These two top chefs are cooking up a zero waste menu for Sustainability Week

Chef Matthijs Stinnissen and Chef Tobias Taubner are helping to save the environment in a very tasty way…

When we say ‘zero-waste’ meals we’re not talking about your mum refusing to let you leave the dinner table before you’ve finished all your peas “there are starving people out there” she’d say “that would give anything for that”. Apologies if that intro came with any unpleasant flashbacks. No, we’re talking about the practice where chefs aim to prepare elaborate menus without generating any wasted byproducts, and what usually results in some incredibly creative courses.

That’s the challenge for UAE-based mega Chefs, Matthijs Stinnissen and Tobias Taubner, who’ll be taking over the kitchens at W Abu Dhabi — Yas Island on Wednesday, January 26 to prepare a six-course dining experience under the title Looped In. Named to represent their intent to ‘loop people in’ to the zero waste food conversation. Expect plates to be full of delicious, ethically prepared, sustainable, locally-sourced gastronomic wizardry.

It’s a concept at least in part inspired by Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, which is taking place right now, and aims to accelerate the world’s journey to a more sustainable future. Looped In is all that, in a more enjoyably edible format.

What’s On the menu?

Dishes featured on the deliberately ‘sounds-erm-interesting, tastes out-of-this-world’ menu include Garden In The Desert — a five-day aged local beetroot (with stem), glazed whole local vegetables, native desert plants, puree of roasted skin-on aubergine, pickled watermelon skin, local herbs and edible flowers. You also get to sample Ugly Tomato & Strawberry — which is built using ‘ugly’ pink beef tomatoes, violet infused bruised red berry sorbet and overripe strawberry tartare.

Compliments to the chefs

Matthijs Stinnissen is the head chef of Dubai’s legendary, Boca restaurant. Known for his artful and innovative approach to reworking traditional dishes — Stinnissen frequently uses methods such as fermenting, curing, dehydrating, aging, and pickling to create his award-winning, often locally-sourced, dining adventures.

Taubner won’t have far to go, he’s the executive chef at W Abu Dhabi — Yas Island and veteran of mutiple one and two star Michellin Starred restaurants in Germany and the UK. Similarly creative, some of Tobias Taubner’s chief kitchen credentials include his cuinary imagination and a commitment to experimentation.

Looped In is taking place on Wednesday January 26, and will be attended on an ‘invite only’ basis. To register interest for the next event, email w.auhwh.sm@whotels.com.

W Abu Dhabi — Yas Island, January 26. Tel: (02) 656 0000, @wabudhabi

Images: Provided