Full taste, zero waste

Don’t throw away the scraps, season them, suggest commercial kitchens as they are increasingly cooking up sustainable feasts for their consumers, writes Sushmita Murthy

Indians waste as much food as the whole of UK consumes, states the CSR Journal. According to the United Nations Development Programme, 40% of the food produced in India is wasted. The numbers are staggering, to say the least, and particularly troubling in a society that has traditionally hosted conscious kitchens. We’ve traditionally used the lesser popular elements of veggies and fruits such as seeds and peels to make local delicacies. Our grandmothers discarded food waste by tossing it under a tree (typically a coconut tree in South India) instead of stuffing it in a plastic bag where it ceases to disintegrate, adding to the mounds of filth stinking up a landfill.

It’s a trend

Thankfully, a few commercial kitchens are taking baby steps to ensure that we’re back on the path to clean cooking and living. Novotel Bengaluru, Outer Ring Road, is one such establishment that weaves sustainability into its daily operations. The hotel follows a strict policy of segregating its waste into dry, wet, bottles and cans. All the food waste is collected and fed into an organic waste converter machine, which can convert up to 300 kg of waste into manure within 12-48 hrs.

Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Karjat, is another such hotel. Chef Rajiv Bharadwaj informs, “We have an organic farm of our own, where we grow a number of fruits such as mangoes, papaya and vegetables like cabbage, bok choi and aubergines. We separate edible kitchen waste like vegetable roots, peels, crumbs and small amounts of cooked food that gets wasted, to generate this wet waste which we then use to make our compost.”

Health check

A big part of hosting a sustainable kitchen means repurposing the ‘waste’. Executive chef Lokesh Jarodia at The Deltin, Daman, has a bunch of ways to incorporate the ingredients wisely in his kitchen — cabbage and carrot ends are tossed into a pot to make stocks and soups, leftover ice cream from buffets is used to make milkshakes, rinds of cheese are infused in oil to make flavoured oil for pasta and risotto, leftover meat and fish bones are added to make flavourful stocks and soups, etc. Not only do these hacks reduce wastage, but they also enrich the meal. He says, “Bone broths are nutrient-dense, easy to digest, rich in flavour, and boost healing. Bones and marrow, skin and feet, tendons and ligaments that you can’t eat directly can be boiled and then simmered over a period of days. This simmering causes the bones and ligaments to release healing compounds like collagen and glutamine that have the power to transform your health.”

Commercial gain is always an incentive for one to alter their habits. F&B consultant Arina Suchde specialises in training kitchens to adopt sustainable practices and whips up billable items on the menu from ingredients that would typically go to the bin. “I always tell people that there are three reasons why they must move to sustainable ways — it’s healthier, it’s economical, and you’re doing good to the planet. They could be inspired by any of the reasons, as long as it gets the job done.”

For Pantry Café in Kala Ghoda, Mumbai, Arina has created a special sustainable menu that uses scraps generated in the beverage counter during the creation of cold press juices. This includes making a chilled salad with watermelon rind, a taco dish with baked carrot, apple pulp and oat and energy bites made of almond pulp, to name a few.

In a new avatar

Repurposing has been a large part of culinary practices in many parts of the world, especially in regions that practise ‘nose-to-tail’ eating. Since Goan cuisine is largely inspired by Portuguese culinary traditions, the menu at Le Meridien Goa turns to such practices, informs Chef Ganesh. “We use leftover raw vegetables, chicken and lamb bones to make our respective stocks, and over-ripened bananas go into making banana bread. Portuguese cuisine uses a lot of offal meats. Our signature local dishes: sorpotel and chicken peri peri use pork liver and chicken liver/gizzard respectively.”

Sustainability, of course, can be incorporated in ways other than repurposing the waste. It could mean turning to organic substitutes for cleaning agents, cooking accessories, etc. An Ahmedabad-based initiative called The Green Straw offers low-waste solutions to everyday kitchen chores through products, workshops and talks. Pooja Mathur of Green Straw, says, “We encourage consumers and establishments to buy local food that comes in the least or biodegradable packaging and provide eco-friendly utility items such as cleaning scrubs and bottle cleaners. The garbage bags we use in the kitchen are made out of compostable materials. For our in-house café, we do not serve any plastic straws and on a rare occasion that someone asks for it, we offer disposable straws made out of agricultural waste. These are made by tribal women in Odisha in collaboration with the NGO Battighar and Serene Design. They are creative alternatives to the paper straws as they do not exploit any natural resources.”

Given the looming threat of climate change, it’s clear that turning sustainable in our kitchens is imperative.