Skye Gyngell and Merlin Labron-Johnson to whip up banquet from waste for London Food Month

Two of London’s most celebrated chefs are to create a unique banquet in the heart of theatreland using “waste” food that might otherwise have been thrown away.

Skye Gyngell, head chef at her restaurant Spring in Somerset House, is teaming up with Merlin Labron-Johnson of Michelin-starred Portland in Fitzrovia and its nearby sister venue Clipstone.

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The six-course lunch at Spring for 80 people on Sunday June 11 will be a centrepiece of the Evening Standard’s London Food Month.

Both chefs are passionate advocates of “unglamorous” ingredients such as off-cuts, leftovers, harvest surpluses and even fruit peelings that could all too easily end up in the bin.

They want to prove that a meal made with “rejected” produce can be just as spectacular and delicious as one made with “mainstream” food.

The food for the meal will be donated by farms in Devon and Herefordshire — and other suppliers and producers — used by the two chefs, as well as the kitchens of their restaurants.

​Gyngell, who won a Michelin star in her role running the kitchen at Petersham Nurseries in Richmond, already offers a £20 pre-theatre “scratch menu” made from kitchen leftovers such as beetroot tops and potato skins, which are turned into soups, and loaves transformed into bread pudding.

She told the Standard: “I prefer to think of it as cooking economically. We will be using food that is overlooked or discarded — but not waste in the dumpster-diving sense. From my side think the green part of the leek, the kernels of apricots, the blossom from the trees. It’s really important to use food wisely and gracefully. Food has become so disposable and undervalued.

“We should pay care and attention to the planet, value the soil rather than demand so much from it. A third of all food produced is discarded — enough to feed about 70 million people a year.

“The single most important thing is that the food be truly delicious. I’m not interested in creating a novelty menu but rather something that people will sit up and say, ‘Why haven’t I ever eaten that before!’”

Labron-Johnson, who won his star aged 24, said: “My fisherman catches lots of dogfish that end up going back into the sea or being sold as bait. They can be just as delicious if they are cooked properly.

“The nose-to-tail concept is still not as well known as it should be. You’d be amazed how much fat there is when an animal is slaughtered. When we kill a pig we render up the fat and serve with the bread alongside the butter. There is also lots of wild and natural food you can use such as cherry blossom, wild garlic, which is in season now, and nettles. We want to make a tasty feast without anyone thinking that they are getting in any way a second-class experience.”

The “Spring X Portland Lunch” will be served at communal tables and priced at £40 with any drinks charged separately. Profits will go to The Felix Project food waste charity. Tickets can be purchased from the Spring website from April 16.

The Evening Standard is pleased to announce the launch of London Food Month, Britain's biggest food festival, taking place across the capital this June. Follow the link to find out more, or visit londonfoodmonth.co.uk to register your interest as a business.