Sustainable Carousel

We hate waste at Carousel, but luckily we’re getting pretty good at making use of all that we get delivered (not just the prime cuts) and finding new ways to extract flavour and goodness from the perfectly good stuff that most kitchens throw away. You’ll see some of our tastier innovations popping up on our menus from time to time.

Recently we’ve been slicing stale sourdough thinly and baking it into crisps to serve with chicken liver parfait that makes the most of the full bird (never throw away the offal, people!) and mixing spent coffee grounds with chocolate to make moreish cookies that we serve at the end of the meal. Instead of chucking fruit peelings and herb stalks in the bin, our bar team likes to pickle and ferment them and turning them into cordials and syrups to use in our famous cocktails. We’ve even gone as far as ditching the branded soft drinks altogether and making our own to cut down on all the plastic packaging. Have you tried our rhubarb soda yet? All of these are, of course, now sipped through fully compostable straws – a move which saw us featured in The Evening Standard’s ‘The Last Straw’ campaign to cut down on single-use plastics.

Of course, a special mention must go to our suppliers (the likes of Mash Purveyors, Swaledale Farm and Wild Harbour) who we rely so heavily on to bring us amazing seasonal, British produce, all year round. While we do like to fly in the very best chefs from around the world, we make up for it by keeping our ingredients as local as possible and supporting small farms and producers as much as we can.

There’s a whole lot more to Carousel than the restaurant alone. The events side of things involves huge-scale productions which we like to see as a challenge to upping our green credentials. As well as keeping an eye on our recycling, all of our clients are given Carousel canvas tote bags and bamboo keep-cups so they can continue to live their best, plastic-free lives even after they’ve left the building. With all these things, there’s always more that can be done and we promise to keep exploring new ways that we can do our bit and make David Attenborough proud but, for now, we think we’re doing alright…