Chef Tom Hunt: ‘Living off-grid taught us so much about unnecessary waste’
Source: https://metro.co.uk/2023/03/20/chef-tom-hunt-living-off-grid-taught-us-so-much-about-waste-18472009/
Author: Oliver Stallwood
Tom Hunt is a chef on a mission. In a world of fast food and instant deliveries, he wants to teach us how to cook and shop sustainably on a budget, with a new food philosophy. Tom practises a style of cooking called ‘root to fruit’ where he focuses on generating less food waste by creating recipes that include the bits most consumers throw away. He’s out to prove that, as well as tasting good, what many of us reject can make ingredients go further. So passionate is Tom about showing the benefits of living sustainably, he spent the summer living off-grid in a caravan in rural Cornwall with his family as part of a conscious effort to save energy and look after the planet. He is working in partnership with Waterford Distillery to raise awareness of food traceability and the benefits of natural flavour in locally sourced, organic and biodynamic produce. I grew up in the 1980s – the time of excess, for sure – but when I was ten we moved to the countryside to a community farm in Dorset which was full of eco-minded people and I think that must have had an impact on me. When we moved into our own house we inherited two goats and I was given the task of milking them every day. In the winter, aged ten, milking these goats was obviously very hard work. Combined with growing my own food for fun at that age, I think that helped teach me the real value of food. We are renting so we can’t do anything major. But we have smart meters. After living by candlelight off-grid for seven months we like to use candles in the evenings. It’s so nice to switch off all the lights and enjoy an evening by candlelight. There’s something very calming about candlelight. We also became very water conscious when living off-grid. We had to collect water from the river and from a local campsite, so to reduce that chore we would minimise water use by washing veg and washing up in a small pot. Now, when we brush our teeth we just use water afterwards, to rinse. We also have a gas hob at home and reduce our gas usage by using the right-sized pot with a lid, using a pressure cooker, and not using the oven when we don’t need to.