The Zero Waste Week Supper Club at INK Café, Dún Laoghaire

Sustainably conscious chefs Erica Drum and Conor Spacey have joined forces to host a zero waste supper club on Friday, September 10 at Dún Laoghaire’s INK Café. The shared goal of the two chefs in hosting this event is to create a fun and interactive experience for diners designed to stimulate ideas around actively reducing waste within our food consumption. The Middle Eastern inspired menu will be revealed to diners on the night as all of the dishes will be created by using a variety of surplus ingredients which will be provided by non-profit social enterprise, FoodCloud, the day before the event. The event will consist of a welcome drink upon arrival followed by a six course menu and tables of 2, 4 or 6 are available to book at €70 per person via Eventbrite.

Bread 41

Eoin Cluskey of Bread 41 has long been a supporter of the zero waste movement through a variety of initiatives via his Bread Nation business. As a business, they have committed to a deadline of October 1st to reduce product prices while charging for whatever packaging customers choose to avail of. Bread 41 also hope to eliminate compostable cups by January 2022, 80% of which end up in regular bins and therefore landfills. Lastly, their barter scheme encourages customers to bring any home-grown fruits (apples, pears, berries etc.) to the café which can then be swapped for fresh bread and pastries. Sounds like a win win! www.bread41.ie

Cream of the Crop Gelato

Brazilian Chef Giselle Makinde of Cream of the Crop Gelato is a woman on a mission. A mission, incidentally that turns past-its-best fruit and vegetables into stunning gelato in a wildly unusual range of flavours. Well on her way to achieve her goal of saving seven tonnes of food waste from landfill in 2021 alone, Giselle set up Cream of the Crop, a zero waste gelato initiative in 2020. Weekly donations or food collections come from businesses such as Hussey’s Fruit and Veg in St Margaret’s, Co Dublin, Velvet Cloud’s sheep’s milk yogurt from Aisling and Michael Flanagan’s herd in Co Mayo and gourmet food store, Little Italy. Her new state of the art production facility on Dublin’s Cork Street churns out flavours such as beetroot and rhubarb sorbet, dolce gorgonzola and pear gelato and roasted banana and peanut butter gelato. Prices are fair and the containers reusable, Giselle often collecting them herself as she drops off repeat orders. And believe me, you will want to repeat order. www.creamofthecropgelato.com

Too Good to Go

Social impact company, Too Good to Go are bringing their fight against food waste to Ireland. Their app is the world’s largest business to consumer marketplace for surplus food. So far, restaurants, cafés, bakeries and a host of other food businesses in 15 countries have signed up to play their part in fighting food waste. The app connects consumers with businesses who have surplus food headed for landfill who rather sell it at a low price. www.toogoodtogo.org