Sodexo’s Oma-Kaki shows how office catering can be good

Institutional catering is rarely associated with creativity. For many, it conjures up images of functional meals designed to feed large numbers efficiently, with little room for inspiration or experimentation. Sodexo’s Oma-Kaki initiative challenges that perception and suggests that with greater intention, food produced at scale can be good — in every meaning of the word.

Launched in 2022, Oma-Kaki was conceived against the backdrop of a global sustainability and health movement. With Oma-Kaki, Sodexo would bring in celebrated chefs to design menus for their business-to-business clients. The challenge was this: to create meals that were sustainable, healthier and less wasteful, yet still practical to replicate across large kitchens.

The programme began with Bjorn Shen, chef-restauranteur of Artichoke (which has changed form to a pizza restaurant). In addition to Shen’s well-deserved celebrity status, his previous experience with food brands that operate at scale, such as Four Fingers, made him especially suited.

Cooking at scale often involves compromises in taste and technique, and his background gave him insight into how to minimise those compromises. Working within Sodexo’s own parameters — such as no deep frying, nuts, or MSG — Shen debuted Oma-Kaki’s first menu on Earth Day. Entirely plant-forward and well received, it provided Sodexo with a strong proof of concept.

Since then, Oma-Kaki continued to evolve. Shen returned in July this year with a menu that blended Balinese and Middle Eastern influences, inspired by his time spent in Bali during his restaurant’s opening. One standout dish, “Bali Ghanoush,” reinterpreted baba ghanoush with Balinese twists: leaving the eggplant skin intact during mashing and seasoning it with kecap manis. By integrating culinary techniques from different cultures, Shen also came up with techniques for a mass scale.

The initiative has also extended beyond external collaborators. Having had their skills honed through training sessions with Oma-Kaki guest chefs, Sodexo’s chefs were invited to design a menu with an internal competition. They were challenged to reimagine Singaporean comfort foods, with the addition of superfoods. The winning dish was a set of bao, filled with oyster musrooms and chili crab sauce and salted egg yolk mayonnaise. It was featured on August’s Oma-Kaki menu as the star.

Beyond its impact on the food sphere, Oma-Kaki also carries strategic value for Sodexo’s clients. By introducing variety and embedding sustainability into workplace dining, the programme showcases Sodexo’s innovation and not only strengthens long-term partnerships, but offers companies an added incentive to bring employees back to the office. After all, though Sodexo operates exclusively in the B2B space, its reach is wide, and 50,000 people are able to access its dishes daily.

As companies seek to align their food programmes with broader sustainability goals, Oma-Kaki demonstrates how large-scale operations can evolve. By combining chef-led creativity with sustainable practices, Sodexo shows one way that companies can innovate, and turn the everyday meal into an avenue for cultural and environmental change.