Over the last ten years all my work in food, writing, cooking and teaching has had a clear environmental focus. This passion for climate-friendly cuisine began as a teenager, when I lived and worked on a variety of intensive and agroecological farms. It then became my core focus in 2011 when I created my first zero waste banquet at the Thames Festival on Southwark Bridge. At that point I coined the term ‘Root to Fruit eating’ a food sustainability philosophy and manifesto that forms the structure of this column and my new cookbook Eating for Pleasure, People & Planet which comes out this Thursday.
Root to Fruit begins with zero waste, but is actually an holistic approach to food that considers how we farm, trade, eat and dispose of food, broaching topics such as Fairtrade, seasonality and biodiversity.
One of my go to recipes in the book, that I’ve been demonstrating at food festivals for the last couple of years, is the simplest, yet tastiest truffle, made with nothing but chocolate, salt and water. It’s designed to bring out and maximise the flavour of the chocolate so that you can taste its true, intense flavour, that is individual to each and every chocolate bar. It’s a great way to save and transform aged chocolate that has become discoloured, into a truly remarkable sweet.