Big Servings of Inspiration at the No Waste Big Taste Cook-off

Hunger awareness event used “food waste” to create delicious meals

By Linda Wang, Edible DC Contributor

Manna Food Center’s cooking competition featured “ugly produce” and product from a food pantry to highlight hunger awareness.

Two mystery baskets. Thirty minutes each.

That’s how much time we had to create an appetizer and entree using rescued food, or food that’s otherwise destined for the trash, from Manna Food Center, an anti-hunger nonprofit in Montgomery County, Maryland.

On Saturday, Oct. 26, I got to be a sous chef in the second annual No Waste Big Taste cooking competition, which is organized by Manna Food Center and co-hosted by Downtown Silver Spring and FRESHFARM Market. The Top Chef-like competition took place at FRESHFARM’s Silver Spring Farmers Market and aimed to raise awareness about hunger, food insecurity, and food waste. The competition was the final event of Montgomery County’s second annual Community Food Rescue Week.

Contestants Chef Bryan Lacayo, Kyley McGeeney, Linda Wang and Jim Drost faced off at the No Waste Big Taste competition.

I teamed up with culinary director Jim Drost of Matchbox restaurant, and we faced off against executive chef Bryan Lacayo of PLNT Burger and sous chef Kyley McGeeney, founder of the food blog Mission Michelin.

Our goal: Use up the ingredients in our mystery baskets and leave as little waste as possible. We also had access to a variety of items brought in from Manna’s food pantry, including canned goods, oils, and spices, as well as “ugly” produce donated by The Farm at Our House, Quaker Valley Orchards, and Spiral Path. As a bonus, each chef got to bring a “secret weapon”—a food item from their own pantry (I brought dumpling wrappers).

For the appetizer course, our mystery basket contained purple potatoes, a can of great Northern beans, and a jar of tomato salsa. Quick thinking led Chef Drost and I to decide on a Southwestern purple potato hash. We threw the salsa into a blender with some sour cream to make a delicious sauce, and we fried up the purple potato peels to make a crispy garnish. We even used the aquafaba from the can of beans to add thickness to our dish. No waste, big taste, I think we succeeded.

For the entrée course, our mystery basket contained kale, lemongrass, raw chicken breast, olives, and brown rice. What in the world to cook with this? Cue my dumpling wrappers. Chef Drost and I looked at each other and said, “Potstickers!” Lemongrass chicken potstickers stuffed with olives and brown rice, to be exact—in a lemongrass broth topped with baby bok choy and spicy honey kale.

Our entree course using my dumpling wrappers: Lemongrass chicken potstickers stuffed with olives and brown rice.

When the clock ran out, we looked at our dish in disbelief. It was creative, beautiful, and it tasted absolutely amazing! Okay, so we’re biased.

Next to us, the PLNT Burger team was marveling at their “Timeless Chicken” entrée, featuring a Vietnamese kale and lemongrass-peanut sauce. For their appetizer dish, they had made a vegan bean salad with crispy Beyond Meat sausage.

In the end, the judges—who evaluated our dishes on taste, presentation, and amount of food waste generated—narrowly chose the PLNT Burger team. In the end it didn’t matter, we were all winners in this event. We won one for the community, raising awareness about hunger, food insecurity, and food waste. And we had a lot of fun.

That’s food for the soul.