I like to do a fair amount of home cooking, but I have to admit—I’m far from being a chef.
I’ve never worked a food service job or in a commercial kitchen, but I’ve become incredibly interested in their operations over the last couple of years. Why?
Because kitchens are perhaps the biggest opportunity to reduce event waste, especially food waste.
So to learn more about how catering chefs can apply zero waste practices in their kitchens, I went to an expert. Charlie Weaver is the Executive Chef for Centerplate at the NCAA Headquarters in downtown Indianapolis. He and his team prepare meals that range from meetings for 5 people to events for more than 6,000 guests, and he is passionate about reducing food waste.
Here are Chef Charlie’s top 3 zero waste kitchen tips:
1. Prepare close to the numbers
While some caterers prepare 5% over the number of expected attendees, “I like to keep the prep and numbers closer to the amount that will be consumed,” says Chef Charlie. “I prepare an average of 3% over the total number attending. I have a great sales team that relays my confidence in my numbers and ensures our clients that their event will go off flawlessly. We have never run out of food in our front of the house, and kitchen communication is what helps make this possible.”
2. Follow a nose-to-tail philosophy
The nose-to-tail philosophy “is a great way to utilize the product you have and get the full potential yield” from your ingredients, Chef Charlie says. “When prepping any protein, we utilize the extra scraps and pieces not being served for stocks, ingredients in soups, fat rendering, stews, and even sausage.”
3. Be precise and creative
Chef Charlie uses precise parameters to determine how much product is required to prep the right amount of food for each event. He uses these parameters to determine how much food he orders. However, sometimes the guest count drops unexpectedly, or an ingredient is packaged in a larger quantity than he needs, and he finds himself with excess food.
In these cases, Chef Charlie gets creative. “Any extra product that doesn’t get used, I try to utilize in creative ways like in the daily mix of vegetables, vegetable stock, or soups.”
Do you follow these tips in your kitchen? What are your best tips for reducing food waste? Let me know in the comments!
Want even more waste-reducing tips? Check out my online course How to Plan Zero Waste Events >>