Tom Hunt and The Forgotten Feast

Tom Hunt, the creator of the Forgotten Feast.

Thankfully its not just householders standing by their rubbish bins at home who focus hard on food waste, there are plenty of unsung heroes in the catering sector who are tackling the issue head-on too, combatting much wider problems than we have on the home-front.  Given the challenges of Week 3 of The Rubbish Diet, I thought it quite timely to introduce a fabulous idea, known as the Forgotten Feast thats about to hit London by storm.

The Forgotten Feast is a new restaurant concept organised by Tom Hunt, (chef at waste awareness events Feeding5k and FOE), created specifically to highlight the 20 million tonnes of annual food wastage that exists within our society. Whether it’s fresh fish thrown back into the sea, vegetables ignored for being too ugly, or unusual cuts of meat simply discarded, the Forgotten Feast is making a clear and public declaration against waste

Having started in Autumn 2011, in partnership with food charity FareShare, the restaurant idea focuses on rescuing large quantities of unwanted food, that would otherwise go to waste, and turning it into luxurious feasts. Using wild and seasonal foods, wasted foods, and foods ignored by the modern world, Tom creates a stunning new menu for each occasion based on the ingredients he is provided with.

I like the fact that this is no greenwashed endeavour. The careful planning and underlying dedication and philosophies will ensure that everything from the location, to the furniture to the food, to the zero waste recycling policy will be sustainable, ultimately highlighting the waste and excess in our society and encouraging those in the food chain to do something about it.

The Forgotten Feast is officially launching this weekend, with a Valentines spectacular at FareShares depot in Bermondsey, providing a banquet of food for diners to enjoy.  FareShare rescues surplus food year round and delivers it to local charities all over the country and every ticket sold will enable the charity to provide an additional 80 meals for the hungry and vulnerable people they support, thanks to grant-giving charity StreetSmart who are generously matching the number of meals raised though ticket sales.


Tickets are currently available for dinner Friday 10th February, Saturday 11th, Sunday 12th (late lunch) and include 3 courses, a drink and canapés.

More information can be found at the Toms Feast website or by contacting info@tomsfeast.com.  And if you happen to be unavailable for this weekend, but would like to attend others, follow @tomsfeast on Twitter for future updates.

My mission now is to entice Tom to Suffolk.  Were such a foodie county, and Id love to have a Forgotten Feast here for us rural folk to enjoy.

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Zero Waste Week 2013 Preparing for a bountiful feast

And here it is.  Zero Waste Week 2013 has finally begun. 

And Im joining in, starting with a Monday morning excavation of my fridge, freezer and cupboards in a mission to use up the contents and create zero food waste.

Many like to call it an audit - but for me its more like an archaeological dig, especially when it comes to the freezer.  For instance this mornings expedition uncovered a leg of lamb, chicken breasts, fish steaks and a mysterious lasagne whose packaging I used for a radio broadcast earlier this year and accidentally recycled afterwards - oops.

And as for the fridge, as you can see my haul has revealed a cacophony of pleading fruit & vegetables, wailing at me to use them up first to create a veritable feast.

But the most miserable looking felons that have been imprisoned in the fridge for far too long are those poor fruity yoghurts - still unopened and, ahem,  past their use-by date - and all because their biggest fan has gone off them.  In other words, hes become yoghurted out and being too busy, I hadnt noticed.

But I refuse to waste them without further investigation, and with my disclaimer of Dont try this at home and looking all innocent-faced, I shall be delving deep with my exploration tools, i.e. a spoon. I will of course take full responsibility for my actions.

Its also probably time to confess too that even after 5 years of talking rubbish, I am still absolutely crap at planning.  All that food hasnt been bought for a recipe.  Instead I shop with my imagination, buying things that I know I can make use of and blend with various herbs and spices. 

So when I look at the ingredients above, I can already see a sweet and sour chicken balti, a fish pie, fruit smoothies, roasted vegetables and possibly a green salsa.

But thats all very well when my imagination is working on full power,  However when youre tired and busy, culinary creativity can be buried deeper than that leg of lamb in the freezer.  Then Beans on Toast becomes the highlight of the day.

Thats why Zero Waste Week provides a good kick up the backside to put great food back on the table of priorities.   And after dragging the contents of my kitchen out into the open, I can already see that I wont need to go shopping this week, except for perhaps a top-up of cereal and some bagels.

Well thats a turn-up for the cook book.

So are you joining in the latest chapter in this Rubbish Revolution and committing to feed your belly not the bin? 

Yes?  Oh goody!  See www.zerowasteweek.co.uk for more info.

And if you tweet, dont forget that #zerowasteweek is the hashtag.  Wouldnt it be great if we could get that trending this week.

Well heres to the launch of Zero Waste Week.

Ill see you later, well thats if I survive the yoghurt and those dodgy looking plums that accidentally froze at the bottom of the fridge.

And as for that month-old leek, I shall be asking Mr C exactly what his intentions were when he bunged it in the trolley. 

That ones his responsibility.

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