Various colorful dishes on display at the Gran-Eat Ginza buffet. Photo: CHINAMI TAKEICHI
food

Restaurant serving GAP-certified food used in Olympics opens in Ginza

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By Chinami Takeichi

Gran-Eat Ginza, a cozy buffet restaurant using fresh GAP-certified vegetables and meat, opens Wednesday in a shopping mall in Tokyo's Ginza district.

GAP, short for Good Agricultural Practice, is a global standard that ensures the safety and sustainability of food items, setting more than 100 different criteria in order to be qualified. This certification is also implemented in food provided to athletes in the Olympic Village during the Olympic Games. Among the menu at Gran-Eat Ginza are special dishes used in recent Olympics, such as the pork and apple casserole served during the 2012 London Games.

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Pork, apple, and sage casserole that was served in the Olympic Village at the 2012 London Games Photo: CHINAMI TAKEICHI

Approximately 90 percent of all ingredients used in the buffet are certified as passing one of three GAP standards, JGAP, ASIAGAP or GLOBALGAP. GAP-certified agricultural and livestock products are produced in farms that ensure food safety by thorough recording of the farming process, responsible water management, keeping the amount of agricultural chemicals to a minimum, and more.

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Shintaro Ikeda, left, and Yasuaki Takeda of the GAP Research Institute Photo: CHINAMI TAKEICHI

In a press conference on Tuesday, Shintaro Ikeda, a representative of the GAP Research Institute, who is also a former Olympic badminton player, commented that he actually did not know about GAP as an athlete. He said he hopes that at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, not only will it be sports that come under the spotlight, but also awareness toward food.

Another executive, Yasuaki Takeda, pointed out a special factor of the restaurant -- its open “live buffet” space. In Gran-Eat Ginza, customers can interact freely with the chefs and request certain foods to be made on the spot. He also encouraged customers to try the rice grown in the rice fields of agricultural high schools in Gifu Prefecture.

The new restaurant will open on the second floor of Ginza Inz 2 mall, which is right next to Ginza-Itchome subway station or JR Yurakucho Station. Open hours are 11:00-15:30 and 17:00-22:00. Lunch is 2,500 yen on weekdays and 2,800 yen on the weekend and holidays. There is also a discount price of 1,300 yen for children under 12.

More information can be found on their website http://gran-eat.jp/

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2 Comments
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Lunch is 2,500 yen on weekdays and 2,800 yen on the weekend and holidays. There is also a discount price of 1,300 yen for children under 12.

Sustainable agriculture for rich people.

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Um, no.

That price is very cheap, especially for Ginza.

Im not sure what you do but that is a price range even lower middle class can easily afford

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