Rubbish Cooks

Launching on 30th September 2019, Rubbish Cooks is the brainchild of Tristan Welch, Chef Director at Parker’s Tavern, Cambridge, designed to inspire and educate regarding food waste in the industry. A major concern of many restaurants and food production companies across the country, Tristan’s new monthly supper club will invite Parker’s Tavern diners to enjoy a ‘free’ three-course menu ingredients that are usually considered ‘waste’.

The Rubbish Cooks supper clubs will take place on the last Monday of every month and Tristan will be focusing on wasted, unwanted and wonky vegetables, fruits, seeds and pulses as well as the classically disregarded parts of fish and meat. The innovative but delicious menus will be crafted using ingredients that are typically overlooked, including the likes of Crushed wonky vegetable hatchet, dented tin bean ragout; Bone and vegetable peelings broth with tortellini and confit vegetable stalks and to finish, Stale bread and treacle pudding with Cambridge gin distilled cucumber.

At each Rubbish Cooks event, Parker’s Tavern will be serving a three-course meal, for a limited number of guests, for ‘free’. Guests will only pay £20 per head which will cover service as well as a charitable donation to , a local Cambridge-based charity close to Tristan’s heart.

Sustainability and waste management was been key for Tristan and his team when designing Parker’s Tavern restaurant, which opened in August 2018. Various measures have been put in place in order to minimize wastage and protect the environment as much as possible. Tristan believes: “Restaurants are a notoriously wasteful business and tend to focus too much on premium ingredients and cuts at the expense of perfectly good food that might not look perfect. This is why we’ve worked closely with our suppliers who are helping us find new ways to eliminate waste from their supply chains.”

Rubbish Cooks will launch on 30th September at Parker’s Tavern, Cambridge and will run on the last Monday of each month subsequently. Guests can pre-book via email only on . Guests will be charged £20 per head for a three-course set menu, £5 of which will donated to Jimmy’s Night Shelter.