Zero Waste Bistro in New York

Zero Waste Bistro brings food, design and a powerful message to WantedDesign Manhattan. This pop-up dining experience is the brainchild of the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York and the renowned Helsinki-based Restaurant Nolla, and explores the themes of waste and sustainability in the restaurant industry.


While waiting for the participants in our 2018 Next Landmark contest, this year dedicated to the hospitality and restaurant industry, we're serving up a really sustainable example: the Zero Waste Bistro pop-up experience in New York.
This is a four-day laboratory of food and design, being held during the NYCxDESIGN event held in May. A dining experience, installation and series of programmes at WantedDesign Manhattan, Zero Waste Bistro explores the themes of circular economy, new materials and sustainable design. 
Presented by the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, a non-profit organisation, the concept is co-curated by Finnish designers Harri Koskinen and Linda Bergroth. This pop-up introduces the food philosophy of  Helsinki-based Restaurant Nolla, the very first zero-waste restaurant in the Nordic region. Chefs Luka Balac, Carlos Henriques and Albert Franch Sunyer opened Restaurant Nolla this Spring, before this working at Michelin star establishments in Finland and elsewhere, constantly coming up with ideas to make the restaurant industry healthier for the planet. 
If you think that the average restaurant produces over a tonne of waste every week, it's the perfect place to introduce sustainability. By developing a circular economy and following the simple philosophy of refusing, reducing, reusing and (only as a last resort) recycling, the Nolla chefs are working to achieve a zero-waste model. 
During the four days of Zero Waste Bistro in New York, the chefs presented a menu based on “creative thinking and the desire to produce something delicious and authentic out of local ingredients that are often ignored”.
The space designed by Linda Bergroth, in collaboration with Finnish Design Shop, also introduces design classics from Finland, because well-chosen, good design products generate less waste because they are evergreens, passed down for generations. As the designer says: "I created the dining area as a space within a space, using all sustainable materials. The design is like an installation that functions both as a restaurant space and a platform for talks and debate”.
And during the four-day WantedDesign platform, the Zero Waste Bistro formed the backdrop for workshops and talks on the themes of healthy materials, the circular economy and zero waste as a hands-on example of real sustainability.

Christiane Bürklein

Zero Waste Bistro
Four days of food design at WantedDesign Manhattan
Terminal Stores: 269 11th Avenue between 27th and 28th St, New York 
May 19-22, 2018
Images: courtesy of Finnish Cultural Institute in New York - Nicholas Calcott
Find out more: http://fciny.org/zerowastebistro