Chef takes root-to-fruit approach in new book
For chef Tom Hunt, sustainability starts with eating for pleasure, not just for nutrition
Born of a sense of abundance rather than sacrifice, chef and writer Tom Hunt’s first foray into reducing food waste was a meal for many.
In making hundreds of dishes with organic produce that otherwise would have been lost to the dumpster, his so-called Forgotten Feast extended beyond the fundraiser itself. Bolstered by the fact that as an individual he had made a measurable difference, it ended up being a catalyst.
“The reason I set myself on this journey of climate-change campaigning and focusing on food sustainability is because I fed those 200 people and there was a massive ripple effect from that one event,” says Hunt. “The Forgotten Feast was about celebrating the solutions rather than talking about what’s wrong and celebrating good food in its entirety from root to fruit.”
Over the past decade, Hunt has created an integrated approach to eating — one that emphasizes both enjoyment and the environment.
His second cookbook, Eating for Pleasure, People, & Planet (Interlink Books), taps into “holistic” thinking. As with his salvaged spread, the book is “a celebration of plenty” first and foremost.
“I’ve written it to be actionable and as simple as possible for people to follow,” says Hunt, “which is why the three key principles — eat for pleasure, eat whole foods, eat the best food you can — are quite loose and philosophical ways to approach food rather than it being a really strict and basic list of things you can do to improve your impact on the environment.”
The food system — from soil to table — generates roughly one-quarter of the globe’s greenhouse gas emissions. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says that if food waste were a country, it would be among the top three carbon emitters.
But while some food and farming practices are responsible for environmental damage, Hunt says others can do the opposite by promoting biodiversity and regenerating the Earth.
While acknowledging that the global climate problem requires large-scale action, Hunt highlights ways to create change from the kitchen. With affordability and availability of ingredients, and flexibility and simplicity of methods as unifying threads, the book includes recipes for morning meals, “slow food fast” lunches and dinners, sharing plates, salads, sweet treats and pantry items.
“The two main barriers when it comes to people wanting to improve their food are time and money. So I’ve always had those at the forefront of my mind when I’m devising my ideas and manifesto,” says Hunt. “Because I’ve come to this through food waste, saving your food waste is not only one of the best things you can do for the climate and the environment, but it’s one of the best things you can do to save money.”
Hunt opens each recipe chapter with “anti-recipes” — an invitation to not only invent your own dishes, following charts and guides if you wish, but to gain the confidence to adapt any of the recipes in the book.
Coloured by the nose-to-tail butchery movement, his rootto-fruit philosophy starts — but doesn’t end — with whole-food eating. Using all edible parts of plants and composting the rest is part of the picture, but Hunt takes it further by viewing food as part of an integrated system.
“I sometimes say it’s a cookbook about farming and regenerative agriculture,” says Hunt. Underlying all his work, he adds, is the desire to reconnect what we eat with its source.
Recipes are from Eating for Pleasure, People, & Planet by Tom Hunt, published by Interlink Books.