Good_Things_Magazine_AprilMay_2017

22 goodthingsmagazine.com

What’s the key

philosophy behind

wastED?

So-called ‘waste’ has

been used to make

delicious food for

centuries. Take classic

British cuisine, for

example, which is really

made up of dozens

of regional cuisines.

Dishes like bubble

and squeak and black

pudding were conceived

to soak up particular

kinds of waste; be it

leovers from a Sunday

roast or ‘lowly’ parts

of the animal. Most

traditional food cultures

• and restaurant
  kitchens – evolved in
  this same spirit, and
  that’s what we wanted to
  celebrate with wastED.

Where does your

drive to transform

the way we eat

come from?

It’s really an extension

• or maybe an evolution


• of the local food
  movement. Because
  it can’t just stop at
  buying local. How can
  we practise a way of
  farming and eating that
  supports the entirety
  of a healthy landscape;
  even the less-coveted
  parts? How can we
  make the most complete
  and delicious use of
  every ingredient?
  That’s what we’re trying
  to explore with this.

Having been part of

President Obama’s

council for health

and nutrition, do you

feel your message is

getting through to

both other chefs and

the wider public?

In the past few years,

we’ve seen the notion

of ‘the gourmet meal’

turned on its head.

Increasingly, chefs

and home cooks are

celebrating vegetables,

grains and secondary

LET’S GET

wastED

Part chef, part philosopher, Dan Barber won over

a President with his vision for sustainability.

And now he’s brought that vision to London

I

f you’re a fan of the Netflix series

Chef’s Table, you’re probably

already familiar with Dan Barber

(above, centre) and his approach

to ingredients, plus his restaurant’s

dedication to the theme of food waste.

The chef first launched the wastED

event at his Greenwich Village restaurant

in New York two years ago, serving daily

specials based on ingredients that were

oen overlooked – and consequently oen

thrown away – by the food industry. Over

the course of 10,000 dishes, the team used

over 400kg of waste-fed pigs, almost 160kg

of vegetable pulp, and over 200kg each of

skate cartilage and ‘ugly’ vegetables.

And, for the past six weeks, Dan has

been introducing London to the concept

via the wastED pop-up on Selfridges’ roof

in London, draing in a host of top British

chefs. We caught up with this kitchen

revolutionary to learn more about his

ground-breaking approach to the way

we view ingredients.

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WastEDCATHY ZP.indd 22 01/04/2017 23:00