Biography
Tom Hunt is an acclaimed eco-chef. The founder of the Forgotten Feast, working on projects throughout the UK to revive our cooking heritage and help reduce food waste. Tom is an official chef of Feed the 5000, a global event, which aims to highlight food waste by feeding more than 5000 people with delicious food that would otherwise have been wasted. He works closely with various food charities including FareShare, FoodCycle and StreetSmart.
His mission is to prove the value of this unwanted food by using it to cook elaborate and lavish banquets.
Tom is the founder of Poco festival cafes, which is now an award winning restaurant in Bristol. Poco serves British seasonal tapas and features thrifty cuts of meat, sustainably sourced fish and seasonal vegetables, 75% of which have been sourced within 50 miles. One of the principal aims of the restaurant is to achieve zero waste.
Tom writes for Great British Chefs, has written articles for Esquire and Crumb Magazine Bristol and has a popular blog of sustainable videos and recipes that has on average more than 2500 visits a month.
Tom was one of the first chefs to be asked to Join the ‘Slow Food’ Chef Alliance. alongside chefs such as Richard Corrigan, Angela Hartnett and Fergus Henderson.
Tom’s food is inspired by Europe’s peasant dishes, utilising offal, foraged foods and gleaning vegetables from the land.
Tom has been cooking passionately for the past 14 years. He began his career with Ben and Jake Hodges (formerly of The River Cafe and Moro).
He then spent many years travelling in Europe, Latin America, and Asia and loves cooking world cuisine, while holding onto his principles by using seasonal British ingredients.
On return to the UK, he was involved with the formative years of River Cottage, working as a course leader, and demonstrator. He worked behind the scenes as a food stylist with photographer Simon Wheeler on the River Cottage cookbooks and Keo films.
Tom is available as a guest chef at weddings, events & banquets and for festival catering
