Michelin-class composting
Now you can learn how to compost food scraps from a Michelin restaurant. Restaurant Credo folks in Trondheim will be showing off their artistry at the FUTURUM exhibit, part of NTNU’s science festival The Big Challenge.
The FUTURUM exhibit is part of NTNU’s science festival The Big Challenge in Trondheim in June. Here visitors can experience various scenarios for what the world could look like in 2050 if we get better at taking care of our planet.
Among the participants are food experts from the Michelin restaurant Credo in Trondheim who will be teaching the audience how to compost.
Credo was awarded its first Michelin star earlier this year. But the restaurant received the award for more than its world-class food, where the dishes on the menu are adapted to the freshest in-season local ingredients.
All the unused bits of the vegetables from the Michelin-star restaurant Credo are composted and sent back to the farm where the vegetables come from. Photo: Credo
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Thinking sustainably
“It’s important to us that food is produced on nature’s own terms,” says Heidi Bjerkan, chef and owner of Credo.
Bjerkan has already won awards for her sustainable thinking. In February, she also became the first person to receive the Michelin Award for the Nordic Guide Sustainable Restaurant of the Year 2019, and was called a “clear winner.”
She and the restaurant’s other master chefs have focused on creating good food from local produce in exemplary fashion, but they are also mindful of fully using and recycling everything on their menu.
So, it’s not all that strange for Credo to be teaching composting, because all the leftovers at the restaurant are composted and then sent back to the Skjølberg Søndre farm in Orkdal municipality.
This farm supplies many of the first-class raw materials that the restaurant uses, and Bjerkan is a co-owner. The people behind both the farm and the restaurant prioritize sustainable biological cycles and full utilization of raw materials.
“Credo wants to encourage even more people to think sustainably,” says Bjerkan. This goal is a strong motivator for her.
“It’s important to us that food is produced on nature’s own terms,” says Heidi Bjerkan, chef and owner of Credo. Photo: Mikkel Berg Pedersen, Ritzau, NTB Scanpix
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We learn from role models
“We learn in lots of ways, including from our models, and if the people at Credo are a role model for you, you can learn from them and be inspired by them,” says Professor Christian Klöckner at NTNU’s Department of Psychology.
Klöckner’s studies include research on sustainable consumer behaviour, psychological factors related to climate change, and models and interventions that can change behaviour.
The lesson you learn from the food experts at Credo and Skjølberg Søndre can in turn be spread to others.
“You learn from people around you, from friends and neighbours,” says Klöckner. “And that means that you can certainly also inspire the people closest to you,” he says.
The Big Challenge is happening in Trondheim from 16-19 June. The FUTURUM exhibit can be found at Krigsseilerplassen by the Royal Garden Hotel.
