Top chefs create the FareShare Feast
FareShare
Catering apprentices from City College Brighton & Hove will be working alongside top chefs from Terre á Terre, 64 Degrees, Seattle, and Boho Gelato at the annual FareShare Feast.
The dinner, to be held on Tuesday 10 June at the College’s Gallery Restaurant and organised by the Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival team, will raise awareness of issues surrounding food waste and the valuable work done by FareShare in redistributing surplus food (that would otherwise go to landfill) to those in food poverty.
Chefs will visit the FareShare warehouse in Moulsecoomb a couple of days before the dinner and choose the ingredients for their course. They will then work with trainee chefs at City College to create a dinner for around 50 guests.
“Not knowing what FareShare will have for us to work with, and then having to create impromptu recipes, is great fun,” said Seb Cole of Boho Gelato. “But on a serious note, most of the ingredients we are going to use would have otherwise been sent to landfill, so it is a perfect opportunity to raise awareness about food waste and the amazing work that FareShare does to redistribute food that would have otherwise been binned.”
“This event is a great way to highlight the importance of food respect in the industry”, says Matty Bowling, head chef at Terre á Terre. “It shows how creative and forward-thinking the hospitality industry can be to raise real awareness and to plant a seed in the minds of all who attend, and hopefully result in positive actions in the future.”
‘Food Respect’ is a concept that’s gaining momentum across the food industry, says Terre á Terre’s Olivia Reid: “Food is produced by people to feed people. We therefore have a duty to treat it respectfully for ecological, economic and moral reasons. Food respect starts from the growing and ends with waste disposal. All who engage in this journey need to join forces and assume responsibility; show good practice through the maximum use of products, stock control, portion control, waste management and disposal in an attempt to educate consumers and workers along the way, and to change the prevalent throw-away and energy wasting mentality.”
Festival supporter Clare Noble, of PHS Group, said: “It’s important to be raising the profile of organisations such as FareShare. Edible food should not be heading to landfill or incineration when there are people in our communities in genuine need. It makes both economic and social sense to minimise waste in the food chain.”
City College’s assistant principal, Rebecca Conroy, added: “City College consider it to be a real honour to be part of this initiative once again, alongside some of the city’s finest chefs. Staff and students found last year’s event both inspiring and challenging as well as a really enjoyable experience. I personally am really looking forward to sampling some of the delights at this year’s feast.”
For more information on Catering courses at City College, email info@ccb.ac.uk or call 01273 667 759
For more information about FareShare Brighton & Hove and how you can support their work, visit: www.faresharebrightonandhove.org.uk
Marvelous mezze
The renaissance of London Road has seen a multitude of great new places to eat emerge, but right now my favourite
is a tiny place called Sunbirds Mediterranean, a Middle Eastern cafe and deli, making great pastries and fresh juices, and now delicious mezzes that you can take away in a box or eat in. Having bought their delicious pastries to share in the office for my birthday, I was determined to go back and do the mezze thing. What a surprise and what amazing value at only £3.99 to eat in! My platter had filo rolls, a stuffed sweet pepper, spicy chicken, hummus, aubergine, yoghurt and cucumber, two great salads and roast tomato. It was amazing and cost so little (about the same as a decent sandwich) but so much more interesting. In fact, so good I went back a second day and had a mezze again, with a few differences but equally tasty. This time I also had a fresh juice which featured lots of beetroot. Not only did it taste good but it felt like it was doing me good too, and at £3 it seemed like a fair price. A brilliant little place that I should keep secret, but feel obliged to share.
Sunbirds, 108 London Road, Brighton, 07437 695119
An abundance of burger
After my rave review of Coggings & Co, I thought my burger tasting days could take a rest, but no such thing. On a sunny evening walking into town to see a rather dismal dance ‘thing’ at The Dome, I felt the need for sustenance. Remembering the buzz surrounding Burger Brothers, I decided to pop in. The menu is short, there are stools at a shelf to sit at and pumps of hand cleanser that could easily be mistaken for ketchup dispensers. I ordered a Benetton burger without asking why it had the name, and after a few additional choices were offered I sat and waited, only for a short time before my burger arrived. It was huge and came with a superb portabello mushroom, chorizo, chilli sauce and wasabi mayo as well as loads of melted quality stilton. I have to say it was very fine, if rather messy to eat, but despite the enormity of the thing I manged to finish it off. Pretty damned impressive, and with a soft drink a round tenner!
Burger Brothers, 97 North Rd, Brighton BN1 1YE, 01273 706980
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