and its origins, but something she brings to her entire business approach, in particular her management of her team.

“We want to have a sustainable place to work, that is not only safe, but we need that the team has the freedom to speak when something is not right. Maybe they are in a moment when they want to do something else and we will support them through that process of leaving us, which many places won’t do. They make you feel like you owe them something because of the invested time and money in you. For us, it’s important that while we are together, we give positive feedback to each other, also our guests. And when you go we always part on good terms and we support you because this sustainability is long-term. Maybe we cross paths in the future, maybe one day I’ll work for them in their restaurant. Who knows?"

Zattab has been extremely clever about choosing the right location to open a restaurant like this. She has an international background – growing up in Spain to Moroccan immigrant parents, she has lived and worked all over the world. So the very international setting of Zurich, Switzerland, seems like an appropriate home for her now.

“If we had opened in a tiny town in the middle of the Alps, the restaurant wouldn’t have been half as successful as it is. There are ex-pats in Zurich and a lot of people travelling and interested in what’s going on. So we have been very lucky that the city of Zurich has welcomed us and our restaurant has become one of the most popular places in such a short time because we really believe in what we are doing. We don’t care so much about awards, we want to show you how good you can eat with plants. By focusing on this we see that the guests are happy. They tell us they can taste the love in the food. They tell us they want to cook this way at home and for us that is the most satisfying thing.”

Changing the eating habits of the well-off, educated, hipster population of Zurich is one thing, but Hattab wants to go further. If eating vegan is going to make a significant difference to our environment then it really has to be something that the poor are able to do as well.

“This is why we have a settled base, we have gathered knowledge, we are starting to work with schools and work with kids, because in the end it’s about education,” says Hattab. “When you are a child and they tell you that eating plants is good, vegetables are not the enemy and that they actually taste good, then you grow up with this idea in your mind.”