Miami Chefs Turning Waste into Gold
An anti-food waste "popup" featuring Miami chefs creating dishes out of food waste
The last weekend from March 26th to 28th, Choco hosted Waste is Gold, with restaurants in Miami fighting against food waste. The five participating restaurants in the anti-food-waste pop-up event included some of the locally most beloved and innovative dining spots, from a superfood juice bar to a vegan food truck.
Miami chefs and restaurateurs were challenged to design a dish or repurpose an existing menu item and customers could order these items via curbside pickup, delivery, and dine-in. Check out our Waste is Gold event page to learn more about the initiative by the Choco app and to discover more about the restaurants' stories and anti-food waste recipes.
During the third edition of Waste is Gold, Miami restaurants put the spotlight on their recipes made out of kitchen wastes serving delicious, inspiring, and sustainable dishes to their guests and local industry, and encouraging their joint mission with the Choco app to fight against food waste.
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The event not only celebrated culinary creativity but also showcased the chefs' and restaurateurs' great restaurant management skills in reusing waste as a fruitful resource for their businesses, as well as their drive to make the food industry more sustainable.
The anti-waste recipes served during Waste is Gold included Falafel with residue and pulp from cold press juices and Banana peel Cochinita Pibil cooked by Manna Life Food in Downtown Miami, or the Spinach Cake using leftover rice by Beehive Cafe & Juice Bar, according to which "the dish is actually best made when using leftover instead of freshly cooked rice".
Pamela Wasabi Bakery from Brownsville presented their "Ugly" Cheesecake and Almond Buttercups, promoted with the #EatMoreBeauty, while the Caribe Vegan foodtruck opted for a customizable version of a Banana Boat. Lilikoi Organic Living in South Beach reminded the community of the importance of using the freshest ingredients that are locally and organically sourced, proposing a tasty Farro Risotto with Mushroom Soy Sauce fermented with Portobello Mushroom Stems.
How is the Choco app fighting against food waste?
In the US alone, 40% of all food produced goes uneaten, making up 133 billion pounds in landfills and totaling $161 billion of food waste per year. It's in this backdrop that Choco - a new app providing free order management technology to restaurants and food suppliers - has organized this campaign. The Waste is Gold initiative touches on the interconnections of food, sustainability, and technology for the future of restaurants.
The Choco app is optimizing operations in restaurants to prevent waste - chefs and managers can now keep all their suppliers in one app and save time, smoother communication, and decrease the chance of ordering mistakes.