Dishes prepared by starred chefs with the food scrapscomes directly from the United States the Trash Cooking, the latest trend in the catering industry, which has also inspired the big names in Italian cuisine. Basically, it involves creating dishes prepared from what remains of one or more foods in the kitchen.
Trash Cooking against food waste
To avoid misunderstandings, it should be made clear that this new branch of dish preparation has at its base fresh food and that nothing to do with waste of products already prepared for other customers. The name of this trend, literally 'trash cooking', has a very precise social-economic objective: to combat food waste and avoid throwing away products that, on the contrary, could easily be used, thanks to the chef's creativity. Moreover, trash cooking can only benefit the pockets of restaurateurs, with a clear saving on raw materials.
The idea is also to return to the lifestyle of a few decades ago, when a fundamental rule applied in every home: 'throw nothing away'. A habit that has unfortunately disappeared with the passage of time. In the hope that trash cooking is not just a passing fad, the positive impact on customers more sensitive to conscious consumption is evident. It is a bit like the possibility given to customers to take home leftover food so that it is not thrown away. In Italy it is still an experiment, while overseas it is now a more than established custom.
A healthy fashion, also for the environment
This fashion, as bizarre and transient as it may seem, may in fact have more than positive consequences on a restaurant's budget. One saves on raw materials, exploiting their full potential. You also tend to attract a customers oriented towards conscious consumption and willing for ethical reasons to spend even on what many consider mere leftovers.
More and more people sit down at restaurants expecting not only to eat well, but also not to damage the environment with an unnecessary waste of resources. Anyone working in the restaurant industry will have noted with regret, at least once in their life, how much waste is produced in a working day. When we consider that 80 billion KG of food is thrown away every year in the United States, the idea of trash cooking no longer seems so absurd...
Massimo Bottura, pioneer of trash cooking in Italy
In Italy, a pioneer of this trend is certainly Massimo Bottura, chef of the multi-starred Osteria Francescana in Modena and founder of Food for Soulthe non-profit organisation that fights against food waste by recovering ingredients that would be destined to become rubbish. Trash cooking has already begun to infect the world of haute cuisine: all the more reason to give it the attention it deserves.
But how can you use waste in your everyday work in your restaurant? Some ingredients that lend themselves perfectly to this are the peels (very rich in nutrients, provided they are not chemically treated), the coffee grounds, heads and fish bones, i lesser cuts of meat and much more. The secret, of course, lies in the quality of the raw materials (bad food can only result in bad leftovers!), the care of the combinations and the presentation of the dishes.
In a cooking show in 2015, Massimo Bottura presented an excellent broth prepared from peels. But the basic idea can really be exploited for any course, from starter to dessert, proposing for example coffee grounds biscuits or, for the more courageous, potato peel ice cream.
You need a very good knowledge of ingredients and combinations, but the results can be surprising.
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