Massimo Bottura's Fine Dining Solution to Food Waste

At Refettorio Ambrosiano, dinner guests are greeted by name. They dine on fine china at tables created by the country’s most sought—after furniture designers, under works of art that would not be out of place in a contemporary art museum. The waiters are courteous, and the chefs have trained under the finest restaurateurs in the world. The set menu changes daily, depending on what comes in with the morning’s delivery.

This morning’s delivery contains wilting arugula, chicken close to its sell-by date, too-ugly-to-be-sold oranges and only enough shrimp for half the anticipated guests. But by dinner, the supermarket castoffs have been transformed into a three-course feast, the shrimp sautéed with arugula for a pasta starter and the roast chickens slathered in a fragrant orange glaze. Dessert is a rich mousse made from donated chocolate and almost-past-its-prime cream. The 100 or so diners—runaways, refugees, the homeless and the unemployed—tuck in with obvious pleasure, laughing with the volunteer waiters, praising the volunteer chefs and forgetting, at least for an hour, the challenges of a life lived on the streets of Milan.

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