Nothing went to waste when Wellington chef Vicki Young was growing up. Vicki, whose parents and grandparents were market gardeners in Levin, says her family feasted like kings on food rejected by others.
“My nana never wasted anything,” Vicki says. “She’d pickle sweet, delicious broccoli stems and make vinegar from apple peels. We’d buy the fish frames from the local chippy and eat ‘tag three’ produce [fruit and vegetables deemed minimum-quality by supermarkets] in the most delicious meals.”
That “eat everything” ethos was occasionally embarrassing (Vicki remembers the shame of her parents stopping to pick watercress a long time before foraging was cool), but she now recognises her good fortune.
“That’s where I really learnt to appreciate all parts of produce,” she says. “My upbringing has had a huge influence on how I cook as a chef. I love translating my ‘all taste, no waste’ philosophy into cooking.”
If everyone in Aotearoa had
