A toastie as part of a sustainable Christmas
Restaurateur Asher Boote (of Hillside and Daisy’s in Wellington) on how to get a glorious, heaving table without a bulging rubbish bag the next day.
One of my very favourite meal s of the year normally falls on December 27th: a simple ham, cheese and tomato toasted sandwich. I’ll come back to that sandwich later.
I’ve been fortunate enough to own restaurants for about a decade now, and one of my major drivers for wanting to own my own restaurants was to be able to show that the prevailing culture and practices that I experienced coming through the industry didn’t have to be how things were done.
Sustainability has been at the core of my thinking since day one – environmental, economic and importantly the workload of the people who are part of the team.
Too often sustainability is only thought of as an ecological term, but it goes further than that, especially in the restaurant industry, where not only has the environmental impact been negative for a long time, it’s also an industry with incredibly low profit margins and a culture that requires people to be undervalued and work themselves to the bone to get by.
Four years ago Hillside Kitchen went meatless. From the outside this must have seemed like a massive change – it certainly gained a heap of media attention and public interest.
For me, it was a fairly obvious progression from what we were already doing. We are now in a position to grow more and more of our own produce to serve at the restaurant, and what little waste we do have gets composted to feed the garden.
Ever since we went meatless I get regular calls to speak about sustainable practices in the restaurant industry, and most people are surprised when I start listing the things we do, and the meatless-ness is low on the list. We went meatless because it was a way to keep the business moving forward, it gave us a point of difference and put our plans for the garden front and centre of what we offer.
Going meat-free got attention, but the mindset change is by far the biggest factor in the restaurant’s success. It’s a hundred little things that make the real difference, not the one big showpiece. Thinking sustainably quickly becomes a habit and normal, and becomes liberating rather than constrictive – all of a sudden you’re finding new uses for what would have been a wasted ingredient, your little wins are building into what feels like a serious accomplishment and people are being inspired by your efforts.
It’s the same with festivities. Thinking sustainably can be liberating (and delicious) and it doesn’t need to constrict your celebrations.
As we get closer to Christmas the questions around that Christmas day meal and what should or shouldn’t be on your table start to come up. My advice is not to limit what you want to serve – for so many of us that idea of a heaving Christmas table is a centrepiece for a day of being surrounded by loved ones. Prohibition simply doesn’t work.
What I suggest is ensuring that the food-laden
table doesn’t become a bulging rubbish bag. Be considerate in selecting your ingredients and respect the time and energy taken to produce them and your efforts in preparing them.
Focus on ingredients that can produce multiple meals after the big day, load up on condiments with a long shelf life, and save fridge space with snacks that can be stored at room temperature.
When it comes to your favourite dishes that last for only one day, consider how much you really need to prepare. A little scarcity can make a dish even more special, and something as simple as keeping a salad dressing on the side will stop you from having a bowl full of wilted leaves at the end of the day.
We are so lucky to have Christmas fall at a time of the year when so many fruits and veggies are at their absolute peak; celebrate this! Enjoy the best produce of your region – it’s going to be the most flavourful goodness you can get and need the least amount of preparation to enjoy.
All this leads me back to my toastie. That loaf of sourdough that was fresh on Christmas Day is now at peak toasting condition. And the cheese? Well there’s always a selection of odds and ends left over with a couple of days of extra ageing funk. The ham was a glistening golden feature on the 25th but it still has plenty to give in its now-haggard, questionably carved state, and the tomatoes are straight from the vine and have never seen the inside of a refrigerator.
Apply mustard, salt, pepper and heat, job done.
This is a meal that puts a huge smile on my face for so many reasons, and it’s something I look forward to every year.