The Travelling Foodcast

For our last episode we spent a month talking to people at Refettorio Felix in London. Homeless guests, michelin-star chefs, social workers and organisiers. All part of the community at St Cuthbert’s Centre - a place of community and excellent cooking.

Luminary Bakery works with women who have been in the prison system, who have experienced domestic violence, homelessness, sexual exploitation or crime. In this week's episode, Rachel, the head baker and trainer, and Essy, the café manager, tell us about their training academy that takes the women on ‘a journey to employment’.

What does the city of the future look like? Five years ago, a group of architects set out to turn a deserted, polluted brownfield site in Amsterdam Noord, into the sustainable experiment that is De Ceuvel. A place constructed completely from upcycled materials. Old houseboats are put on land to become office spaces; buoyes become the foundation for a café.

Mealworms. Grasshoppers. Crickets. Buffalo worms… not what most people think of as food. BUT, insects are some of the most sustainable sources of animal protein. Patrick, who’s got a background in economics, co-founded Buggz because he simply couldn’t ignore the numbers: it takes 2000L to make 1kg of beef - it takes 1L to make 1kg of crickets. It takes 10 kg of feed to make 1kg of beef - it takes 1.7kg to make 1kg. Producing 100g of beef steak releases 750g of greenhouse gases. 100 times more than the amount released when producing the same weight of crickets.

Sometimes travelling can be a turning point. Inspiration can strike when you least expect it. For André, his friend and his brother, this moment happened during a surf trip to El Tunco, Salvador. Every day they ate this amazing stir fry from a small shack by the beach. What if they could make this type of food back home in Oslo? And, what if they could serve it in a new type of restaurant, where for every meal you eat, you donate a meal?

“How are we going to feed a growing population healthy food without destroying the planet?” This is the question that Gunhild Stordalen set out to answer when she founded EAT - an Oslo based non-profit. Five years later, and thanks to the diligent work of 37 scientists from 16 different countries, the foundation has presented its answer in form of the EAT Lancet Report. A detailed collection of scientific research outlining what makes up a healthy diet, what makes up a diet that is environmentally sustainable… and where that dietary sweet spot lies, where these two (healthy AND sustainable) meet: the ‘planetary health diet’.

Today’s hot topic: plant-based food.

We’re discussing the (sometimes) quite controversial topic of veganism (or as she prefers to call it plant-based), with the founder of Nordic Foodprint (NoFo) in Oslo: Hanna Borg.

Back in 2013, when ‘food waste’ and ‘surplus food’ were not buzz words, a one-of-a-kind restaurant open its doors: Rub & Stub. Founded in Copenhagen and run entirely by volunteers, the restaurant cooked solely from surplus food - they were the first ones in Europe. Since then, they have inspired people all over Europe to start similar projects, one being Restlos Glücklich (episode 7) – once again the Danes demonstrate that they are one step ahead of everyone.

Too Good To Go makes us all winners: You get to try great food at a lower price. Retailers reduce waste and find new customers. And together, we are all helping the environment.

Jan-Martin (the manager of WeFood) talks about customers complaining and all the other bumps in the road to opening Denmark’s first “surplus supermarket”.