York restaurant launches 'waste less' menu

A social dining restaurant in York has launched a new menu featuring local, foraged and fresh ingredients. 

This month, dishes at Forage Bar & Kitchen include a coffee-rubbed pork chop with used coffee grounds and local wild garlic kimchi; roasted artichoke hummus with artichoke crisps and flatbread; and onglet steak tacos with fermented pickled chilli. 

The new menu at the restaurant and late-night bar will also include a Yorkshire pecorino-stuffed flatbread with a wild garlic butter zaatar; forage-fried chicken with a smoked chilli mayo; and a charred oyster mushroom skewer with a tamari and agave dressing and walnut ketchup. 

Forage owner Callum Houston’s philosophy combines small-plate social dining and contemporary fusion cooking from around the world, showcasing locally sourced and foraged ingredients to create exciting, fresh and eco-friendly dishes.    

Seasonal Yorkshire rhubarb features in the April menu, including a rhubarb shake with pistachio and a rose and white chocolate cookie; poached rhubarb with honey granola, vanilla Chantilly and a rhubarb tuille; while drinks include a silky rhubarb pulp-infused Champagne. 

The kitchen’s ‘waste less’ ethos sees excess cuts of high-quality fruits, vegetables and other foods such as coffee grounds carefully curated into flavour rubs and dressings, marmalades and vinaigrettes, through to pickled snacks and crisps. 

Callum Houston, a well-known mixologist in the region, takes the same foraged experience onto the drinks menu courtesy of its in-house distillery – the restaurant and its hidden upstairs speakeasy has one of Yorkshire’s most extensive cocktail menus with more than 100 cocktails available. 

They include home-distilled gins and vodkas flavoured with foraged fruits, delicious breakfast martinis, carrot-top and strawberry-top vodkas as well as zesty kombuchas made from leftover blood oranges and pomegranate.  

Houston says of the new menu: "Our aim is to showcase exciting, distinctive dishes which are fresh and local while trying to reduce food waste.  

"We love sourcing our menu close to home using wild ingredients and quality Yorkshire produce, inventing cuisine that is constantly changing, so you can return to dine with us and enjoy new, inspiring food to share amongst friends.  

"Luckily, we work with extremely talented people that love inventing original drinks and dishes, using what nature provides as well as reusing ingredients to create new ‘upcycled’ flavours. 

"We believe Forage is a one-of-a-kind, fine dining experience with a menu full of wild, flavour-packed, eco-conscious dishes."

Plates at the restaurant, which seats 90 guests, start from £4, rising to £28 for its ribeye steak and confit garlic, with a wild garlic and truffle pesto dressing.

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