starting today, Blue Hill Farm is “temporarily reinventing” its location in Greenwich Village as wastED, a popup devoted to a theme of food waste and re-use.

WastED will collaborate with local farmers, fishermen, distributors, processors, plant breeders, producers, restaurants and retailers, reconceiving “waste” that occurs at every link in the food chain. We are also partnering with more than 20 guest chefs to curate daily specials and help celebrate what chefs do every day on their menus (and peasant cooking has done for thousands of years): creating something delicious out of the ignored or un-coveted.

though i have yet to dine at Blue Hill (don’t worry! it’s on the wishlist– the upstate Stone Barns location in particular), i have long admired its incredibly simple and powerful mission: “We will tell you a story of the earth, and we will feed you wonderfully while doing so.” Dan Barber has painstakingly (over the course of ten years) sowed the seeds of change where chefs think about not only the farm-to-table aspect, but the seed-to table journey. as the GQ article puts it:

Is it any wonder, with all that to coordinate and care for, that Blue Hill has required a heroic length of time to reach its potential? The Trojan War lasted ten years. Odysseus spent the same time making his way back to Ithaca. Very few restaurants have such resolve. We live in a meek era when nine out of ten don’t survive that long, and the few that do rarely improve. Yet Blue Hill has painstakingly evolved into the restaurant it was surely destined to become.

as the friends that i frequently dine with know well, i am passionate about not wasting food (almost to a point of self-detriment). yes, if you don’t believe me, i dare you to watch me eat the cartilage off of your fried chicken bones.

i admire the approach that wastED will be trying from March 13-31st, and i hope we will all find more creative ways to use what we have (or what others don’t want) in an effort to waste less.