Page 18 - foodservice news magazine Nov-Dec 2018

18
FOOD WASTE
“I think a lot of the issues that we have today is because our food is not complete food ... We can’t fix that problem until
we actually stop treating organic waste as a problem, as a waste. It’s actually something that we really need to cherish.”
that problem until we actually stop treating organic waste as a problem, as a waste. It's actually something that we really need to cherish and get back into our soil.
AC: What lessons have you learnt about food waste?
ML: I think there's a lot that can be done with the infrastructure of how you build and set up your restaurant. Then, there's the things that you ask for from your suppliers. When we build a new space or we're taking over a space, we'll install a juggler system, which eradicates the use of the milk jugs. We'll run
a plastic egg crate system with our egg supplier, so we don't
use cardboard. We do the same thing with our fruit and veg supply where we buy a thousand collapsible plastic crates.
GH: We sank an 80,000-litre rainwater tank under the lawn before we opened, which irrigates the front farm beds and has done
some good stuff for us. But, on top of that, our best-selling wine is keg wine. We've got a very good wine producer down in the Yarra Valley who produces it for us, and that's heavily reduced bottle waste.
And with suppliers, we've asked them to deliver loose vegetables, loose proteins, and have asked them to bring them all by crate, reducing cardboard and reducing plastic. Plus buying loose and buying by the kilo, instead of by the box all the time, has helped us to manage our organic waste.
AC: What is the best way to get staff, and the wider community,
to reduce food waste?
TP: I think the key word is education. We have 1,500 staff and we hold a lot of internal training sessions. It’s also about properly connecting with your supplier. We're big, there's no doubt about it, but we have a small mentality and it's personal. I've got 87-plus regional suppliers in New South Wales. I spread
my wings quite broad. One of which is an oyster supplier down in Pambula that I can go down and see. The information that
he shares about the product and about how to actually treat it with respect, what it's about and where it's come from, is invaluable. That's often lost these days.
ML: We've been able to embed ourselves in a small community, particularly in Bronte, where we don't have enough space to be able to process our food waste, but we container everything up. It goes off to the community gardens and it's by having conversations like, “We've got all this food waste, we've got all these coffee grinds, can you take them? Can we turn them into something?" that a dialogue can open with your community. It has also lead to us greatly reducing our impact on the environment.
AC: Is food waste an increasingly important consideration for diners?