The second annual St. Louis Food Waste Challenge Celebration took place on November 19 at Olive + Oak in Webster Groves. This year’s month-long challenge included six restaurants – Alpha Brewing, Flavor 360, Olive + Oak, Panorama at the Art Museum, SqWires, and Sugarwitch. Each participant created their own dish from food scraps that would normally be discarded. Over 50 guests enjoyed small bites from each restaurant and drinks from Olive + Oak.
During the month of October our 6 restaurants tracked their wasted prep scraps, customer waste and spoilage. They also looked at their inventory and any savings they found by implementing a variety of food waste strategies. In total they diverted over 1,300 pounds from the landfill. All participants agreed to be “Food Waste Champions” for the next year and will continue to track waste and implement food waste strategies.
Participating chefs received gift cards donated by Bailey’s restaurants. Each restaurant received a $200 voucher to order sustainable to-go ware or chemicals from Meridian Supply. Winners of the “best food saving ideas” contest won three months of free composting from New Earth Farms. Winners of our Food Waste Trivia/Bingo won some Earthday365 swag.
Graphs showing the sources of food waste in the participating restaurants during the challenge and Olive + Oak’s reduction in composted material.
Each Restaurant’s Hors d’oeuvres
Alpha Brewing Company made a pickle plate of some overly ripe produce in a beer brine to preserve freshness. Alpha Brewing kept a detailed food waste log.
Flavor 360 brought a delicious sweet brioche with orange peel jam. They used the whey drained from ricotta cheese in the dough and saved orange peels to make the filling.
Panorama’s chef used extra carrot and cardamom puree and repurposed braised cauliflower for their mole beef dish. Panorama saved 12% on inventory costs over the month! They also began composting for the first time this month and plans to extend this to their events at the Art Museum going forward.
Olive + Oak turned what are typically considered decorative squashes into an autumnal delight: a sweet local squash bread with toasted seeds and a glaze made from apple scraps. Olive + Oak saw a large decrease in the amount composted weekly (see graph above).
Sugarwitch used over-prepped kabocha squash, over-purchased goat cheese and leftover pecan brittle to make delicious squash tarts. Sugarwitch saved 13% on food costs over the month.
Thank you to Olive + Oak for the beautiful accommodations and to all our generous sponsors and partners.
