Zero-Waste Dinner Raises Awareness of Food Waste Management

A zero-waste dinner featured local celebrity chefs preparing a meal that was 100% waste-free, with every component, from cookware to table centerpieces, either digestible or otherwise capable of being repurposed, April 26, 2018 Credit: Julien Jarry

At the first ever zero-waste fundraising dinner, local celebrity chefs prepared a meal that was 100% waste-free, with every component, from cookware to table centerpieces, either digestible or otherwise capable of being repurposed. The event was held at St. Catherine of Siena Church.

The event was the brainchild of Thomas McQuillan, Director of Food Service Sales and Sustainability at Baldor Specialty Foods, a source of ingredients for top chefs.

The dinner raised awareness about food waste within the community, and collected over $50k in donations to benefit important local nutrition programs: Cos Cob’s Kids in Crisis and Bridgeport’s Wholesome Wave.

Made with contributions from Gotham Seafood, Fleischers Craft Butchery, Mike’s Organics, Victoria Amory, Happiness Is, Aux Delices, Greenwich Country Day School, La Fermiere Yogurt, Asarasi and Back 40 Farm, the meal was an opportunity for 300 attendees to learn and sample sustainable products like Wine RayZyns, Elmhurst Milk, Toast Ale, Victoria Amory, and Asarasi.

“Sustainability is a journey that involves the entire community,” said McQuillan. ““That’s why we have high school students volunteering as servers, local celebrity chefs and businesses contributing their talents, artists showcasing their work, and a unique tickets-and-table structure that lets everyone from the community, regardless of socio-economic background, attend, learn and participate.”

McQuillan said would have been easy enough for Baldor to contribute our ready-to-prepare SparCs items – food made from his facility’s produce extras. But, he said, “This is about the chefs and the participants, and even our sponsors, all learning how to come up with their own sustainable solutions.”

The chefs were charged with cooking delicious, 100% waste-free culinary dishes. They were served with no waste whatsoever.

“If we don’t change the way our kids think about food. We’re in for a lot of trouble,” said Pete Pearson, Director of Food Waste, World Wildlife Fund, who noted that 70 percent of biodiversity loss is due to food production.

“Zero waste is about an attitude,” Pearson said. “The way we’re doing things today doesn’t work, we’ve got to change.”

The event featured reusable napkins made by a refugee family from Afghanistan. Contributed phto

The event featured reusable napkins made by a refugee family from Afghanistan. Credit: Julien Jarry

A zero-waste dinner featured local celebrity chefs preparing a meal that was 100% waste-free, with every component, from cookware to table centerpieces, either digestible or otherwise capable of being repurposed, April 26, 2018 Contributed photo

The zero-waste dinner featured local celebrity chefs preparing a meal that was 100% waste-free, with every component, from cookware to table centerpieces, either digestible or otherwise capable of being repurposed, April 26, 2018 Credit: Julien Jarry