Islington restaurant creates fine-dining menu entirely from food waste

James Cochran, Great British Menu winner and chef at 12:51, worked with the social impact company Too Good To Go to raise awareness for the 26,000 tons of food wasted in the UK every day.

The menu featured apple gel made from damaged Morrisons apples, chocolate mousse made from excess Easter Eggs from Montezuma and smoked salmon crème made from Yeo Valley crème fraiche that was past its best before date.

Too Good To Go co-founder Jamie Crummie said: “We did this partnership with James Cochran really to highlight that food waste can be delicious and that we can transform things into fantastic fine-dining experiences.”

On Stop Food Waste Day (April 27) the menu was served to food critics and influencers who were not previously made aware that the food had been made from produce that would have been thrown away otherwise.

Cochran outside 1251 (Image: Too Good To Go)

The entire menu cost just £2.69 per person and included confit egg yolk, potato foam, curried potato matchsticks, haddock rarebit on toast, filo pastry tartlet and citrus hollandaise mousse.

James said: “No one likes throwing food away but sadly it does happen on a daily basis.

“I hope this event helps to inspire people at home to get creative in the kitchen and see how fun fighting food waste can be.”

Too Good To Go was founded at the end of 2015 to combat food waste and though the app individuals can purchase a bag containing food that is still edible but that stores could no longer sell as it might be damaged, past its display date or in excess.

Food waste is a big driver of climate change (Image: Too Good to Go)

Jamie said: “40 per cent of the food we produce ends up getting wasted so we wanted to create a tangible solution in which people can effectively fight food waste.

“Food waste also produces 10 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, so it’s about giving people tools they can utilise to do something effective and fight climate change.”