A team of chefs from some of London’s most popular restaurants have banded together to commit to a new food waste pledge.
The Regent Street & St James’s Food Waste Pledge aims to collective reduce food waste by 25% by May 2020. Participating restaurants include some of the biggest restaurant names in the capital, such as Angela Hartnett’s Café Murano, Hawksmoor’s Air Street site and Sketch.
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Scully is reusing discarded fruit peels in its dishes
If you’re wondering how the pledge actually works in practice, take a look at Scully, which is one of the participating restaurants. The kitchen team here realise that fruit peels tend to be a common food waste item, so they have created a homemade Yuzu Kosho. This involves repurposing discarded citrus peels of lemon, lime and grapefruit (used in the pork belly and dessert dishes on the à la carte) and making Yuzu out of this. This Yuzu is then served in Scully’s olive nibble dish, as well as in the tasting menu.
The range of actions been taken varies wildly, with each restaurant having different problem areas they want to tackle. This could mean simple actions such as relocating the bins to more convenient locations, or more complicated processes such as educating the chef team about waste, or teaching front-of-house staff to not encourage over-ordering.
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Pink-hued Sketch has committed to cutting down on its food waste
A total of 11 London restaurants are partaking in the pledge – they are Brasserie Zédel, Café Murano, Frescobaldi, Hawksmoor Air Street, Laurent, Ikoyi, Ralph’s Coffee and Bar, Scully, Sketch, Stem and Tibits.
The pledge has been inspired by the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 12, focussing on responsible consumption and production, which aims to reduce food waste by 50% per capita by 2030.