Waste not, Want not…

My search for blog inspiration today led me to a story which tickled my fancy so I thought I would share it… 

 

The story concerns a couple of things close to the heart of Red… Food being one (aren't I full of surprises?) and secondly, 'being green'.  We try as hard as possible here at Red to be kind to Mrs. Nature and our ever-changing world.  A concern for us, as with any restaurant or catering establishment, is food wastage, which is what the story was centred around.  More specifically, one Australian Chef's rather unusual measures of wastage control.  According to the story, "Chef Yukako Ichikawa is offering a 30% discount to guests who eat all the food they order in her restaurant, Wafu. Those who fail to clean up their plates are not welcome back."

 

Although Chef Ichikawa does kindly add that "lemon slices, pickled ginger and wasabi" can be left on the plate… The idea, whilst initially seeming a little harsh, could actually prove quite effective; it would certainly put me off hiding my remains under my knife.  I say this as if this is a common occurrence.  It's not; I like my food.  In fact more common a concern after I've inhaled a plateful would be around the amount of crockery left; not food… But this Chef's ruling does not leave much room for the fussier eaters out there, does it? Perhaps therein lies his real motive.  

 

Whilst this may work for Chef Ichikawa in Australia, I can't see Red adopting the same ideas.  With our level of experience in the catering industry, knowledge of food quantity is second nature, so happily wastage is kept to a minimum here at Red.  But we do have practices in place to take care of rare but pesky leftovers.  We proudly donate to Worthing Churches Homeless Projects, boxing up what's left and delivering it to the fantastic team over in Worthing.  When this isn't possible, our staff do a tidy job taking care of things!

Like Chef Ichikawa, Red are working hard to minimise food wastage and “take seriously our responsibility toward the environment and sustainability for the future” (taken from the Wafu web page).  Wouldn't it be great if everyone did the same!