Baldío was co-founded by brothers Lucio and Pablo Usobiaga and chef Doug McMaster, best known for his groundbreaking zero-waste spot Silo London. “In my eyes, bins are coffins for things that have been badly designed,” says McMaster. “If there was a trophy for negligence, it would be bin-shaped.”
In British English, a bin is a container for trash or garbage, which assists in comprehending the impact of this headline.
‘It really is possible to be zero waste’: the restaurant with no bin, by (The Guardian)
Baldío is part of a new wave of restaurants that are moving beyond vague claims of sustainability to embrace a regenerative ethos. In Lisbon, SEM, from the Silo alumni Lara Santo and George McLeod, serves invasive freshwater fish such as the zander, which was introduced to Portugal in the 1980s for sport. Flores, a family-run restaurant in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, dries offal in koji before shaving it over meat dishes. Helsinki’s Nolla (meaning “zero” in Finnish) gives compost to its suppliers and guests – a doggy bag with a difference.
Baldío goes one step further through its symbiotic relationship with Xochimilco, the last remnant of the network of blue-green waterways that dazzled Spanish invaders when they arrived 500 years ago. The Unesco heritage site is a key stopover for migratory birds and the only place where axolotls still live in the wild.
But wouldn’t you rather pay the lowest possible price for meals and enjoy the 100-degree summertime ambiance of discarded food rotting in a dumpster?
Food for thought, folks.
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“Edibles & Potables” is Food & Dining Magazine’s Sunday slot for news and views that range beyond our customary metropolitan Louisville coverage area, as intended to be food (and drink) for thought.
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