Besides serving
authentic food and serving with the true Goan hospitality what else do the
members have to do? Give back to society as we live in a society. So besides
helping the local farmer achieve his goals there is one more ‘focus’ that we
need to work on… We learned that on the 5th June – World Environment
Day.
Think…Eat…Save, the
motto for this year made us sit down to ‘think-strategize’
how committed we are to the earth’s dilemma. ‘Think’ when facts are given to us
that on a specific day 8-10 tons of food
waste is collected from the CCP from hotels and restaurants alone in Panjim. A
day! Can you imagine what happens in a week? What about in a month? Astronomical
figures…Think!
Of course we have to
eat and feed our guests, but can be educate our staff to understand that even 10%
of saving from all the eateries in Panjim would ensures 1 ton less waste per
day and 30 tons less per month. Yes we are aware that many hotels do practice
this as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives by giving
food to the charitable institutions, hotels do believe that they cannot control
the waste generated by guests who leave food behind in their plates, hotels
have no control over peels of vegetables and fruits which are used on a day to
day need. So what do we need to do?
We are happy to say
that two of our Goan Culinary Club members won the ‘Plaque
of Excellence’ for Best Environmental Practices for their initiative in
minimizing food wastage… namely the Royal Orchid Beach Resort and Spa and the
Hotel Fidalgo. We at the Goan Culinary Club aim to share a few best practices
in this month hoping that other members (and non members) can initiate some of
these practices and help us respect and sustain our beautiful planet.
We will take just two
aspects in this article namely Procurement of perishables and unavoidable food wastage that help these Hotels achieve results.
Hotel Fidalgo – Procurement of perishables. It is right in the
heart of the city, at a busy interaction where the number of restaurants ‘buzz’
till after midnight. How does Executive Chef Abhishek manage his procurement
and not waste material? They have developed an inbuilt relationship which is
been maintained with their vendors for fresh ingredients and utilize best
practices to minimize wastage leading to optimum utilization: 1. Milk – Milk supply with Roopa cycle just a
lane away. Mr. Gafur the vendor who supplies Goa Dairy milk does a four time
delivery in a day. He personally observes the consumption on day to day basis.
In addition they maintain a daily dairy consumption report where milk
consumption is recorded on daily basis and is then compared to the sales. These
practices help them maintain zero wastage target of milk waste.
2.
Vegetable – As Goa does not produce all vegetables they have a tie up with
a vegetable vendor agent in Belgaum who works on commission basis and he is
responsible for procuring best vegetable produce for them which is then
supplied three days a week as per their consumption demand.
3. Fruits – Fruits from Mapusa on daily basis to avoid any
wastage. 4. Seafood – Procured from
local vendors on daily basis, the seafood consumption is recorded on daily
basis. Their target is to maintain zero
wastage in fresh seafood buying cycle. In order to reduce wastage they
promote seafood in all outlet with new concept like “1-on-1 Seafood festival”.
Royal Orchid Beach Resort and Spa – Unavoidable Food
wastage
– set apart from the busy city, Chef Naveen has worked on the aspects of ‘unavoidable
food wastage’ Here are some of the hotels initiatives. 1. Fruit Basket: Being a starred
hotel the rooms need to have a complimentary fruit basket which at times are
not utilized by the guest and cannot be used on the buffets. Leftover fruits from the fruit basket are
used to make jams/preserves.
2. Vegetable Stock: Many preparations require the ‘flavored’
stock to be used for continental dishes. The vegetable trimmings are
used to prepare the vegetable stock.
3. Turned Potatoes: Yes
preparations do compel the chef to ‘shape’ and ‘turn’ potatoes that lead to
wastage. The kitchen boils the potatoes and peels them before turning so that
those extras can be used for potato hash.
4. Lemon peels: After squeezing off the juice for cooking
purposes the lemon skins are re used to make pickles and for other cooking
purposes based on the recipe where the rind is needed.
Kudos to our Goan Culinary Club members, yes the Club will take this
project seriously and give back to our mother Earth what she richly deserves.
And if you think we are the ‘smarter’ generation let me give you a
recipe of success so commonly used by our forefathers. Remember the
rhyme…this little pig went to market, this little pig stayed at home, this
little pig cried wee wee wee all the way home. Let us not cry in the future…..
Recipe for
success –Chef Peter Fernandes of O Coqueiro shares this little bit of the past
with us.
It was said
that the local Goans in the past never wasted anything. Take the fact when a pig was
slaughtered. Every part was consumed but many of these preparations perhaps are
not even heard of today.
- -
The trotters
were prepared in a paya styled preparation.
- - The
intestines and stomach mixed with a little Raechad masala and made into a
preparation called buch.
- -
The present
recipe of liver, fat and boneless meat to make sorpotel-but in the past they
would also use the ears, heart.
- -
Pork with
bones was made into a preparation called Aardmas.
- -
The lard was
used in cooking beef or chicken and also in sausages.
- -
While the
fried skin of the pork was also sold with the sausages
