What are the chefs at Restlos Glücklich serving today? Waste.
Food waste that is.
This Berlin restaurant is giving blemished ingredients a second chance by turning them into exquisite, mouthwatering meals.
Chef Daniel Roick holds a creation made from discarded groceries. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.
Restlos Glücklich (which loosely translates to "completely happy") works closely with an organic grocery store chain to procure its ingredients.
Most of the bread and produce they receive is imperfect and might otherwise languish on the shelf. And incorrect deliveries can result in accidental surplus, so the restaurant puts that to use too.
Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.
From there, chefs let the ingredients inspire appetizing and inventive vegetarian dishes.
Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.
And they serve them in the restaurant Wednesday through Saturday.
Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.
There's even a three-course fine-dining option available on the weekends, where you might enjoy these bite-sized appetizers...
Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.
...or this delectable entree — deep-fried sesame balls in carrot sauce. Yum!
Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.
From end to end, the process has an eye toward conservation and sustainability.
Not only does the restaurant work to minimize food waste, workers also pick up the daily haul on bicycles.
Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.
And their effort doesn't end with the restaurant. The staff hosts cooking classes to help kids and adults learn to cook more sustainably using ingredients they may already have.
Efforts like Restlos Glücklich highlight the moral, environmental, and economic impact of food waste.
Each year, around $1 trillion in food is wasted in production or consumption (what you scrape off your plate or leave behind in a restaurant). That's about one-third of all the food produced worldwide!
Volunteer workers sort food waste and rubbish for recycling at the Glastonbury Festival. Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images.
In the U.S. alone, each person contributes over an estimated 20 pounds of food waste per month. It's no wonder organic material is the second-most common item in our overcrowded landfills.
And all of this while millions go without. There's got to be a better way.
That's why it's important to take responsibility for our production, consumption, and waste habits.
Whether it's using exploring how your local stores handle damaged or blemished goods, cooking more with less, starting a compost pile to give organic refuse another life, or stopping in to Restlos Glucklich, we're all capable of doing something to better our community and minimize waste.
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.