Jamie Oliver and Hotpoint are opening an unusual pop-up café in East London this October. Diners will find a tasting menu of delicious dishes, inspired by the most commonly wasted ingredients in European households. As, according to a Hotpoint survey, European households claim to throw away over 8% of the food they buy. All that waste adds up to an even bigger problem: today, roughly one-third of all food produced for human consumption is either lost or wasted — that’s 88 million tons of food going to waste every year in Europe alone.
Together, Hotpoint and Jamie Oliver have launched the “Fresh Thinking for Forgotten Food” campaign to empower people to minimize their waste through a greater appreciation of food and by improving their cooking skills. Smarter use of technology can also be key to make cooking with leftovers easier. Every dish on the Fresh Thinking Café menu is based on suggestions from the public, and uses surplus food from local suppliers, wherever possible. The tasting menu features a variety of imaginative dishes incorporating bread, bagged salad and fresh veg – just some of the Europe’s most wasted foods.
The café will be run by home appliance expert, Hotpoint and opened by brand ambassador Jamie Oliver. The campaign addresses an important issue for Jamie: “Good food is a beautiful thing, it brings people together, it can cheer you up, and it can give you all the goodness you need to fuel your day – which is why me and the guys at Hotpoint don’t think any of it should be wasted! I’m really excited to share tips for cutting food waste, and beautiful recipes that celebrate ingredients that often get thrown away. Together with Hotpoint’s waste-savvy equipment, I want to show everyone how easy it is to cut unnecessary waste in the kitchen, and dish up delicious food at the same time.”
Operating on a ‘pay what you want’ basis, proceeds will be donated to FoodCycle – a UK-based charity fighting food waste, food poverty and loneliness. The pop-up café marks this year’s highlight of Hotpoint’s Fresh Thinking for Forgotten Food campaign, which encourages everyone to think differently about ‘forgotten food’ in the kitchens.