QSR July 2022

Fast casual Kitava takes care to cross-utilize ingredients wherever it can. | FOOD WASTE | fresh ideas

REDUCING FOOD WASTE

Waste Not, Want Not A fresh wave of quick-service operators are doing their part to keep food waste down. BY AMANDA BALTAZAR J ust over a year ago, fast casual Kitava hired Preethi R as culi nary director. One of her day one tasks? Reduce waste. “Food waste is huge, and in a company it’s a cost,” says the culinary director. So as she worked on the menu, R looked at the yield of every ingredient and what the concept could get out of it—“truly get out of it,” she says. Food waste is a growing problem, and food is the largest con tributor to landfills, where it produces methane, a greenhouse gas even more potent than CO2. But many counter-service brands are taking every effort to curb the growing problem. Kitava, a two-unit brand based in San Francisco, sells food

through ghost kitchens. Its cauliflower florets go into three differ ent dishes—za’atar cauliflower and hummus; za’atar cauliflower (fried florets); and the mezze harvest bowl—and the stalk is shred ded for cauliflower rice. Avocados were proving to be a problem since they were incon sistent with brown spots, so R blitzes the problem areas into a sauce with lime and cilantro, and it’s added to the tacos and elim inated waste. As an added bonus, this boosts the nutrition of the tacos. Kitava also takes care to use every part of herbs. Stems of softer herbs like parsley or cilantro go into a green goddess dressing;

KITAVA

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