‘Food for Thought’ is ideal for event organisers who want to serve sustainable food, with dishes created from underused ingredients which might otherwise go to waste. Chefs source ingredients produced without waste in the production process, such as whole ground flour using the whole grain including the husk.
Sarah Ainsworth, chief executive of Central Hall Venues, commented: “Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do and the food served at an event is a very important part of this. We are excited about working in partnership with our in-house caterers, Green & Fortune, to provide truly sustainable menus that reduce food waste to a minimum while also using far fewer food miles.”
Examples of minimum waste dishes include organic quinoa porridge made with oat milk created from a separate breakfast dish of rolled oat Bircher, while one of the small dishes includes sweet potato skin crisps made with carrot top pesto.
Cuts of meat rarely featured on menus will be used, including 12-hour cooked Thor’s Hammer (shin of beef), served with crushed skin-on potatoes and horseradish. For fish dishes, cuttlefish is in abundance in local waters, so chefs for CHW have created a dish of braised cuttlefish with green harissa yoghurt.
Even desserts will be made from ingredients which might otherwise have been thrown away such as left-over bread and butter pudding and trifle pots blended with a mix of cake trimmings, homemade fruit compote, custard and cream.
Vegan options are an integral part of the menus and for a standing lunch include build-your-own beetroot burger, skin-on sweet potato fries with wonky vegetable slaw, charred spring onion and dill.
Kevin Holmes, Green & Fortune general manager at CHW, added: “Presenting a more considered waste removal menu alongside our existing green initiatives is something we have been thinking about for some time and now clients are becoming a lot more receptive to this. We are delighted to be able to introduce our 2023 menus with ‘Food for Thought’ and are very happy to talk to event organisers about how we provide them.”