Chef-owner of world’s first fully sustainable restaurant on how going zero-waste is ‘the right thing to do’, and the stress of not using rubbish bins

After accidentally getting into zero-waste kitchen practices, Douglas McMaster opened Silo to combat the ‘indirect’ food system that produces unnecessary waste

He operates without bins, which is stressful, but he’s sure that it’s ‘going to be the future’, as climate change concerns cause more chefs follow suit

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Douglas McMaster, chef-owner of the world’s first zero-waste restaurant, Silo, in London, wants to disrupt the “industrial food system”. Photo: Instagram/@silolondon

Published: 4:15pm, 25 Nov 2022

Douglas McMaster became one of the world’s leading authorities on closed-loop, zero-waste kitchens almost accidentally.

“I’ve had a series of unusual circumstances which has led to having a vision, and not necessarily my own vision, actually,” McMaster said, speaking at a Los Angeles edition of MAD Monday – a public talk series hosted by the sustainable-food movement MAD, founded by chef Rene Redzepi of three-Michelin-star restaurant Noma, in Denmark.

“I’ve piggybacked onto a vision which has defined my life; it defines what Silo is and why Silo is,” he continued, referencing his London restaurant, which is widely credited as the world’s first fully sustainable one. “It’s not born out of love of cooking or sustainability; I just didn’t do very well in school.”

The opportunities afforded to new starters in the restaurant industry drew McMaster to the trade. He worked at Fergus Henderson’s nose-to-tail restaurant St John, in London. He staged at Noma for a day. A year later, he did a two-week stage at Sweden’s now-closed two-Michelin-star restaurant Fäviken, headed by Magnus Nilsson, who is now director of the MAD Academy.

Rene Redzepi, founder of MAD Foundation and co-owner of three-Michelin-star Danish restaurant Noma. Photo: AFP

All were restaurants that took sustainability issues seriously, but it wasn’t until he was cooking in Sydney, Australia, in 2011, that he became truly inspired to pursue zero-waste, after stumbling upon an exhibit by interdisciplinary artist Joost Bakker – who at the time was constructing buildings that could grow food.

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