Chef Provides Guidance on Minimizing Food Waste This Christmas

A chef dedicated to minimizing food waste is advising individuals to prepare for “random meals” over the Christmas holiday. Elly Curshen, recognized online as Elly Pear, is a cook, columnist, and producer whose awareness of this problem developed while she operated The Pear Café in Bristol from 2006 to 2018. She stated that organization is crucial for Christmas cooking and recommended that people conduct an audit of their kitchen, similar to how a business owner would. “Do a stock take,” she advised. “Try and work out some kind of fridge and freezer raid meals and clear out space for leftovers.” She further suggested: “Get yourself organised and make a list of things you can make with the things you’ve already got.” The author, who has penned three cookbooks, informed BBC Radio Bristol that her second piece of advice involves consistently keeping good quality eggs and bread available at home. “Plan for those days between Christmas and New Year,” she stated. “Plan for some random meals but if you’ve got eggs and you’ve got nice bread the world is your oyster.” Ms. Curshen’s Instagram series, titled RolloverLeftovers, resulted in her being nominated as a finalist for the Digital Creator Award at this year’s The BBC Food & Farming Awards. She commented: “I didn’t win but it was absolutely amazing to be nominated.” “My passion for leftovers and using stuff up in a creative way – I get so much inspiration from what needs to be used up – I guess it stems from the café. “When you have a small business, everything you bring in you have to maximise the profit that’s going out so every bit of waste is money, and that’s how it started.” Ms. Curshen initiated the series on Instagram with the purpose of showcasing her home cooking. “I would literally share online, make a reel every single day, edit and share it every day on my own,” she explained. “I showed how the cooking I made at home flowed from one day to the next.” The cookbook author, currently a contributor to BBC Food and Waitrose Weekend, stated that ultimately, anything can be transformed into a frittata. “Everything can be used again,” she affirmed. “Even things I think are really basic ideas are worth sharing.” For updates, follow BBC Bristol on Facebook, X, and Instagram. Story ideas can be submitted via email or WhatsApp at 0800 313 4630. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC disclaims responsibility for the content found on external sites. Information regarding their approach to external linking is available.