After Busy Denver Food Festival, Chefs Make Sure None Of What's Left Behind Goes To Waste
DENVER (CBS4) - An annual dinner at the close of the Slow Foods Nations festival in Larimer Square has become an example of what's possible in these types of festivals.
"If we are harvesting food and then not eating it, it's a shame," said award-winning executive chef and author Steven Satterfield, who oversees the annual zero waste community supper at the festival.
"It is really about working as a team to save the food and make it into something different," he said.
A team of chefs rescue hundreds of pounds of food from the festival which otherwise would have been tossed out and turn it into a full meal.
"My initial reaction was, does that work? Then as I learned more I was like, yeah they're really good at this," said Colorado Chef Eric Lee who helps Satterfield organize the supper.
"It's fun to see. You take this thing that you don't know if it's going to be any good and then somebody extremely creative turns it into something that's spectacular," said Lee.
Finding ways to rescue and repurpose food not only trains chefs to be creative but could help save them money.
"Chefs are starting to be a lot more aware of food waste and if you can kind of lasso that in your own kitchen, you can actually change your food costs and make your business more successful," said Satterfield.
The supper has become an annual tradition with a simple message
"If you rescue it and turn it into something different then it didn't get wasted at all," said Satterfield.