How does zero waste cooking make a restaurant more profitable?
Zero waste cooking makes a restaurant more profitable because ingredients that would normally end up in the bin, such as peels, become a dish you can sell. That is why chef Jeroen de Pauw of Canapé Apéro calls it a business model: every part of the product you buy can end up on the plate.
Which kitchen choices turn waste into margin?
Zero waste cooking starts with the recipe, not the bin. A recipe that uses the whole ingredient, such as a cake made from whole oranges including the peel, lowers your food cost per plate. Three choices determine the result: designing recipes around the entire product, repurposing trimmings as standard practice, and teaching your team to look at waste differently.
Where does zero waste start in the kitchen?
With the recipe. If you design a dish in which every ingredient on the plate is used in full, peel included, you don't have to cut waste after the fact.
Which product is an easy place to start?
Citrus fruit is a practical starting point. A cake made from whole oranges uses both the flesh and the peel, so nothing you bought goes to waste.
Why is it a business model?
What normally gets thrown away has already been paid for. Turn those trimmings into a dish and you are selling an ingredient that would otherwise be pure cost.
It's also a financial model. The things you would normally throw away, you can use.
Frequently asked questions
Is zero waste cooking technically difficult for a kitchen team?
According to chef Jeroen de Pauw, zero waste cooking is technical, but not difficult. Above all, it takes a different way of thinking: instead of automatically binning trimmings, the team looks at each ingredient to see what else can be made from it. Recipes designed around the whole product from the outset make that shift easier for cooks.
Which parts of ingredients are usually thrown away unnecessarily?
Peels are the best-known example. In Jeroen de Pauw's zero waste work, peels are also used in the dish, as in a cake made from whole oranges. Other trimmings that normally end up in the bin can be used too. The principle is that everything on the plate is used in full.
What does zero waste cooking deliver besides cost savings?
Besides a lower food cost per plate, zero waste cooking helps reduce climate impact. Jeroen de Pauw argues that cooks can make a difference through their kitchens by cooking with everything they have. For restaurants, it also creates a clear story for guests, who can see the approach reflected on their plates.
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Video transcript
I read a book about zero waste cooking. It's very technical in the kitchen. What can you do?
You know, with the climate changing, or even cooks, they can make different about it. They can try to have to cook with everything that they got. So that's really the story that I want to, to tell in my book, is to, to make chef behave that you can cook with everything, but with a lot of things that you throw away normally, that you can make something with it.
And it's also a financial model. The things that you throw away normally, you can use it. So we make cakes with whole oranges.
The thing was that I made recipes and all the ingredients that you've got on your plate, we use them all of everything, even the peel, even, and it's It's easy to do. It's a new way of thinking, new way of cooking. But I think if we can, if we can do something to stop the climate changing, then we have to do it.