MasterChef's Gary Maclean on food waste and Cop26

In 2017, the Scottish Government declared Gary MacLean the country’s National Chef, a role that calls on the “MasterChef: The Professionals” winner to promote locally sourced food and show the rest of us how to keep things eco-friendly while cooking.

MacLean said: “We do have to make food and it will produce carbon. But at least if it’s being consumed and enjoyed then there’s a purpose for it.

“There’s nothing worse than having something cooked in an oven, shipped from the other side of the world, delivered to you by car and then flung into the bin. It’s bonkers.”

In 2016, Zero Waste Scotland found that food waste was accountable for 1.15m tonnes of Scottish landfill, which is especially troubling considering waste from landfill sites create methane, a greenhouse gas 86 times more potent than CO2.

MacLean, who backs the Government’s “Let’s Do Net Zero” campaign, is a firm believer that food scraps don’t always have to be binned. He said: “I always get asked for recipes that save on food waste and I don’t think there is such a thing. It’s a change in your mindset in what you’re buying and how you’re using your food.

“A carrot peeling, what do you do with that? If you’re just washing the carrot, there’s no peeling involved. It’s just changing things up.”

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Serving up kitchen guidance is not lost on MacLean, who has lectured fulltime at City of Glasgow College since 2010. He also hosts cookery classes for those eager to learn recipes step-by-step, and makes regular visits to schools, where he gets to pass down culinary knowledge to chefs in the making.

He said: “When I go to schools, being environmentally conscious in the kitchen is on the agenda already. They’re being taught about the importance of things like food waste, buying local, even food miles, which I sometimes hear primary kids talking about.

“There was no green agenda at all when I was starting out. The whole thing has only ramped up in the last 5 years. Food waste was still important, but that was only because it was money going into the bin.

“Considering where your food is coming from and wasting as little as possible is something I think the next generation of chefs will do better than the last.”

Waste reduction will be a key concern at Glasgow’s historic COP26 summit this November. The conference, which was billed Earth’s “last chance”, will bring the majority of world leaders together for the first time since 2015’s Paris Agreement, marking Scotland as a focal point in the global battle against climate change.

MacLean said: “Being a Glaswegian, I’m pleased it’s being held here. We tend to do these things really well and if it’s a success, the word Glasgow will be adjacent to positive action on climate.

“We’re doing our bit at college. The Riverside campus is a maritime hub, so we’ll be hosting events over there to do with COP26.

“We’re doing a lot of dinners. We’ll be opening our training restaurant and people will be able to come in and book. We’ll provide them with healthy, sustainable food, a lot of which will be grown in the college.”

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COP26 will be monumental in Scotland’s road to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, a goal MacLean believes doesn’t require a MasterChef trophy. Helping fight climate change can be as simple as eating sustainable, homemade meals more often.

He said: “The problem in Scotland is that people are picking up the phone for food more than they’re picking up a frying pan. It’s a misconception that fresh, homemade food is more expensive than ordering takeaway.

“Making homemade, eco-friendly food can be cheaper if you dedicate the time to it. There’s loads of resources out there, it’s just about making that first step.”

This article was written as part of a collaboration between The Glasgow Times and City of Glasgow College in which we are seeking to find and support the journalists of the future.