Toast x Wahaca

22nd April 2020

Toast x Wahaca

Our craft Lager launched in Wahaca restaurants up and down the UK in November last year. Sadly Wahaca restaurants, much like many hospitality businesses, have had to temporarily close during the Covid-19 crisis. So we thought we'd use this moment to send their team some love and share the background to our relationship.

Our Toastmaster, Tristram Stuart, is an environmental activist. He's spent his career campaigning to reduce the impact of food production and food waste on the planet. We asked him to share an insight into how we came to knock off the menu at Wahaca and why our businesses are so complementary...

 

Over to Tristram

"I founded Toast in 2015, but have known Tomasina Miers, the co-founder of Wahaca, since 2005. We first met at my cousin’s wedding, where I was serving mango lassis made from ripe organic mangoes that had been dumped at Spitalfields Market. 


In 2009, after my book ‘Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal” was published, Tommi starred on the main stage of the “Feeding the 5,000” event I organised in Trafalgar Square. We fed over 5,000 people for free, all with food cooked from surplus produce that would otherwise be wasted.

 

The feast was so successful it’s a format that’s been replicated hundreds of times in various forms across the world and has helped transform public attitudes to food waste.


Soon after that I had a conversation with Tommi about meat - pork specifically - over lunch in Wahaca. That’s when we hatched a plan to work together on The Pig Idea campaign.

 

What's the Pig Idea?


Feeding catering waste to pigs is currently banned in the EU, a response to the Foot and Mouth crisis in 2001. This means they're reared on commercial feed. And that includes soy and other crops that drive deforestation in the Amazon. Meanwhile surplus food is wasted in vast amounts. Some foods can be fed to livestock, but often this doesn’t happen.

Tommi and I wanted to prove there was a better way.


I had raised pigs on surplus food since I was a teenager. So we joined up with Stepney City Farm to rear pigs on legally permissible food waste such as spent brewer's grains, whey and unsold vegetables and bread collected from around London. We wanted to prove it could be done ethically and safely.

 

The Pig Idea is now a major policy campaign run by Feedback (Toast's environmental charity partner). It encourages farmers to feed livestock with legally permissible food that can't be fed to people, and is campaigning for a change to the law to make all food waste safe to feed to animals.

 

Toasting to Wahaca

Fast forward to today and Toast’s beers are listed in all Wahaca restaurants. We've enjoyed team nights out with them (mostly pairing the food with our hoppy, crisp and refreshing Lager - the perfect accompaniment for spicy Mexican - though there may have been a few Margarita's enjoyed too). And they've come to us, using Bread Quarters as a welcoming, engaging space to hold their team events.

 

Whilst covid-19 means that they are temporarily closed, Wahaca is using its social platforms to continue to raise awareness about the causes close to its heart. Tommi is also sharing some of the incredible recipes that make Wahaca such a hit.

 

I’m looking forward to being able to visit Wahaca again, and to enjoy conversations over delicious food and drinks with friends and family. I know you will all be feeling the same. In the meantime, please consider supporting Toast’s Meal Deal campaign by stocking up on beer to help feed people in need. Visit our online shop here.

Cheers.

Tristram"

 

Cheers Tristram, and Cheers to the Wahaca team. We're thinking about you all, wherever you are in the world right now, and raising a Toast to you all.