While others in Hong Kong gloomily describe the wholesome fast food scene as a lost cause, Blair Sweet prefers to talk about a gap in the market for organic restaurants and truly healthy alternatives.
There are a few health food stores, acknowledges Sweet, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America.
'But there's no place to go where you can get organically grown flour, stone ground flour, vegetables grown without pesticides and only natural fertilisers.' His new two-storey Central restaurant, The Source of Health, aims to cater to organically conscious Hong Kong. With the rise in awareness of healthier living, he feels the restaurant should find a ready market. Even if foods aren't 100 per cent organic, customers can be sure very little has been injected with preservatives for a longer shelf life, dyed to improve colour, processed to make natural ingredients go further, or tampered with in some other commercially expedient way.
The restaurant will be divided into a takeaway section on the ground floor and a seating deli area upstairs. The food will be served buffet style, which is some way from the fine dining that Sweet first envisaged.
'This is much more broad market,' he concedes.
There will also be an area for books and pamphlets on nutrition, the environment and related topics. 'We don't want to force it down people's throats but we want it to be available for people to look at,' Sweet says.