((PKG)) EQUINOX RESTAURANT
((Banner: Reducing Food Waste))
((Reporter: Faiza Elmasry))
((Camera: Adam Greenbaum))
((Map: Washington, D.C.))
((Main characters: 1 female; 1 male))
((NATS: Blue Food Waste Bucket))
You see this? This is what we always throw away, forever. It was
rare that you see anybody using it.
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
My name is Todd Gray. I’m the chef and co-owner of Equinox
restaurant with my wife Ellen Kassoff.
((NATS: Chef Gray in the kitchen))
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
We have almost as much discarded trim as we do what we would
call yield.
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
I think about four years ago, Ellen really was the catalyst. She
was saying, ‘Hey, you know, we really need to be a little more
careful with the waste that we’re doing. We really need to look
into composting.
((Ellen Kassoff, Director and Co-owner, Equinox))
When you’re married, you know as a couple, things can get much
more deeply rooted into the philosophy, into the mind of the
people running the company than if you were a big corporation.
You can’t lay in the bed at night and have your pillow talk about
reducing trash in your restaurant.
((NATS: Juicer))
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
It’s always been part of our culture, the kitchen culture, depending
the training for a chef, they always taught you to never throw
anything in the trash.
((NATS: Todd working on the Romanesco cauliflower trim))
What you can do at this point is nice little cuts. So, we cut them
like this. They’re crunchy, but once you saute’ them, they become
soft.
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
All of the mushroom stems, leaves, skins of the onions, shallots
that are a little too ripe, celery trim, things that we accumulate over
a couple of days. Every morning, this is the next step. We put the
vegetables on the fire with some water and there is our vegetable
broth.
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
The Swiss chard stems which I thought the ideal thing to do would
be to take the stems and do something with them. So, I said why
don’t we tempura fry them and serve them with a simple dipping
sauce, some spices and some crystal, some salt crystals?
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
We’ve trained everyone now that, you know, no food, as we’ve
been cutting, prepping, ends up in the trash.
((NATS: emptying food waste into bucket))
Instead of putting them in the trash, we put them in the compost.
So, we are able to now put our compost buckets in and around the
kitchen.
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
Anything like that goes to the compost, anything that we cook.
((NATS: Todd: It’s only 11 o’clock in the morning and we’ve
already filled up…..oh, that’s heavy…..at least 15 pounds [7 kg]))
((NATS: Compost Guy moving compost buckets to his
truck//Composting process))
((Max Van Praag, Founder, Pluvr Compost Company))
I provide them with clean buckets. They fill those buckets up with
food waste and coffee grounds. I then come collect these buckets,
re-give them fresh, new buckets so they always have a clean
supply and I then compost through hot composting, and then
feeding that hot compost to worms, and the worms then secrete a
manure which is a very nutrient-rich soil amendment, which then I
supply to the farms who supply the restaurants with their produce.
So, it’s a loop closing cycle which I am very proud about and I’m
very happy to do.
((NATS: Knife scraping a cutting board))
((Ellen Kassoff, Director and Co-owner, Equinox))
You can’t grow a culture of employees to believe what the owner’s
vision is unless they experience it and understand it and are
educated about it. It’s convincing a lot of employees, you know, to
buy in and then how to communicate it to customers. The first
step, for example, was taking the straws away. I took plastic
straws out of our restaurants four years ago before it was ever
even a law. So, I have the solution. I have a stainless-steel
straw.
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
Cooking is easy with fresh product. It’s with the secondary
product and the underutilized product…..
(NATS: Todd banging with a food hammer))
…..that gives the chef a challenge. And I think when you address
it, when you take it head-on and you conquer it, you feel like
you’ve won.
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
I mean it’s all connected and I think that while maybe Equinox isn’t
going to change the world, I think we’re doing everything in our
world to make a difference.
((NATS))
((Banner: Reducing Food Waste))
((Reporter: Faiza Elmasry))
((Camera: Adam Greenbaum))
((Map: Washington, D.C.))
((Main characters: 1 female; 1 male))
((NATS: Blue Food Waste Bucket))
You see this? This is what we always throw away, forever. It was
rare that you see anybody using it.
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
My name is Todd Gray. I’m the chef and co-owner of Equinox
restaurant with my wife Ellen Kassoff.
((NATS: Chef Gray in the kitchen))
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
We have almost as much discarded trim as we do what we would
call yield.
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
I think about four years ago, Ellen really was the catalyst. She
was saying, ‘Hey, you know, we really need to be a little more
careful with the waste that we’re doing. We really need to look
into composting.
((Ellen Kassoff, Director and Co-owner, Equinox))
When you’re married, you know as a couple, things can get much
more deeply rooted into the philosophy, into the mind of the
people running the company than if you were a big corporation.
You can’t lay in the bed at night and have your pillow talk about
reducing trash in your restaurant.
((NATS: Juicer))
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
It’s always been part of our culture, the kitchen culture, depending
the training for a chef, they always taught you to never throw
anything in the trash.
((NATS: Todd working on the Romanesco cauliflower trim))
What you can do at this point is nice little cuts. So, we cut them
like this. They’re crunchy, but once you saute’ them, they become
soft.
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
All of the mushroom stems, leaves, skins of the onions, shallots
that are a little too ripe, celery trim, things that we accumulate over
a couple of days. Every morning, this is the next step. We put the
vegetables on the fire with some water and there is our vegetable
broth.
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
The Swiss chard stems which I thought the ideal thing to do would
be to take the stems and do something with them. So, I said why
don’t we tempura fry them and serve them with a simple dipping
sauce, some spices and some crystal, some salt crystals?
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
We’ve trained everyone now that, you know, no food, as we’ve
been cutting, prepping, ends up in the trash.
((NATS: emptying food waste into bucket))
Instead of putting them in the trash, we put them in the compost.
So, we are able to now put our compost buckets in and around the
kitchen.
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
Anything like that goes to the compost, anything that we cook.
((NATS: Todd: It’s only 11 o’clock in the morning and we’ve
already filled up…..oh, that’s heavy…..at least 15 pounds [7 kg]))
((NATS: Compost Guy moving compost buckets to his
truck//Composting process))
((Max Van Praag, Founder, Pluvr Compost Company))
I provide them with clean buckets. They fill those buckets up with
food waste and coffee grounds. I then come collect these buckets,
re-give them fresh, new buckets so they always have a clean
supply and I then compost through hot composting, and then
feeding that hot compost to worms, and the worms then secrete a
manure which is a very nutrient-rich soil amendment, which then I
supply to the farms who supply the restaurants with their produce.
So, it’s a loop closing cycle which I am very proud about and I’m
very happy to do.
((NATS: Knife scraping a cutting board))
((Ellen Kassoff, Director and Co-owner, Equinox))
You can’t grow a culture of employees to believe what the owner’s
vision is unless they experience it and understand it and are
educated about it. It’s convincing a lot of employees, you know, to
buy in and then how to communicate it to customers. The first
step, for example, was taking the straws away. I took plastic
straws out of our restaurants four years ago before it was ever
even a law. So, I have the solution. I have a stainless-steel
straw.
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
Cooking is easy with fresh product. It’s with the secondary
product and the underutilized product…..
(NATS: Todd banging with a food hammer))
…..that gives the chef a challenge. And I think when you address
it, when you take it head-on and you conquer it, you feel like
you’ve won.
((Todd Gray, Chef and Co-owner, Equinox))
I mean it’s all connected and I think that while maybe Equinox isn’t
going to change the world, I think we’re doing everything in our
world to make a difference.
((NATS))
