A celebration of food that society ignores
It is a scary reality that in a world where hundreds of thousands of children and adults go to bed hungry that society continues to waste food. Millions of tonnes of food are wasted on a yearly basis, from bread to fruit and vegetables and unpopular cuts of meat.
Enter the Forgotten Feast, a roaming restaurant that “supports the ugly, the unwanted and the unloved.” The team behind Forgotten Feast found the large wastage of food by society inexcusable and wanted to create a celebration that is focused on wild and seasonal foods, wasted foods and foods that society have ignored or forgotten.
Eloise Dey, Emily Elgar and ‘Eco Chef’ Tom Hunt had their first Forgotten Feast back in 2011 when they hosted the ‘Feast on the Bridge’ on London Bridge. Diners were served sustainably caught fish, surplus vegetables from Able and Cole, free local stale bread and bone marrow from local butchers. Not only do the team want to make use of the large quantities of unwanted food, but they also want to make a clear public declaration against this wastage.
Tom also has restaurants in Bristol and London called Poco, where they have the aim of reducing their waste to zero. Some of their efforts at the restaurants include only using sustainably caught fish, with all the fish being traceable to the name of the boat and the method used to catch it. They source 90% of their ingredients from the U.K. while the remainder is imported ethically using non-air freight and only from fair sources. Poco also recycle and upcycle more than 90% of their refuse.
Think again before throwing away food that is clearly still edible, remember it is likely that something can be done with it rather than being dumped in the rubbish bin.
