A little heart and a lot of soul make a Valentine's feast to remember

A feast made almost entirely from food that would otherwise have been thrown away inspires diners to look for abundance outside the supermarket

It's a Valentine feast with a difference and certainly not for the squeamish.

The roses may be red but they are made from paper and rather than enjoying a flutter of the heart, the diners end up eating it well cooked and sliced.

While eating the organ most associated with love may not be the most romantic menu choice, it certainly highlights the issue of food waste and the work of the charity FareShare, the UK's largest food redistribution charity.

If there is any lingering sense of romance left, it is killed off by the next meat dish, much of which has been purloined not from the local butcher but the local pest control company.

The Poacher's Stew is a mixture of pheasant, hare, rabbit and squirrel. The hares and rabbits are shot as pest control, while pheasants are killed for sport during shoots, but often left where they fall.

The squirrels? They came from the Squirrel Conservation Society who perform controlled culls. The creatures need skinning and preparing, but chefs are used to this. I can confirm that squirrel is tasty ? firm, dark and full of flavour.

Our eco chef, Tom Hunt explains that about 90% of the food in the 'Valentine's for Everyone' feast would otherwise have been thrown away. It includes cuts of meat like the hearts that wouldn't have made it out of the abattoir, as well as supermarket surplus, and other creative ways of finding food.

The quality of the food is second to none, he says, delighted that he's able to get hold of real delicacies that conventional restaurants wouldn't have access to.

"One of my favourites at the moment is pig's jowl," he says. "Whole jowls that I cure in sugar, salt, bay and juniper. We contact butchers' shops and abattoirs and find out what they are throwing away."

It's estimated that between a third and a half of every animal killed for meat is wasted, while an estimated 20-40% of UK fruit and vegetables are rejected before they reach the shops, mostly for cosmetic reasons. Producing fresh, sustainable food based on availability, seasonality and provenance means there is no guarantee of supply. So Hunt apologises that there are no nettles in the nettle and ricotta tortellini, but insists they are still a bit tough. His hunt yielded lots of great chard instead, 'foraged' from supermarket surplus.

To finish off the meal was something much more mainstream, a delicious chocolate and beetroot truffle cake with plums. The plums were a last minute substitution, says Hunt, but you have to be flexible when working with surplus. "It's like 'Ready Steady Cook' from the wild," he says. "Spontaneity is inherent in the idea of food waste, and it really pushes your creativity."

FareShare takes supermarket surplus and delivers it to homeless shelters, hostels and breakfast clubs, supporting 700 different charities, with an estimated 35,500 daily meals. The quality of food that they are able to pass on is often better than the charities would otherwise be able to afford, and FareShare also runs cooking courses to help their cooks get the most nutritional value out of the donated produce.

Last year FareShare redistributed 3,600 tonnes of food, which really makes a difference at a time when one in three of the charities FareShare surveyed reported a cut in their government funding, leading to a direct cut in their own food provision spending. At the same time, 42% of the charities are reporting increased demand for food, as people struggle to feed themselves while food prices rise.

FareShare's Grace Rowley works with all the major supermarkets, but the majority of comes from manufacturers whose stock is rejected by the major chains.

It is not an easy task to get hold of the stock as it requires suport from many people within a company, from directors down to the practical help from an individual on the warehouse floor. FareShare, like Tom Hunt, rely on networks of human relationships to rescue valuable food.

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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/blog/sustainable-food-waste-surplus

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