ROSE ASHBY
Rose Ashby has been the head chef of Spring for almost 7 years and under her watch, the restaurant went from using 800 miles of cling film to absolutely none.
When Skye Gyngell and Rose made the decision to go single-use plastic free in 2018, Rose was nervous about the workload this would create for herself. Like most head chefs, Rose had enough on her plate already, without having to then lead a team of 30 chefs and 30 waiting staff to change their habits. It just seemed like a lot of extra work.
However, the changes at Spring happened smoothly and without the workload falling onto Rose's shoulders. We chatted to her recently and she was kind enough to share her tips for other head chefs looking to implement these changes - without adding hours of overtime.
Show Your Team Why You Are Changing
At the start, when the Spring staff were informed of the coming changes, it's safe to say all of the team were not on board. To solve this, the whole team was invited into the restaurant where they received a talk from Sian Sutherland from the organisation A Plastic Planet. They then together all watched the Netflix documentary ‘A Plastic Ocean’ - a powerful documentary about the impact of plastic on the sea. Hearing and seeing plastic’s environmental impact inspired and ensured that all of the staff were ready for change.
Now all restaurants are not going to be able to have the founder of an anti-plastic organisation give a talk and many might not have time to watch an entire documentary during work. However, you can encourage staff to seek out these documentaries (The Story Of Plastic is another great one) or also provide them with key statistics from these documentaries.
Empower the staff
After providing the Spring team with the reasons why they should stop using plastics, the team broke up into smaller focus groups. Each group was tasked with writing a list of all the single-use plastics they used at work and what they could use as an alternative or substitute. After sharing ideas, the individuals who came up with them were then put in charge of that change and given the power to implement them. The result - the workload was shared out evenly amongst the team with wider enthusiasm for the project. Everybody loves their own ideas!
We at No Mise En Plastic have done a lot of work on finding alternatives so staff can have a look in the manual too, but we still really support this step.
Go Cold Turkey
Once Spring had all of their alternatives in house, Rose removed all of the single-use plastics from the orders list.
“The team really hasn't looked back since. Staff are always super excited when they find a new solution and it has become a part of their lives there.”
Many chefs come in for trials simply because Spring doesn't use any disposable plastic.
A few more great tips from Rose: How to store fish J-cloth free
Keep raw fish in a perforated gastro over a non-perforated gastro, so that any liquid can drain away. Whole fishes can be hung by the head with a slit at the bottom of the tail. No J-cloths needed.
Try to repurpose any unexpected plastic
Rose is honest about the difficulties of removing plastic completely from a restaurant. Restaurants are often at the mercy of the local waste management and sometimes specialist suppliers, who have been using plastic for the last 20 years, are unwilling to change.
Spring has a very close relationship with Farm Fern Verrow and delicate vegetables are sent in plastic bags that are sent back to be reused. If the bags become beyond repair, then they are used to wrap up doughs or for freezing certain foods.
Thanks Rose!
