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Culinary Panel Discussed Holiday Feasting with a Side of Sustainability
The sustainability panel discussion at Chicago's Daisies restaurant on Saturday (November 9) provided insights on how restaurants are addressing their environmental impact through local sourcing, composting, upcycling to reduce food waste, switching off single-use plastics and more. Local Food Forum published a recap of these themes in a November 11 article (click here to read).
The conversation took a timely topical turn, though, when moderator Ashok Selvam, editor of Eater Chicago, asked the chefs and restaurateurs about how Thanksgiving celebrants can avoid food waste with their holiday feasts.
With two weeks to plan for Thanksgiving, hopefully you'll glean some helpful hints from the pro tips that follow. [Note: The first comment is repeated from the original article.]
Thomas Leonard, Head of Culinary, Daisies
Seasonality is at the core of what we do here at Daisies, but also is what we all should try to take home... What's in season? Everyone loves corn. Corn is amazing, especially here in the Midwest, but it doesn't necessarily need a place on the Thanksgiving table, when it's not in season, you can't get it locally, and its environmental impact is not as low as something like root vegetables.... Also waste is a big thing... If Uncle Jim is the only one that likes sweet potato casserole, do you really need to make an entire sweet potato casserole, or just roast a sweet potato covered with some marshmallows and call it a day... Those are the little details that you can kind of come back to for Thanksgiving and for all these other holidays coming up, and be more mindful of what you're making and how you're sourcing those ingredients and using as much as you possibly can.
Mariya Moore, Award-Winning Chef and Entrepreneur
I think that it's okay to not follow your normal traditions. So just like he was saying, if you know only one person is eating the sweet potato casserole, just make one potato. Think about these things and more intentionality that makes sense for you and your family, rather than what you always do. That's change right there.
Thomas Leonard
Clear space in your freezer right now... so that when you have leftover turkey, you can transfer it in there. It used to be a tradition in my house that after we were done and we're watching football, I would go in and help my mom make turkey soup so that there was a pot of soup, and then that's what we're eating at 8 p.m. when we have that second hunger. The soup is utilizing the carcass...
Thanksgiving is usually a little different, but you can utilize those things in leftovers, freezing things, dropping things off at food banks, if that's an option for you. But also, we all probably know someone that either didn't come over that you invited, or someone that didn't necessarily have the Thanksgiving meal that you have, and you could easily make it to-go.
It sounds kind of weird to say, but try to get rid of everything. Like, oh, it's been six days now, and I still got that cup of gravy. You can repurpose that into something, even if that is making another meal later in the week when you're tired of that. Or I can fold that gravy into that soup, or into that sauce, or into whatever it is that you're making.
Paul Virant, farm to table chef, owner of Gaijin, Petite Vie, Vistro Prime
With the food waste for Thanksgiving, it sounds like it's excessive amount of food... In my family, like days after Thanksgiving, you just lay it all out. This is what we have for dinner.
I think the approach on Thanksgiving is maybe not the massive 20-plus pound bird, right? People just go crazy with how many turkeys they cook. Cook less turkeys, focus on the sides.
Norman Fenton, chef-owner, Cariño restaurant
I just want to take a counter-approach to this, because everybody's talking about repurposing for your Thanksgiving. I think it's much better if you just kind of, especially in a small gathering, take a look at your turkey and see what you can utilize with that. So like when I look at a turkey, and I think about this conversation that we just had and how we can utilize the entire turkey before it even gets to a point of repurposing, let's plan our menu in a certain way. How about take the breast off the turkey?
And I think post pandemic, a lot of people love cooking at home... So taking the turkey breast and maybe just making a roulade with it. And then from there, taking the thighs and turning it into the sausage for your stuffing, instead of actually buying pork and making sausage. And then from there, you take the bones and make your stock to make your gravy. And at that point, you're utilizing the entire bird rather than buying different meats and different products and creating the stuffing and all that. You can still have your classic things in the meal, just stay in a little more modern way... I would encourage people to kind of just be creative and have fun, go outside your comfort zone and look at how you can utilize something rather than repurpose something.
Paul Virant also noted that his The Preservation Kitchen cookbook has a whole chapter about Thanksgiving. Click here to learn more and purchase the cookbook.
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And, as a follow-up to the first article in this series, I want to re-emphasize what the panelists said about the importance of purchasing your Thanksgiving ingredients from our region's small farms that use sustainable practices and support our local economy. Oh, and they also produce the most delicious food!
The following photos are from my Thanksgiving dinner last year, and the turkey and all the produce were from farms in the Chicago region.
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