Central Hall Westminster (CHW), part of Central Hall Venues group (CHV), in partnership with their in-house caterer, Green & Fortune, has launched a new 2023 menu with a dedicated ‘Food for Thought’ section focusing on innovative ways to reduce both food waste and food miles.
‘Food for Thought’ is ideal for event organisers who want to send out an even stronger message about food sustainability, with dishes created from underused ingredients which might otherwise go to waste and designed to drastically cut what might be thrown away.
Chefs have worked carefully with CHW to provide the sustainable menus from breakfast options to dishes both small and large, served either as bowl food or a plated main course. Examples of minimum waste dishes include organic quinoa porridge made with oat milk created from a separate breakfast dish of rolled oat Bircher, while one of the small dishes includes sweet potato skin crisps made with carrot top pesto. For larger dishes, whole roast heritage carrots and beetroot will be served unpeeled for zero waste.
The Food for Thought options focus on using lesser-known ingredients and meat is supplied by Green & Fortune’s own Northumberland-based, Corneyside Farm. Chefs also source ingredients produced without waste in the production process, such as whole ground flour using the whole grain including the husk. Cuts of meat rarely featured on menus will be used, including 12-hour cooked Thor’s Hammer (shin of beef), served with crushed skin-on potatoes and horseradish. For fish dishes, cuttlefish is in abundance in local waters, so chefs for CHW have created a dish of braised cuttlefish with green harissa yoghurt, and rye husk pancakes made from the whole ground flour.
Even desserts will be made from ingredients which might otherwise have been thrown away such as left-over bread and butter pudding and trifle pots blended with a mix of cake trimmings, homemade fruit compote, custard and cream. In season, windfall fruit crumbles with classic English custard will be another dessert choice.
Another aspect of the new Food for Thought menus is to reuse or incorporate the same ingredients wherever possible. For example, instead of having separate canapé, bowl food and dinner menus, the same produce and ingredients will be used for each. For example, leftover broccoli stalks in a dinner menu could be used for soup in the café or for a bowl food dish at an adjacent event.
Vegan options are an integral part of the menus and for a standing lunch include build-your-own beetroot burger, skin-on sweet potato fries with wonky vegetable slaw, charred spring onion and dill.
Sarah Ainsworth, CEO of Central Hall Venues, comments: “Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do and the food served at an event is a very important part of this. We are excited about working in partnership with our in-house caterers, Green & Fortune, to provide truly sustainable menus that reduce food waste to a minimum while also using far fewer food miles.”
Kevin Holmes, Green & Fortune General Manager at CHW, added: “Presenting a more considered waste removal menu alongside our existing green initiatives is something we have been thinking about for some time and now clients are becoming a lot more receptive to this. We are delighted to be able to introduce our 2023 menus with ‘Food for Thought’ and are very happy to talk to event organisers about how we provide them.”
