Don't waste your food!

Posted by Tony Naylor Tuesday 3 February 2009 09.02 GMT on the Observer's Word of Mouth - Food Blog.

.....Michel Roux Jr has joined the fray, explaining in his new book, A Life in the Kitchen, how he hates waste.

The majority of restaurants that aren't achieving their margins are failing because of waste. Look in their dustbins. Do they use the tops of the leeks? You certainly don't put them in the bin. You can use them in stocks and soups and sauces, or staff food. Peelings and scraps of meat are always recycled and re-used. For example, when you peel your potato and cut it into a fondant shape, you don't just throw away the rest of the potato. It can be used for mash. Potato peelings can be fried and eaten like French fries. We have them [at Le Gavroche] for staff lunch. They're wonderful crunchy and tasty. When you peel oranges ... cook the peel in sugar and you've got yourself a petit four.

And so he goes laudably on, putting langoustine heads and lobster shells to work in a bisque; using retained pork fat for pâtés and mousses; and pork skin boiled up in a ragout: "It's delicious but you have to cook it properly. It is a question of knowledge ... It's all part of the tradition of good housekeeping which has been lost."

I like to think, as a household, the occupants of Naylor Towers pay something between token and genuine interest in this kind of thing. It's a matter of saving money, but also a growing sense that we are all obliged to tread as lightly as we can on this planet, and that wasting food, of all things, is morally indefensible. Old wine is frozen to use in sauces; meat bones are (sometimes) turned into stock; old vegetables are used up rather than buying new; plastic takeaway cartons are washed and re-used during batch cooking; odds and ends of herbs and cheeses are frozen.

...read the rest here.

So many Brits are so wasteful with their food, they throw away perfectly good food instead of using it for another meal. The statistic from the government is that we throw away 30% of our food, too high I think! Visit the Love Food, Hate Waste website for more info and for some interesting tips, it is funded by the government's WRAP project which provided the 30% figure above. I am going to go shine my shoes with old banana peels (that's what the website said you could do with them!).

What a Cuppa!
In Preston new records for the largest cup of tea (400 litres) and largest tea bag (60kg) were set, and in Camden Lock the longest line of pizzas ever (285.5m) was created (who comes up with these categories?).

Elsewhere, Anita Schwarz thought her dreams of bringing the 'most beer steins carried' record back to Germany had been cruelly shattered after she managed to carry 19 giant foaming mugs only 40 metres, but the adjudicating powers created a new category in recognition of her efforts and she is now the official record-holder for 'most beer steins carried over 40 metres – female' (they really are making this up as they go along ...).

Also in Germany, 5.4 litres of juice was extracted from grapes by treading in just one minute by teutonic treading titan Martina Servaty, beating Belgian Tijs Vandoorne into second place for the coveted (and imaginatively named) 'most juice extracted from grapes by treading in one minute' record.

And in New Zealand, two separate records concerning the time taken to peel and eat kiwi fruit fell - the 'fastest time to peel and eat three kiwi fruits' is now, officially, 36.91 seconds (an astonishing average of 12.3 seconds a fruit) and the world's 'fastest time to peel and eat a kiwi fruit' now stands at 16.15 seconds, both feats achieved by Alastair Galpin (that's 16.15 seconds for a single fruit? Hang on a minute ...).

Source:OFM

Go to Market
Above: Divine salt beef main with a mustard sauce. Below: smoked haddock with a Hollandaise sauce and the most scrumptious mash with herbs. Below: grilled fresh mackerel with roasted red peppers and a tomato sauce (it was all too tasty for words!).Most likely the best restaurant in Camden, serving fresh and delicious British fare, Market Restaurant (43 Parkway, NW1) is the place to be at lunch. The menu changes daily and you can get a two course lunch for a tenner. Buying a horrid salad from a chain with a banana and a drink costs almost the same nowadays. Went there twice in the last three weeks and each time I wasn't disappointed.

I also heard through the grapevine that they won an award from the Observer Food Monthly's magazine but I have to still Google that article and find out what it was for. If you want something other than dodgy market food or chain sandwiches take a break from hectic Camden Market here, I highly recommend it.

Both times I was too full for sampling the puddings but am sure on my next visit will have to squeeze one in!