What do you mean "we don't have any food waste"?
The image above was an early contender in the design of our new-look website.. let’s face it, who doesn’t like cake?
We also thought it was an interesting image because so many of our clients have the issue of unsold food items that end up in the bin or another a statistic on their food waste dashboard that require new strategies to address. At least they know it exists.
Because some operators don’t.
A few weeks ago, one of our team was in a local café when he casually asked about how they deal with their food waste. “Oh, we don’t have any food waste” came back the reply.. “we cook everything to order.”
At face value it seemed to make sense, and that approach to managing portion control and food costs is to be applauded - or is it? Our colleague - who was new to the world of food waste at the time - didn’t think too much about the statement as they took a table to enjoy their morning brew.
After a few minutes however he noticed a number of plates being cleared during what was a busy breakfast service. He saw slices of toast, portions of beans, the odd tomato and butter portion were finding their way into a bin in the kitchen out the back.
Meanwhile the server on the till innocently believed that there was no food waste, because she was blissfully unaware of the amount of actual food going in the bin that was left over from customers.
This wastage we call plate waste shows up is very difficult to track, and therefore one of the biggest challenges in the fight against wastage of food in our sector.
… in reality plate waste is food waste that is only wasted AFTER it has left the kitchen and been forgotten about by the chef.
So coming back to the image above, we thought it would be interesting to highlight that there are different types of food waste and this was a particularly engaging image alluding to two main sources of wastage: over-production and plate waste.
Incorrect version.. can you tell why?
In doing so, we initially made an unintentional error in trying to highlight plate waste. Here is the first version —>
Can you see the error?
It assumes that the plate waste is left over from the unsold food. But in reality plate waste is food waste that is leftover AFTER it has left the kitchen and been forgotten about by the chef. This was a profound moment of insight and worth sharing for anyone who really wants to think about food waste like we do here at Chefs Eye.
So when a chef or potential client (or server in a café) tells us they “don’t have any food waste because it’s cooked to order”, we do get curious if they are really being honest with themselves about that statement.
It also leads us to our next - and potentially biggest - challenge in tackling food waste; how do we educate our dining guests and customers NOT to waste that food?
If you said to someone in 1960 or 1970 that one day they will have to go outside INTO THE SNOW if they wanted to smoke a cigarette in public, they would have laughed at you. Well, they’re not laughing now, to paraphrase the old joke*.
It seems the same level of awareness should be ramped up - over the next few months instead of decades - if we are to change the general perception of just how big an issue food waste (and plate waste in particular) really is.
For now though, all we can do is tempt them with cake.. and at the same time persuade, influence and educate our culinary colleagues one Chefs Eye dashboard at a time.
*this is the old joke I’m referring to… such a classic punchline:
“People used to laugh at me when I said I wanted to be a comedian. Well they're not laughing now.” - Bob Monkhouse
