Searcys’ new food waste rules and menu

In 2019 we pledged to reduce our food waste by 20% to minimise our impact on the environment. In order to achieve this goal, we have introduced a set of kitchen rules to reduce waste across our venues. Through establishing a list of simple, manageable steps for our chefs, we hope that it will help make the task of reducing waste a realistic objective.

Darren Deadman, our Chef Director, commented; “With a buoyant events market, we feel it is our responsibility to reduce our food and packaging waste across Searcys, to make sure we can be as sustainable and waste-free as possible. To assist with this, we have established a list of simple, manageable steps for our chefs, which we hope will help make the task of reducing waste a realistic objective.”

Alongside our new guidelines, Darren has designed a menu for conferencing and events that looks to reduce waste as much as possible. The first of our low waste menus is our Harvest Menu, which focuses on continuing to use local, seasonal produce and reducing waste through using as much of an ingredient as possible. The hero dishes include a beetroot barley risotto, roast roots, beetroot leaf salad and rapeseed dressing, which uses all parts of the autumnal beetroot, from root to stem, by serving it three ways and a crab and leek tart, foraged leaves and salad cream, a dish which reduces waste by using both brown and white crab meat (rated good by MSC Good Fish Guide) as well as British leeks, free-range eggs and wholemeal milled flour.

Our restaurants have also produced menus for the harvest period which focus on using autumnal, local produce and minimising waste. The Orangery at Blenheim Palace’s menu features a starter of celeriac soup with toasted hazelnuts and truffle, a main course of Cotswolds White roast chicken, lemon and sage stuffing, roast potatoes and autumn vegetables and a pudding of Blenheim honey-glazed figs, ricotta and mascarpone cream and a shortbread crumb.