OzHarvest Is Opening a Pop-Up Food Scrap Cafe

Australia’s leading food rescue organisation is getting in on the pop-up trend. Opening in Pyrmont on Tuesday, May 12, harvested will serve up high-quality meals made entirely from ingredients destined for landfill — and they're calling on you to help generate buzz.

Ready to spend the next three months making you rethink your lunch, the cafe is the brainchild of Travis Harvey; a chef with more than ten years experience in restaurants around the world. He's also the man behind OzHarvest's Cooking for a Cause program, which each year helps prepare thousands of meals using surplus food collected from supermarkets, cafes, restaurants and catering companies, and delivers them to people in need.

"The idea behind harvested is simple," says Harvey. "It takes a challenge that OzHarvest and our food recipients have to face every day... what to do with surplus food that society has rejected because of its appearance, discolouration or slight imperfections? We wanted the public to experience this too, and see how good it can be."

In order to help spread the message, the pop-up cafe will be giving away free lunches (free lunches!) on opening day, in exchange to photos shared on social media using the hashtag #mealforameal. Seems like a pretty good deal, especially since you'd probably have Instagrammmed your deliciously newsworthy lunch anyway.

Harvested will be open for lunch on Wednesdays and Thursdays until the end of July, operating out of a restaurant space donated by City West Housing located at 56 Harris St, Pyrmont. The menu will change daily depending on available ingredients, although they've already teased the likes of slow cooked lamb with vine leaf, house dried fig and walnut sauce, pumpkin quinoa burger with beetroot relish and chilli macadamia butter, double roasted spiced pork with rustic potato and house pickled cues, and spice crust chook with carrot puree and labneh. And to think, this was food people were throwing out. Meals will cost a flat $15, money that OzHarvest can use to feed up to 30 people.

Thursday through Sunday evenings, the temporary space is also home to Baraka, a pop-up Middle Eastern restaurant run by Fouad Kassab, which also donates a portion of its proceeds to OzHarvest. It goes without saying, this is probably the most worthy pop-up of your time this week.

Harvested opens on Tuesday, May 12 at 56 Harris St, Pyrmont. The pop-up will be open every Tuesday and Wednesday for lunch only from 11.30am – 2.30pm (until end July). For more information, visit www.ozharvest.org.