WASTE NOT, WANT NOT

Hardeep Singh Rehal, behind renowned experimental Copenhagen bar Blume, is not just minimising food waste but going out of his way to get hold of it, then transform it into something that will enhance his cocktails. ‘What I’m trying to do is expand the traditional ways of brewing or making things. One example is coffee. With an espresso pot, you can use the same method for extracting other things. Thirty per cent of food waste comes from bread, so I’m rescuing stale rye bread from a local bakery, toasting it really dark and then brewing it as a coffee to use in cocktails.’ Plus, Singh Rehal also believes that thinking sustainably can promote creativity. ‘We talk about minerality a lot in wine, but we don’t really do so with cocktails, so my way of introducing that flavour profile is with egg shells. Eggs are used in bars all over the world to make sours, and the shells are thrown away. However, egg shells are a great source of calcium, so I repurpose them into a calcium powder to use in drinks. This way you get a mineral-like flavour.’