Using Food Waste in a Restaurant

[BakerAunt]

I'm hoping that the link to this article on using food waste--for more food!--will work.

Meet the Chef Who Will Change How the World Thinks About Wasting Food

Spread the word

      

  

  

[Mike Nolan]

Not being a coffee drinker, I find coffee grounds messy and smelly, and if brewing coffee only extracts 1% of the bean, I can see that as a tremendous waste of food/energy. The Noma book I'm reading also has a section on using coffee grounds to make a version of shoyu (like a soy sauce), but I don't think that fully utilizes the bean, either.

It would be interesting to work in an experimental kitchen like that, wouldn't it?

[aaronatthedoublef]

Really interesting. If nothing else this should catch on because it will help restaurants lower costs, increase margins, and increase profitability.

What they do with bread is very creative. The places I worked would put some water in a bowl in the warming drawer to soften old bread. And we used it that for more than day old bread.

I wonder if I could grind grounds and use it to give chocolate things a coffee boost.

For an interesting take on coffee see the Black Blood of the Earth.

I'd like to try it but it's REALLY expensive, I like my coffee hot, and I like to drink more than I can drink of this because of the massive amount of caffeine in it.

Oh, the problem we had with nitrous filled whipped cream cannisters was people inhaling the nitrous. We stopped using them because entire cases would have nothing but dead cans. But what do you expect in a kitchen run almost exclusively by college students with almost no adult supervision.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[BakerAunt]

Twice I had a bad response after having coffee with spray canister whipped cream on top--major gastric discomfort. After the second time, I began declining the whipped cream. I assumed it was an additive.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I found a recipe for a biscotti that uses used coffee grounds. However, it does not say what grind they should be. I use a French Press, so my grounds are coarse. That might not work with this recipe:

https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/coffee-grounds-biscotti

And here is a site with additional ones, including meat rubs:

23 Delicious Food Recipes With Coffee Grounds In Them

[RiversideLen]

It's interesting. I think they need a committed kitchen staff to pull it off. Not sure I want to eat there. Caffeine doesn't like me, so I certainly don't want any food made from coffee grounds.

[Mike Nolan]

I would think coffee grounds would have to be re-ground to a powder to be usable in food.

Not being a coffee drinker, I don't know what would happen if you ground the beans to a powder before brewing.

Coffee-flavored foods aren't high on our list of things to eat, but I'd probably taste something made with coffee flour.

[Italiancook]

I don't drink coffee. I've seen food show hosts add espresso powder, espresso, or strong coffee to chocolate cakes. They claim that makes the chocolate more pronounced. I've never had a desire to make any of those recipes. My concern is that the coffee would add too much additional caffeine. I think chocolate has caffeine, and that's all I want.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm with you, though I do agree that adding coffee or espresso powder does enhance the flavor of the chocolate, I can still taste the coffee.

Our instructor in chocolate school thought that if you're going to add coffee to chocolate, add enough that you can taste it, rather than try to guess if it's there.

[BakerAunt]

I don't see cooking with coffee grounds in my future. These recipes seem to me to be designed for the kind of fine ground in most supermarket coffees. For now, my coffee grounds are donated to my husband who puts them around plants to deter deer, which do not like the smell of the coffee. One of our neighbors, who I told, now regularly puts used grounds in their vegetable garden. It can also be good fertilizer.

I like coffee with chocolate desserts. I put it in brownies and cakes, and my husband, who detests coffee, never knows it is there. I use the King Arthur espresso powder.

[aaronatthedoublef]

My favorite chocolate cake recipe has always called for a half cup of strong coffee. I've started adding espresso powder too, to my brownies. Like BA's husband, my kids do not like coffee but that does not slow them down eating my cake or brownies.

Cutting down food waste will reduce costs. If you show restaurants a way to cut their costs they will all follow your lead. It will reduce costs in at least two ways - 1) The money spent on food will be stretched farther, and 2) the money spent on waste removal will go farther.

Speaking of food waste one of my sons today suggested we start a place to sell muffin tops. This led to a discussion about the muffin top Seinfeld episode and he had a great idea for the bottoms - put frosting on them and resell them as cupcakes! 🙂

[RiversideLen]

How come my cupcake is just a dam stump?! Where's the rest of it???

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