Its a fact: 40% of food in the U.S. is never eaten and globally, 4 billion tons of food is wasted each year. This epidemic of an issue has rid still viable food from people who could and would actually enjoy it. People around the world are starting to take a stance on eliminating this large amount of food waste.
In 2012, The Food Network tried to tackle this issue. Top Chefs teamed up and created the special show called “The Big Waste”. In this TV special, the chefs were divided up in to two culinary teams and had exactly 48 hours to create a multi course gourmet meal that was A) worthy of their reputations and B) could only use food that was on it’s way to the garbage. The teams for this obstacle were Bobby Flay and Michael Symon vs. Anne Burrell and Alex Guarnaschelli. To feed a gathering crowd, the teams must bond together and get used to the fact that they are no longer cooking with the freshest and most perfect of ingredients. The chefs traveled to different places learning about how food waste is created and the different views of how this happens. These chefs had to visit food processors and wholesalers that willingly gave them their wasted food. This included overstock, returned, blemished, damaged and other unwanted produce. This series was not only a cook off but also a learning experience.
To make sure none of the ‘wasted’ food was actually not fit to serve to anyone, they had a food-safety expert tested all the ingredients to make sure that it was safe to eat. In the end, all of the Food Network stars were deeply disturbed by what they saw in terms of waste. These top chefs admitted that they would most definitely try to implement a system where they could reduce waste in their own restaurants and establishments.
Although I did not receive a quote from The Food Network or any of the chefs involved, the reaction that this show got was very positive and people around the world were blogging about eliminating their own food waste.
