Catering News is sponsored by Two Services
Zero Waste Week is here, a time when chefs can be thinking about how to keep waste in the kitchen to a minimum and make operations even more efficient.
Chris Jarman is head of food and sustainability at BaxterStorey client UBS and is on a mission to make every ingredient count, from root to rind.
He talks to us about how his team turns kitchen waste into some of the most talked-about dishes on the menu, why sustainable eating doesn’t mean compromising on taste, and how a little creativity (and a lot of passion) can change the way we think about food.
What are the key processes you and the team implement in your kitchen to minimise waste while maintaining high-quality dishes?
Chris Jarman (CJ): We cook with the seasons – as all chefs should – and when we create menus, we try to identify potential waste streams from those dishes. Before a dish even hits the pass, we look for ways to give the trimmings, peels or offcuts a second life somewhere else in the kitchen or around the building. The key is getting the team to think differently and ask: can we re-use this? Can we turn it into something new? Whatever we make has to be delicious of course, this is non-negotiable. And this mindset leads us to create innovative dishes and recipes that aren’t just tasty but have a great story to tell.
How do you integrate sustainable nutrition into your menu planning, dishes and ingredients?
CJ: It’s about sourcing the best ingredients from our suppliers. This often means working with exciting, sometimes unfamiliar ingredients, pushing us to innovate and create new dishes, and keeping the team on their toes.
We also want our customers to leave feeling healthy, happy and energised, so we try to keep dishes nutritionally balanced. We’re not afraid to rip up the rulebook – just because a recipe’s always been done a certain way doesn’t mean it can’t be made better. If we can make it more nutritious, sustainable and delicious, we will!
Can you share some innovative ways or examples of how you track or reduce waste throughout your kitchen operation?
CJ: In our kitchen, we use a food waste weighing system that tracks every bit of waste – what it is, how much and where it’s coming from. We can then spot bad habits that can creep in without you noticing and change them. For example, we spotted that, in retail, we were throwing away porridge every single day because it’s a cheap ingredient, so the team would rather make too much than risk running out. It makes sense in the moment, but over a year it really stacks up, both in weight and cost. Now we get creative with leftovers. If we’ve cooked too many croissants, we turn them into feuilletine or croissant brownies. One dish I love is a surplus croissant malt chocolate bar, with croissant salted caramel ganache, sour cherry, sunflower seed ricotta and 100% Islands Chocolate.
Cauliflower stalks and juicer pulp, meanwhile, are turned into falafel or cauliflower leaf kimchi, which we use in our Isle of Wight tomato salad starter. Broccoli stalks are grated and served on our wok counter, and watermelon rind is pickled. We even turn surplus milk into ice cream.
I also take broken, chipped or cracked plates and piece them back together for reuse in the kitchen, inspired by the Japanese art of Kintsugi, which means ‘golden joinery’. The plates often feature on our Chef’s Table, adding a story and character to the dining experience.
What challenges have you faced in balancing sustainability goals with customer expectations, and how have you overcome them?
CJ: Honestly, we haven’t had any pushback – as long as the food’s delicious, no one seems to mind what it’s made from. In fact, our homemade falafels have a bit of a fan club. We make about 1,000 a week and they sell out in two days – I can’t make enough! For me, it’s about sharing the passion, first for good, nutritious food, and then for how surplus ingredients can be turned into something incredible. Do that, and people are happy to come on the journey with you.
Can you share an example of a dish you’ve created that highlights sustainable nutrition while celebrating great flavour?
CJ: For Zero Waste Week, we’re featuring a dish I’m proud of: Leghorn chicken kofta with tomato trim imam bayildi; pickled watermelon rind and cucumber relish; cauliflower stalk and bulgur wheat tabbouleh; coffee grounds, pineapple and chilli sauce; rooftop herb labneh; and a homemade garlic and coriander flatbread. Pretty much every part of it uses something that might normally end up in the bin. Even the chilli sauce uses coffee grounds for added depth and pineapple cores for sweetness.
Another favourite from our Chef’s Table is Farmer Beary’s net zero beef ribeye, hen of the wood mushroom, surplus milk dulce de leche, beef and blackcurrant sauce, beef fat hash brown and barbecued runner beans. At the end of the day, it always comes down to flavour. It just needs to be delicious and tell a story – that’s what food is all about. It’s got to be something you want to savour, not just shovel down before heading back to work. Food should have soul, and these dishes have plenty.
How do you inspire and train your kitchen team to adopt zero waste habits and prioritise sustainability in their daily work?
CJ: It sounds cheesy, but you have to drive a culture and mindset change. Let them be involved, taste the food you make from waste, it’s important everyone understands how tasty it can be. Sustainable nutrition can’t be something that we just do for special days throughout the year. It has to be visible every day across all our menus. I now see my team questioning what they are doing and why. It gives me huge joy to see this change and mindset shift in my team and it demonstrates that being committed to making change is worthwhile.
