Lessons in food waste

It’s my second time to be a judge at the NFS or National Food Showdown in Lipa this year. Though I am certainly not a cook or a chef, organizer and founder Myrna Segismundo made a few categories where my experience could probably help – coffee and a new topic close to my heart, food waste.

I readily said yes to Myrna as she plans these showdowns a year in advance and chefs and judges commit to several cities or schools where these are held: Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod and Lipa (Myrna’s hometown). Students from around the country compete in the place closest to them geographically and they usually are in courses dealing with hospitality such as hotel and restaurant management, culinary and related fields.

The chef/judges are a veritable “who’s who” in the culinary world, like Madame Glenda Barretto, Beth Romualdez, Thomas Wenger, Robbie Goco, Sau del Rosario and Penk Ching. Special interest experts like Nana Ozaeta, Nina Diaz Puyat and Manny Torrejon also commit to check on the student entries, with the hope that these youth will compose our future group of chefs and culinary luminaries.

The students are ably escorted by their professors, coaches and tutors – just like a boxing championship is about to take place. So we watch in hopeful candor as the students sweat out the small stuff – like how to make a sauce or a dish using equipment that are sorely lacking professional quality but they make do anyway. As they say, if you can cook, you do not need the best equipment except your hands and your palate. If you can make it taste great, you need not have the best pot or cauldron. Or in the words of today’s youth IYKYK- “if you know you know.”

As I write this piece I am reminded that my topic at the NFS is food waste. And I would like to mention the following suggestions which may also be helpful to our readers:

Learn to use imperfect vegetables. Why do we want all our okra the same size? Did you know that to grow okra the same length, you need to control the environment with chemicals and pesticides while you make them perfect and without blemish? When an exporter of okra shared that with me, I stopped eating beautiful okra.

Be careful of spotless fruits and vegetables. I am of the belief that if the little bug tried your fruit it must be of the right sweetness already. So a spot here and there on bananas and papaya never hurt anyone. This also goes for ampalaya, eggplant and most vegetables that some insects try and partake of before we do.

Save your peels and rinds for the compost pit. Do not mix these with plastic or other wastes so it will degrade properly and go back to the soil.

Use less cling wrap, wax paper and aluminum foil. Now this is a real challenge as we find it so easy to wrap mise en place (culinary term for prepared ingredients) with cling wrap.

Use brown paper, if you must use paper, so you can dispose of it in your compost pit.

Buy less so you throw less. Reduce what you bring home. Recycle instead.

Avoid more waste by eating more natural food instead of processed ones. Natural food has compostable wrappers and containers.

Many years ago I met a family that was already practising “zero waste” even before it became a trend. They did not use paper napkins, but used cloth so it’s washable. They used real forks and knives even for picnics so they can be washed and reused. They hardly had any waste picked up from their home. How many of us are ready to do that shift? Our household made a shift in reducing our “landfill-ready” waste simply by segregation – separate natural or biodegradable waste from plastic and coated paper. I am proud to say we have cut our waste to a fourth of what we used to throw. Not yet zero waste but definitely getting there.

It may be a tall order for someone just starting this habit but consciousness and mindfulness is the first thing we have to think about. If you start soon, it will soon become a habit.

At the food showdown we judge the student entries and winners proudly bring home the “bacon” to their schools. It is with much pride that they show these awards to their classmates and teachers – as their version of a “master chef” competition. The students come wide-eyed and innocent, you almost want to already give them the prize because they are tense and sweaty while waiting for the jury’s decision. They wait with bated breath as their faculty in charge tap their feet in suspense. This year, we will plant a new seed in their minds – sustainability, food waste and how to be responsible food service professionals.

Could we influence them to start the journey to a “zero waste” future? The rules are changing in this culinary universe. And this is why it’s a showdown. This is where peers compete and hopefully we will find the promising entries who can be further developed as their teachers continue to guide them. Who can be the most sustainable chefs of the future?

Thank you to Myrna who has made this her advocacy and which probably has produced the pool of talent our hotels and restaurants now draw from. These young students start to hone their skills at events like this one. And as we continue to produce local culinary talents, we do not forget to let them use local produce, avoid food waste and remind them about sustainability.

This may be the best time to remind our college students before they become the professionals we will soon encounter at the next restaurant we visit.