Home

Meet the Perth food businesses using their scraps in innovative ways, from cocktails to mushroom ‘dust’

Headshot of Jessie Stoelwinder
Jessie StoelwinderThe West Australian
Ten Acre Block's Sweet Potato Smash cocktail
Camera IconTen Acre Block's Sweet Potato Smash cocktail

Coogee Common

Having an abundant onsite garden allows the team at this Coogee eatery to employ a clever closed-loop farming system that feeds back into other areas of the business. Garden manager Meg Donovan, pictured, works with the kitchen to turn food waste, coffee grounds, cardboard and charcoal into compost and worm farms for the crops, while healthy seeds are collected for future years. The seasonal menu works with ingredients grown, ground and fermented on site, and everything from the tops of carrots, beetroot and fennel to edible weeds pop up in the fresh, wholesome dishes.

Coogee Common garden manager Meg Donovan.
Camera IconCoogee Common garden manager Meg Donovan. Credit: Marcel Vibes

Strange Company

Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE

Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.

READ NOW

The popular Freo small bar is a prime example of how inventive tricks can make a menu shine while limiting the amount of scraps sent to landfill. Head chef Chris Mannon-Bakaj saves leftover mushroom stalks then dehydrates, seasons and grinds them to make a delicious dust for several dishes. He also ferments other mushies for a salty shoyu sauce, which is used as a base for other sauces or as a marinade. At the bar, red capsicum offcuts are blended and reduced to make a nifty leather-like cocktail garnish.

Ten Acre Block

Housed inside Pan Pacific Perth, this vegan restaurant has a strict policy of using only what’s in season from WA farmers. Ten Acre Block’s zero-waste philosophy means many dishes use every part of the vegetable, such as the new Jerusalem artichoke dish, pictured, which incorporates the heart, stem and leaves. The cocktails take on this spirit, too, with the Sweet Potato Smash featuring a syrup made from the leftover root veg. Executive chef Alejandro Saravia is passionate about taking excess stock off farmers’ hands and transforming not-so-perfect-looking produce that may otherwise have been thrown out.

Ten Acre Block’s Jerusalem artichoke dish.
Camera IconTen Acre Block’s Jerusalem artichoke dish. Credit: SHOT BY THOM

Mother

The Fremantle restaurant, formerly known as The Raw Kitchen, has always been at the fore of the sustainability movement, and this ethos has been carried across to the Mother rebranding by owners Heath and Emma Daly. Among a long list of earth-friendly practices, the kitchen uses its vegetable offcuts and skin to make stock, waste wine is utilised in cooking and leftover table water is given to the plants. Even the menus are eventually shredded and bagged up for customers to use in their home compost.

Core Cider

Not only is Core Cider working towards organic certification for its orchard, it has also partnered with Future Green Solutions to create a closed-loop waste-management plan. After its signature apple cider is made, any leftover waste is turned into high-quality fertiliser, aquaculture fish food and soil improvers. Keen to find new ways to reduce their environmental footprint, owners John Della Franca and Emily Lyons have also embraced solar energy, and use an advanced water-treatment system utilising grey water for fertigation at the orchard.

Core Cider.
Camera IconCore Cider. Credit: Danica Zuks

Get the latest news from thewest.com.au in your inbox.

Sign up for our emails