Josh Treuhaft’s Salvage Supperclub takes place in a Brooklyn dumpster to make a point about food waste. (Image: Bill Gordon)
I recently dined at the “Salvage Supperclub” in a retrofitted dumpster in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, NY.
Twenty of us feasted on a six-course gourmet meal orchestrated to prove a point: all kinds of food that might otherwise go to waste can be tasty and nutritious.
What is the Salvage Supperclub Anyway?
The outgrowth of a thesis project by Josh Treuhaft, a recent MFA grad from the Design for Social Innovation program at the School of Visual Arts where I teach, Salvage Supperclub are communal dining experiences to “inspire and empower everyone who cooks and eats to make the most of the food in their lives.” Josh’s mantra is quite simply: “Eat Everything”. No food should go to waste.
Check Out Josh’s Comical Stop Motion Video: “Eat Everything”
A Mouth-Watering Menu Prepared by Gourmet Chef, Celia Lam
First course: Heirloom tomato gazpacho with carrot top and fennel frond pesto on French bread crostini with pickled kale stems (Image: Bill Gordon)
Josh teamed up with Celia Lam, a recent grad of NY’s Natural Gourmet Institute to create a delectable six course meal made from ingredients donated by food suppliers who otherwise would have rejected them as unsalable.
For starters, we savored on heirloom tomato gazpacho with carrot top and fennel frond pesto on French bread crostini with pickled kale stems (pictured). You can imagine what came next during this produce-leaning meal!
Icing on the Cake: Our Salvage SupperClub Was for a Good Cause
Thanks to mostly salvaged food and volunteer help from Celia and her team, all proceeds from the $50 admission charge and other donations, supported the CulinaryCorps‘ annual ‘culanthropy’ trip to Camp Sunshine in Lake Sebago, Maine, a year-round retreat wh
ich provides respite, support, joy and hope to children with life-threatening illnesses and their immediate families.
Follow the Salvage Supper and #EatEverything Food Waste Movement
You can find Josh Treuhaft on Twitter at @TheTreuhaft and follow his food waste movement via #SalvageSupperclub and #EatEverything. For lots more details and images of the SalvageSupperclub I attended, feel free to check out my blog.
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This idea is brilliant because it works on so many levels. It’s like a living art installation in that it’s a visual experiment, shocking to some I’m sure. Then the social commentary on food waste: Let’s eat the food that might normally end up in a dumpster, but we’ll physically eat that food INSIDE of the dumpster! Not just food, but gourmet offerings. Maybe I’m uttering the obvious here. But also the fact that it’s so classy, borderline luxurious even, and that famous and well-to-do people are attending these Supperclub events… it’s all incredible. Bill, thank you so much for sharing this story with us. And Josh and Celia, congratulations on starting a revolution – Salvage Supperclub is the Ritz Carlton of dumpster diving!
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Jenny, love the analogy to living art installation. I was there that night and had the pleasure of meeting Bill and his wife. I was also at the very first SalvageSupperclub that Josh put on during the writing of his thesis. Both were super memorable. A real testament to the power of hands on learning. Am heartened to see how much publicity this idea is getting. An example of how some of our toughest sustainability challenges can be solved by a little creativity and a lot of hard work by the dedicated team that put this dinner on.
Love the video, and look forward to sharing it with my Green Marketing students. I hope the Food Network will take notice of this great project, and perhaps feature it in one of their many media outlets (TV, website, magazine, events). This is a perfect issue for them and a great way to reach a lot of people with a simple idea. As cited in my “Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli…” posting, the Food Network actually tackled the food waste issue a few years ago in a TV special entitled “The Big Waste.” Two teams of celebrity chefs (including Bobby Flay) were challenged to create a gourmet banquet using only food that was going to be discarded. Segments from the special, which show the chefs hunting down imperfect but edible food, are still accessible here:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/food-network-specials/all-specials/the-big-waste.html
I don’t know if they have addressed the food waste issue since then, but you have provided a great tool to do so.
Thanks for sharing that link Fredrica. It is surprising that as the world’s population continues to grow, with droughts becoming more common, and food prices are rising, that people are not doing more to reduce their food waste. Soon, as NYC has determined, it will be simply too expensive and wasteful to ignore the RESOURCE that comes from food. Bravo to these guys for looking beyond a “book’s cover” and eating food for its taste – not just looks.
RE: EatEverything, I sautéed up wrinkly peppers last night while explaining to my daughter they can still be used. They’ll go into omelets tonight for dinner & I credit that backwards dinner video from Josh (??). Thank u Jacqui!!
