Dan Barber’s WastED restaurant pop-up heads to Selfridges London
A host of top chefs will create cuisine from discarded ingredients
Michelin-starred chef Dan Barber of New York’s Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns is taking his zero-waste, holistic cooking approach to the top of Selfridges London, from February 24 to April 2, with rooftop pop-up WastED.
The juice-pulp burger | Image: Daniel Krieger
As well as demonstrating menus for lunch, dinner and afternoon tea that incorporate discarded ingredients – “everything from misshapen fruits, to stale bread, to parts of animals,” says Barber – the restaurant will broadcast a broader message about agricultural practices and redistributing global food waste through artisan furniture and collaborations with sustainable suppliers such as E5 Bakehouse, Neal’s Yard Dairy, Gilchesters Organics and Selfridges Food Hall.
A star-studded line-up of chefs, including Brett Graham, Jason Atherton, Gordon Ramsay and Clare Smyth, overseen by Barber, will reinterpret British classics such as fish and chips (made with discarded potatoes and bony fish), bubble and squeak, and bangers and mash. Also on the menu will be a juice-pulp burger – a reprise from New York’s 2015 WastED edition – made using leftover vegetable pulp from juicing machines. “It looks like a rare beef burger,” says Barber. Sharing dishes (£15) will feature ingredients such as cabbage cores, sprouts and waste-fed pig parts, all prepared with Barber’s trademark creativity.
The WastED dining room | Image: Mark Ostow
On the drinks front, Iain Griffiths of Mr Lyan will reimagine classic cocktails through the WastED lens, while Henrietta Lovell and the Rare Tea Company will curate the afternoon tea (Tuesday-Friday, 3-5pm, from £32) during which visitors can linger in an art gallery-cum-listening café featuring vitrines that tell the story of the ingredients featured on the menu.
Nut-pressed cakes | Image: Aliza Eliazarov
The decor by Blue Hill design director Laureen Barber, and Garrett Ricciardi and Julian Rose of Formlessfinder also focuses on upcycling, transforming the Selfridges rooftop into a garden/exhibition space with lamps crafted from seaweed and mushrooms by Jonas Edvard and Nikolaj Steenfatt. Eco-plastic tables and chairs and stools made from artichoke thistle and resin by Kizis Studio will sit next to vitrines and bar surfaces crafted from salvaged wood by Wonderwall Studios; even Kristie van Noort’s Cornwall plates are decorated with ceramic paint made from recycled materials.
“Almost one third of the world’s food gets cast aside, but as chefs it’s not in our DNA to be wasteful,” says Barber. “We’ve been refashioning discarded bits into delicacies for centuries: bouillabaisse is made with damaged fish; pot-au-feu with leftover beef and vegetables. The food-waste movement has really taken hold in the UK, so the timing is perfect to work in partnership with chefs and industry leaders to spread the word.”