At The Brasserie, we don’t waste anything! Many of you who know us, know how passionate we are about our impact on the environment, and we prove this in our everyday actions. Food Waste Week is the perfect time to talk about how we like to do our bit.
We cook everything from scratch, so we use every element in different dishes and use the whole product, which means we cut down on food waste and reduce packaging. For example, our local fresh whole chickens are butchered and used for our Brasserie dishes, the legs in the Katsu Curry, the best in the Mushroom Chicken pies and the wings are kept for formal buffets. And then we use the skin and carcass for our tasty soups and stock bases (which use carrot peelings, onion offcuts and tired herbs). We even peel and segment whole fruit as part of our morning breakfast menu, salad bowl, which is trimmed down, pressed and used as a candied peel in our desserts.
When using our whole local free-range eggs, we separate the egg yolk for our famous hollandaise butter sauce for Eggs Benedict in the morning; then overnight we gently bake the whites whisked with sugar to make our pavlova nests.
We always source local, which means a lower carbon footprint and less packaging, plus the benefits of supporting local independent producers directly. We love to find new suppliers, whether they’re Devon families who’ve been growing, rearing or selling fresh produce for generations or new, artisan makers of craft food and drink products – of which there are many in the county. We were thrilled to discover Justin of the Madrigal Brewery over in Lynmouth and his bespoke craft beers; Tony the Butcher, who works out of Muddiford for consistent West Country meat; Farmer Bob from Barnstaple, and seasonal local vegetables from Broadlands Farm Braunton.
Naturally fish and seafood are key ingredients in our larder. You are guaranteed to enjoy some of the best fresh fish from the market at Appledore. Why? Simply because this is where our fishmonger goes each day, and in turn returns to our kitchen, with quality produce landed off local day boats. Add to that. mussels that are picked at low tide in Westward Ho! then cleaned in Instow. All in all, a great basket of local and seasonal ingredients that are truly sustainable. Menus adapt to the seasons, so there’s always something new to try whatever time of year you arrive and because it seasonal produce it doesn’t need to be flown in from other countries and most of it can be sourced from North Devon’s natural larder. This not only means it is eco-friendly, but it also ensures it is the best quality and as fresh as it gets!
It’s good to know that we can make these small differences to reduce food waste, and when combined have a bigger impact on our planet.