Try the popular 'savoury crumble'!

• Inventive hotel comes up with measures to optimise breakfast shifts and reduce food waste
• Clever use of leftovers in new dishes and surplus food offered to staff at end of shift cuts waste

Husband and wife team Michael and Elyse Waddy of the Empire Hotel, Llandudno have a strong ethos to reduce waste of all kinds and make tackling food waste a priority.

They were keen to use the ‘Your Business is Food, don’t throw it away' (YBIF) materials from WRAP, to combat excessive plate waste and breakfast buffet leftovers in their hotel. They wanted to preserve their practice of offering guests the choice of a breakfast buffet and a plated, personalised breakfast dish. Following a recommended trial, they were able to improve the process.

The hotel already had some measures in place to keep spoilage waste to a minimum through careful ordering and inventive ways of using kitchen leftovers. Unserved meat from roasts, for example, are used as stews, stocks and innovative dishes; one of the chef’s recipes is a particularly popular 'savoury crumble'. Unserved roast lamb and poached salmon offcuts are used in a similar way while unserved roast beef cuts are made, for example, into boeuf bourguignon.

For the large amounts of ‘inedible’ waste elements such as meat bones (lamb shanks in particular) and, to a lesser extent, eggshells, the hotel is looking at increasing the use of local food waste collection options. Previously, the hotel tried to redistribute leftover meals to the local homeless centre, but ran into some challenges because they had to send documents relating to allergenic ingredients with each dish, which was time-consuming. However, the hotel continues to look for ways to redistribute surplus edible food locally.

Key results

The hotel used the YBIF three-day tracking sheet and calculator to give initial insights as to how much food they were throwing away and what it was costing the business (e.g. a total of 55.5 kg, while plate waste came to 18 kg). For even more insights and detail, the seven-day tracking sheet and other tools offered as part of the YBIF suite can be used (see references below).

With the help of YBIF, the chef has introduced better practices during the buffet/breakfast shift, to prevent excess leftovers. Food is served during table service and the buffet counter is combined to prevent chefs cooking too much food through separate ordering. At the end of the breakfast shift, staff are now offered leftovers.  

The amount of preparation waste has encouraged the chef to consider purchasing certain pre-cut frozen ingredients, which would remove preparation waste in the hotel without compromising quality. Although preparation waste would still be produced, it would save time and be done at a factory that is better equipped, with access to more efficient waste disposal methods.

From assessing the customer plate waste and the costs per day (during the YBIF trials), the owners decided to review all aspects of menu and plate content and continue to look for innovative ways of limiting the food waste elements identified.