According to nonprofit Feeding America, there are currently 92 billion pounds of food wasted annually in the United States. That is around 145 billion meals, over $473 billion worth of food, and about 38% of all food in America. Numbers like that shine a light on the many problems in gastronomic sustainability, but it presents one singular (and prevailing) problem—the amount of waste our current culinary landscape produces is unsustainable.
“As a chef, we need to bear some responsibility on what it means to eat and be sustainable,” explains Camari Mick, the executive pastry chef of One MICHELIN Star The Musket Room. “When we create and develop menus, we should always be forward thinking in how we can use 100% of a product.”
But being sustainable means something different for each chef and restaurant. Sustainability can mean creating educational workshops and internships or even transforming recycled bags into plates. For Dan Kluger, chef/owner of Greywind and Loring Place, sustainability means reducing what is thrown away. For Fidel Caballero, chef/owner of Corima, it means making the most of every part of every ingredient. “If something cannot be used fresh, how can we preserve, dehydrate, pickle, or ferment it to maximize flavor?”
Regardless of what sustainability means though, one thing is certain—the time for change is now. Witnessing the growing homeless population, Chef Mick knew the turning point was now. “When I see half-eaten food or trim waste, I always think damn, someone would’ve killed to eat that.”
To chef/partner Aidan O'Neal of Le Crocodile and Bar Blondeau inside the One MICHELIN Key Wythe Hotel, it was the 2019 Christmas forest fires in Australia. “I wanted to make sure our restaurants were helping reverse the direction the world was quickly slipping towards.”
Signaling that change is New York City’s first-ever Make Food, Not Waste Restaurant Week. In a pioneering step toward tackling food waste, Mill, the award-winning food recycling system which transforms food scraps into nutrient-rich grounds that can be used for composting or feedstock, is joining forces with top New York City restaurants and culinary figures for a weeklong initiative created to educate and inspire New Yorkers about food waste and how they can approach food preparation and disposal. From September 30th to October 6th, restaurants and the city’s culinary voices, such as Camari Mick from Musket Room, Dan Kluger of Greywind and Loring Place, and Fidel Caballero of Corima, are pledging to produce zero food waste while spotlighting special no-waste dishes.
“We wanted to challenge ourselves to take our commitment to reducing waste even further,” Chef Kluger says. “The idea was to highlight dishes that would teach us how much potential there is in ingredients that would normally be discarded.”
“We want to show that what works in the home can work in the restaurant, and vice versa,” adds Chef O’Neal. “The more like-minded people from different backgrounds collaborating with one another, the greater the ability to solve problems.”
During the campaign, participating restaurants will highlight a signature dish that embodies the ethos of zero-waste cooking. For instance, Chef Mick will present a creative twist on dessert with a fried plantain panna cotta—incorporating innovative elements like plantain peel caramel, peanut praline snow, rye peanut crunch, and curry ice cream. Meanwhile, Chef Caballero will offer a no-waste kampachi crudo with fermented husk cherry salsa, celtuce, and a chicharrón furikake garnish.
And while everyone loves good food, at the core of this movement is Mill’s odorless and fully automated food recycler. All participating restaurants will incorporate Mill’s food recycler in their kitchens, drastically reducing the volume of food waste produced. The campaign also coincides with the city’s rollout of a curbside composting program, making it the perfect time to adopt this eco-friendly solution in their homes.
“We already use a Mill at home,” says Chef Kluger. “It’s helped me think about how to use leftovers in new ways.”
The “Make Food, Not Waste” Restaurant Week represents a significant step forward in the battle for a more sustainable future. It addresses the critical issue of food waste by showcasing innovative zero-waste dishes and leveraging new technology to tackle century- old problems. Mill will also be donating $10,000 to the Lower East Side Ecology Center to support their mission of increasing public awareness and education around food waste and composting.
With so many chefs and restaurants participating, this campaign showcases something that many still don’t know: sustainable dishes can be both inventive and delicious. And hopefully, as New Yorkers join in on this weeklong event, we can start our path towards a more eco-friendly future—one plate at a time.
See all of the participating restaurants and upcoming events in the campaign below.
Participating Restaurants:
Bar Blondeau (Wythe Hotel)
Bar Contra
Corima
Greywind
June
Le Crocodile
Loring Place
Nami Nori
Rezdora
Rhodora
The Musket Room
Win Son
Hero image : Noah Fecks / Mill at Bar Contra
Thumb image : Noah Fecks / Mill at Bar Contra
