Chefs of The Collection by Liz McGrath share tips for a water-wise restaurant kitchen.
With the water crisis becoming critical in the Western Cape our chefs — across The Cellars-Hohenort, The Marine and The Plettenberg — have taken up the mantle to implement water saving procedures in their restaurant kitchens.
“What is the most important ingredient in the modern kitchen, salt? Perhaps it’s oil or even eggs? Or what is a kitchen without flour? Some say ‘time’ is without rival as an ingredient…” said Executive Chef, Peter Tempelhoff. “All pretty important ingredients and essential to all menus and kitchens, but after limiting the number of times that we turned the tap on and off each day, it was pretty clear, crystal clear in fact. Kitchens grind to a standstill without it, so preserving it in this H2O lean time is imperative to our industry and essentially our livelihood.”
These techniques have been put into effect in all five of our restaurants; Greenhouse, The Conservatory, SeaFood at The Plettenberg, The Pavilion and Origins at The Marine. Our chefs weigh in with their tips.
Chefs’ Top Water Saving Tips!
- Use melted ice bucket water to boil vegetables. At the end of service don’t throw out the water, use it for the gardens (provided there’s no salt in it).
- Ask your chefs to lather their hands with the tap off as this will save litres every day. Also, they can wash their hands with the plug in the sink; this stemmed water can be used to rinse with.
- Rinse the washed dishes in a bucket of water and not in a sink. Then, warm up the water and use it to mop the floor.
- Don’t use water to defrost foods. Take out the item in advance and let it defrost slowly in the fridge.
- Mop the kitchen floor only if food is spilled and only at the end of a service. Sweep the floor regularly to keep things neat.
- Keep small containers of water in the fridge to wash fruit and vegetables, discard at night by watering the garden.
- Steam food items rather than boil in water, where possible.
- Don’t rinse plates off individually, simply run a sink till the halfway mark and use this as rinsing water.
- Only run the dishwasher when there is a full load.
- Use half-consumed bottles of mineral water left over after service to water the garden.
Tip 1 – Use melted ice bucket water to boil vegetables.
Do you have any water saving tips? Connect with us and share your tips
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