OUR SUSTAINABILITY STORY

Running our business with the environment in mind has always been at the core of what we do.

In our ten years of cooking, the landscape has shifted and sustainable practices are no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have.

Reducing food waste and packaging is a big part of the culture we maintain in our kitchen.

But retraining a generation of bin-happy, cling film-loving chefs? And cutting out plastic packaging? The struggle is still real.

In our early days, we held supper clubs (“Dine. Dance. Donate.”) that were a force for good, raising money for Syrian refugees, migrants in Calais and London’s homeless. For our “Get Wasted” dinner we bin dived in New Covent Garden for surplus fruit and veg, with which we cooked a four course feast to raise money for food charities.

Next came our “Plastic Pledge” dinners, earning Peardrop two nominations at the Foodism Positive Change Awards. And then, hello, we were on ITV news, talking about our pop up, London’s first Plastic Free café. We opened up just before that Blue Planet episode that changed everything.

Despite all the positive change we’ve seen, the amount the hospitality industry puts in their bins is still frightening. And we can’t pretend that big parties aren’t by their very nature wasteful.

But we are determined to offset that as best we can and we are always looking for ways in which we can make a small difference and do better …

“The role of the chef is evolving and developing into a position of influence — one that impacts the manner in which people and food professionals consume and connect with food.”

RENE REDZEPI

Scraps

Peelings, rinds & off cuts are dehydrated, pickled, fermented, caramelised or put in stocks contributing to a zero waste kitchen.

Compost

Buried underground and starved of oxygen, organic waste in landfill produced a whole load of toxic methane we need to stop entering the environment. The scraps we can’t repurpose are hot composted on our roof.

Juicy

We only offer smoothies or squeezed citrus juice. Wasting over half the fruit is nonsensical. Ask us about our juice pulp pizzas instead!

Locality

Whilst we’d love to cook with solely British produce, our love of Mediterranean fare means we also use fruit & veg from Europe, (and sometimes further afield.) We endeavour to keep our supply chain as short as possible, buying British where we can.

Plastic Pledge

We never buy plastic packaging to transport our food. We also re-use and up-cycle any plastic supplier packaging. Salad dressings & drinks are packaged in communal glass bottles. Plastic bottles at our event bars went out years ago. All our soda is fizzed in house and softs are served in cans or glass.

Reasons for seasons

This one’s a no brainer. Strawberries, tomatoes and asparagus taste better in the Summer and they’ve come from just down the road. We only use frozen berries and chopped or tinned tomatoes during the winter.

Suppliers

We work with some of the best suppliers in the country to ensure we’re supporting farms using regenerative farming techniques, never using meat or dairy from intensively reared animals or fish with dwindling stock.

Waste Knot

We’re excited to be working with Waste Knot, a company that redistributes surplus or wonky fruit and veg from farms to restaurant and caterers.

Biodiversity

We believe it’s important for chefs to encourage biodiversity in our food systems. The extinction, or threat of, millions of animals and plant species is largely down to food production. Join us in making more varied food choices.