How did everything start?
Thursday evening doesn’t necessarily mean staying at home after work when there is so much going on in town! On 17th October a group of enthusiasts gathered at the first Zero Waste Restaurant in Bulgaria – Blagichka Zero Waste (located at 25A Krum Kiuliavkov street, Sofia) to learn how to live & cook without generating any waste.
Who was behind the event?
The exclusive culinary course & lecture organised by the restaurant in partnership with the Zero Waste shop Green Revolucia quickly caught the interest of the crowd and the event got fully booked a few days after it was published online. (There was a symbolic entrance fee to cover the cooking ingredients)
Some additional information about the choice of the venue of the Zerowaste Lecture & Cooking Class…
The event started with Blazhka Dimitrova, a business lady & specialist in zero-waste cooking. She shared the story of the restaurant “Blagichka Zero Waste” which was open in May 2019. The venue represents an expansion of Blazhka’s solidarity kitchen, operating as an online takeaway restaurant & catering in the last few years.The venue employs differently abled youngsters, helping them to improve their knowledge and social skills.We were greeted at the door by the smiley Mario who gave his best to make the guests feel at home.
What meal did the participants cook?
The challenge in front of the attendees was to make raw bonbons catered to their own taste & preferences. The guests were randomly divided into 4 teams in order to meet and cooperate with new people sharing common interests.
They could choose from plenty of ingredients such as dates, oats, goji berry, raw nuts, tahini, honey, cocoa and coconut oils, of course bought in the organisers’ own containers , without generating any waste.You can check out the video showing how the shopping for the event was done HERE . Each participant brought their own container to the event in order to take the new dessert for a beloved person waiting at home.
Amongst the special guests of the Zerowaste Lecture & Cooking Class were the journalist & vlogger, Asya Eneva , Simona from ZeroWaste Sofia,Boryana Zheleva from Plastic Free Coffee Lovers and Rada – Thrift Sheep.
While the participants were enjoying the delicious creations they made with faces covered in cocoa powder and hazelnuts they got to learn about the worldwide food waste problem.
What points did the lecture cover?
Vera Markova, the founder of the Zero Waste shop Green Revolucia gave practical tips about how each one of us can reduce their food waste with minimum efforts – which foods we can grow at home, how to do food shopping sustainably, where to look for seasonal fruits & veggies #packagefree, why is it important to support the small & local producers & shops and last but not least, how to turn our food leftovers into gourmet meals.
The questions poured straight after the lecture and in the cosy atmosphere Vera shared her secrets about storing food without plastic – with the help of beeswax wraps, cotton bags, glass/stainless steel food containers & more.
What is more?
Keep an eye for our following article to find out how much food does the average Bulgarian waste each year, which are the most wasted foods, how does this food waste affect the environment and what we can all do to change things.
P.S. We’d like to thank our friend Rada Boneva for this article and pictures, check out her inspirational & educational blog HERE