The day starts with a trolley dash through our store and warehouse to collect ingredients. Around 98% of what goes into our meals is surplus – big catering bags that can’t be sold to members, products close to their best-before date, or bits and bobs that need a second chance. By the time our chefs roll up their sleeves, we’ve got a colourful haul ready to be chopped, diced, mixed, and baked.

Next up: prep time! We dice, mince, whisk, slice, and stir until everything is ready for baking, cooking, or frying. And we don’t just stop at the obvious…

• Onion and garlic skins? Bake and blitz them into a zero-waste seasoning.

• Potato peelings? Toss them with salt and pepper, bake until crisp, and you’ve got rustic crisps.

• Chicken bones? Boil them down into a rich broth for gravies and soups.

Nothing goes unloved – in our kitchen, scraps get a starring role.

Surplus doesn’t just mean savoury. Sometimes, we find ingredients that can be whipped into delicious sweet treats. This could be loose lemons, past their best-before date, but still good enough to eat, that we’ll squeeze the most out of:

• Zest for the drizzle

• Juice for the icing

• Peel candied for the garnish

The result? A flavourful lemon drizzle cake with zero waste and (almost) zero washing up.