Food waste isn’t just taxing on the environment, it can also seriously hurt your bottom line. Danielle Bowling spoke to passionate chefs determined to get the most from their produce.
Over 4.2 million tonnes of food waste is disposed to landfill in Australia each year. Around 1.5 million tonnes of this is from the commercial and industrial sector, costing around $10.5 billion in waste disposal and lost product – not to mention the effect on our environment.
According to a recent study conducted by RMIT University which looked into the role packaging can play in minimising food waste, the industry which contributes the most to landfill is foodservice, at 661,000 tonnes a year.
It can’t be denied that sustainability is a buzz word in the hospitality industry, but unlike many of the fads in foodservice at the moment, this one won’t be going away any time soon. Protecting the environment is a long term investment and there are a number of passionate chefs and restaurateurs determined to make a difference.
One such individual is Joost Bakker, the man behind Perth’s Greenhouse restaurant and more recently, Silo, a 100 percent waste-free cafe in Melbourne (pictured below).
“I decided to set up a hospitality venue that doesn’t generate any rubbish at all. That was the goal from the outset: to do food in a sustainable way, without generating any waste whatsoever,” Bakker told Hospitality.
To help achieve this, Silo gets all its milk, olive oil, vinegar and cream in stainless steel kegs; has milk, mineral water, wine and beer available on tap; ferments soybeans to make its own soy milk; and has all its produce delivered in plastic, returnable crates – even cardboard is turned away.
“It’s not about whether something is recyclable. I don’t even want it to get to that point,” he said.
The only waste the cafe, which opened about 18 months ago, does generate is organic waste, and of course that’s put to good use.
Investing in a sustainable business model
Over the years Bakker has trialled a number of pieces of equipment to help make the most of his businesses’ organic waste.
One of his favourites is a Gaia dehydrator, which reduces organic waste to 10 percent of its original volume by dehydrating it. The by-products include water that’s perfectly good for the garden, as well as dried nutrients that can be used as compost.
But the real apple of Bakker’s eye is his Closed Loop invessel composter, used at both Greenhouse and Silo. ”We can throw everything into it. It uses a microbe that’s found in lava, so it tolerates much higher temperatures … and what I’ve found is that the compost seems to incorporate better into the soil. When I’m top-dressing my soil and using it as fertiliser on the farm I find that the dehydrated waste almost repels water. I found that it doesn’t quite blend into the soil as well as [the compost from] the Closed Loop does.”
And the word is spreading. Bakker’s good friends Neil Perry and Mark Best have been inspired by Silo’s waste-free mantra, with Best enquiring about the invessel composter as part of a joint purchase he’s considering with Kylie Kwong and Bill Granger, while Perry now only accepts milk in stainless steel 20L kegs and has asked his fruit and vegetable suppliers to no longer supply in cardboard.
“So within 12 weeks he’s almost halved the amount of rubbish that he generates. Plus, the place is cleaner and he’s not paying apprentices to rip cardboard boxes apart, stuff them into a bin,” said Bakker.
While he admits that some might see these products as quite a costly investment (he rents the composter for $600 a month, and spent between $32,000 and $34,000 on the dehydrator), Bakker insists it’s worthwhile, not just for long-term savings, and of course for the environment, but because it’s great for the staff too.
“It actually makes your staff aware of what they produce. I make my chefs empty the composter because if they are careless and throw plastic and rubbish in there, that’s going to come out. They’ve got to be proud of what it is that they’re giving back to the producer. You can’t tell the guy who’s growing lettuce for you that the lettuce isn’t up to scratch if you’re giving him back compost that’s got rubbish in it.”
Low cost, high reward
That’s not to say that restaurateurs can’t make serious cuts to the amount of food waste they’re generating without investing in top-notch equipment.
Robyn Klobusiak, chef and owner of The Ugly Duck Out in Swansea, Tasmania, has a much more basic approach to sustainability, but it’s certainly paid off for her, with the restaurant last year named the state winner for Best Environmental Practices (for the second year running) at the Tasmanian Hospitality Association Awards for Excellence.
Klobusiak (pictured below) says there are some very simple steps every restaurateur can – and should – take to reduce the amount of waste they generate.
“I don’t know how many people in the hospitality industry are concerned, but I know our industry is responsible for a lot of food waste. I feel that not enough people are accountable to that. One of my biggest concerns is organics that go to landfill, because if people are putting the waste into our landfill it’s producing a lot of methane, but one of the simplest things that you can do to change that overnight is just to stop putting organics to landfill.
“So how do you do that? All you do is compost. And it’s something that humanity has done forever but for some reason we’ve forgotten it and gotten lazy. If we can separate our waste into recyclable, organics, and waste to landfill, the waste to landfill should be negligible,” she said.
The Ugly Duck Out’s team uses organic waste as compost for its garden, where produce including fresh herbs and tomatoes are grown.
If they’re unable to grow or produce something themselves, Klobusiak sources it from as close to home as possible. “We get local bacon, that’s been cured locally. We only use Tasmanian mushrooms – if we can’t get Tasmanian mushrooms … we’re not going to bring them across from Adelaide, we’re going to offer something that’s in season. We also make our own yoghurt, and just from doing that it’s something like 150 tubs and thousands of carbon miles that we’re saving,” she said.
Another easy way to reduce food waste – and increase profits – in hospitality is to address portion sizes.
“You have to really look at your customers, discuss with them how they’re feeling. You can do that in really subtle ways. I’ve got people saying all the time that our meals are so generous, but I look at their plates and they’re licked clean. But if I do get things coming back off the table, my staff always offers to package it up, because we offer our whole menu takeaway as well.”
Mark Jensen from Sydney’s Red Lantern says simple commonsense goes a long way in curbing food waste in restaurants.
He says ordering the right amount of produce is key, and something which every chef can master in a matter of weeks.
“If you’re wasting food then you’re not making money. It all comes down to the amount of produce that you order. Obviously, you’ve got to know your business and the flow of demand for the product that you’re producing, so it’s important not to order too much,” he said.
“It’s not rocket science. If you’re a start-up business then you don’t know what to expect, but I’d rather be running out of a few things than be oversupplied.”
Reducing wastage at Red Lantern is made easier by the fact that less than five percent of diners buy meals for them to enjoy on their own – the rest pick a few menu items and share them with their dining companions.
Portions are offered in large and small sizes, and all ingredients are precisely weighed before being plated, and just like Bakker and Klobusiak, Jensen composts for his restaurant’s garden (and that of his neighbours).
While of course well aware that food waste is something that needs to be addressed from an environmental point of view, Jensen insists restaurateurs today can’t afford to be complacent about what they’re putting in the bin.
“I think it’s harder than ever to make a crust out of this industry,” he said. “If you’re not paying attention to food waste and costs, then your chances of longevity are getting narrower and narrower.”
Regardless of whether you to decide to buy the latest and greatest composter or dehydrator, or just apply some commonsense principles on how to minimise wastage, the issue of sustainability is here to stay. And if Joost Bakker’s dreams come true, there might be some marketing wins in it for businesses that choose to be proactive.
“My dream is that in 10 years time, restaurants and hospitality venues will, just like a non-smoking logo, have a no bin logo and people will want to go there because they practice zero waste.”
Source: http://www.hospitalitymagazine.com.au
HT Editor
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