I would love to see something like this become a permanent restaurant!! I could really see it taking off, and it’s something that has never been done before! Along the same lines as that French supermarket chain doing the ‘Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables” – that concept has taken off and been a wild success. I eat wilted and blemished produce all the time, but I know most of my friends and family would toss it at the first hint of a wrinkle. They don’t understand that it still tastes good because they’ve never given it a chance! I think that opening some permanent establishments like the Salvage Supperclub, who openly show and explain their use of ‘salvaged’ produce can play a valuable role changing peoples’ views and appreciation of food and reducing food waste.
Beth, I completely agree. If done right, a zero waste restaurant could do really well! Even UN officials are getting in on the trend (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/un-leaders-food-scraps-lunch_us_56095418e4b0768126fe1aab.) If it’s good enough for Ban Ki-moon, it should be good enough for the rest of NY. Thankfully, there are a few New York restaurants that are rethinking waste in their kitchens:
On Sundays, 21 Greenpoint has a 5 to 7 course tasting menu using “would-be-trash” ingredients. In one interview, the chef notes “the goal for us is to walk into our refrigerator Monday and see nothing.” (https://www.thrillist.com/eat/new-york/homer-murray-21-greenpoint-restaurant-food-waste-tasting-menu)
It’s a bit of a trek from the city, but Estia’s Little Kitchen and Almond (both in the Hamptons) actively incorporate would-be food waste into their dishes too! (http://easthamptonstar.com/Food/20161227/Turning-Food-Waste-Food-Want)
Beth,
Yes, I’d love to see a restaurant devoted to this concept too. Or at least a food cart 🙂 However, until that time I think all of us ‘food salvagers’ have an oppty to demonstrate a personal example by going out of our way to serve salvaged food at home. That’s right, each dinner party another oppty to get the message across, one party, one meal, one dish at a time.
Eating food that was gonna end up in a dumpster inside a dumpster must be an unforgettable experience!
This is such a fantastic idea and I would love to see this turns into a restaurant!
I love this idea! Does anyone know how I can find out when the next few Salvage Supperclubs are on, and how I can sign up to attend one? Or is there a mailing list I can join?
Thanks!
Hi Lisa (and the whole WHTW community).
Thanks so much for the support and enthusiasm for Salvage Supperclub. I had a feeling I’d find passionate allies in this group.
For those in New York who are interested in getting on the invite list, just send an email to salvagesupperclub@gmail.com and you’ll be notified in advance of the next event. Feel free to pass that info along to anyone who you think would be interested and we’ll add their name to the list as well.
Beyond that, if anyone wants to host a Salvage Supperclub of their own (no matter how big or small), we’d be happy to share our experience and insights with you.
So inspired to see such a committed community.
j.
I have heard of the Salvage Superclub through a couple of outlets and am just wild about the idea! It’s such a clever, trendy way to teach people about the value of food. A friend of mine started a chapter of the Food Recovery Network at my alma mater which actually worked off the same principle. FRN takes leftover food from college campuses and donates it to those in need. That might be a good group for them to partner with, or at least draw some inspiration from! http://www.foodrecoverynetwork.org/
Thanks for sharing info about the Food Recovery Network, Melanie! Another great company started by one of the FRN founders’ classmate from UMaryland is Hungry Harvest (http://www.hungryharvest.net/). Their business model is similar to the FRN in that they recover surplus food from local farms, select all the freshest fruits and vegetables, package them in CSA-type program and deliver them to your door. On top of eliminating food waste, for every bag customers receive, Hungry Harvest donates a healthy meal to someone in need on your behalf. Even though they’re based in Maryland and DC right now, they’ll be expanding to New York in April 2016. Its just another great way to help keep local farmers in business and minimize food waste!
I love this idea! I think people would get use to it in the near future.
I was watching the TV show “Master Chef” and could not believe how much food is wasted in each episode. If there were a platform as big as this one teaching what I just saw in your video what a changed could be generated worldwide.
Being from South America, I have seen that in underdeveloped countries people don’t waste as much food as in big cities. Not only is it something cultural and the way of cooking but in a lot of circumstances, due to poverty, it demands that people be creative with what they have. Nothing goes to waste, especially food. Everything is reused nothing is disposable.
This simple idea is excellent, to get people conscious about the waste of food, we need to start teaching at home to our children, this is where we should start.
I love this, such a fantastic image too! I really think this sort of thing can catch on, especially when it fits with the trendy or ‘hipster’ vibe of Brooklyn. Like Beth though, I want to see more permanent set ups. I know that similarly great things are put on by http://www.wastedny.com, but again the focus here is on pop ups. It is this tendency for us be short sighted and fleeting in our interests that is damaging, our food waste problem is here to stay unless we take radical action. In England, there are a number of permanent not-for-profit restaurants that create dishes from food that would otherwise be binned by the supermarkets or people. Examples are Skipchen in Bristol, Saltaire Canteen in Bradford and Save the Date in London. Maybe similar things would take here in the US!