Is There Such Thing as an Eco-Friendly Steakhouse?

When diners visit Seattle steakhouse Bateau, they’ll find steakhouse staples such as prime rib and filet alongside more obscure cuts like ranch and coulotte.

Award-winning food writer Corby Kummer joined Boston Public Radio on Wednesday to share his thoughts on Bateau’s efforts to become an environmentally sustainable steakhouse, following New York Times contributor Brett Anderson’s profile on the restaurant.

“[Bateau is] only offering the cuts of meat that their farmers, who use pasture-raised cattle and practices they approve of, have available,” Kummer said. “So if it’s out for the night, you have to have something else at the restaurant.”

“This restaurant is also experimenting with different ways of cooking meat, so it’s tender and palatable,” Kummer added.

Kummer noted that the chefs and owners of Craigie on Main in Central Square and Alden & Harlow in Harvard Square are just two examples of the “many local chefs who’ve been into this method.”

“The whole idea for them is, ‘we want to support local farmers — local farmers aren’t corn finishing on huge meat lots in Texas. It’s grass-fed — often that needs a sharp knife — and we’re going to show you, the diner, how delicious it can be,’” Kummer said. “It’s just not what you’d get at a national steakhouse chain that subscribes to environment-destroying animal raising.”

Kummer is the executive director of the Food and Society policy program at the Aspen Institute, a senior editor at The Atlantic and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.