Waste Hater is a monthly series where we interview friends in the industry doing interesting and awesome work to reduce all kinds of waste, food or otherwise. This October, we spoke with Chef Andreas Krampl, Senior Culinary Director for Marriott Hotels.

A good chef knows how to craft a meal with the best ingredients; a master chef can make that meal with anything - even scraps. 

Chef Andreas Krampl is a master chef by any definition. The Senior Culinary Director for Marriott Hotels in Europe, Middle East & Africa has been cooking since he was 10-years-old and went on to utilize his extensive palate in 14 different countries. He’s passionate, driven, and adamantly opposed to waste.

In an industry driven by consumer experience and service demands, this makes Krampl something of an anomaly. 

“There’s a lot of waste simply because it’s not the cook’s money that gets wasted,” Krampl tells Replate. “I always challenge my chefs to think about why they throw certain things away, and ask them if their mom or they would ever do this at home. For 99 percent of them, the answer is no.”

For three decades, Krampl has been chopping, mincing and dicing his way through some of the fanciest, most upscale kitchens in the world. His knives and apron have brought him to Ritz Carlton hotels in Jamaica, Bali, and Dubai, and the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai. From there, he became the culinary impresario at Marriott and hasn’t left their kitchens since. 

Growing up in Germany, Krampl often helped his mom prepare meals.

“When I was around 10 or 11 years-old, I was always the first to be home after school and my mom would ask me to prepare lunch,” he recalls. “I boiled potatoes, reheated stews, made pancakes, and put together many other dishes she pre-prepared in the morning.”

He adds, “ Around the same time, my family visited one of the most popular restaurants in our hometown. I was blown away from the taste and experience of the food there, plus the buzz in the restaurant, the white table cloth, the superb service and the outstanding meal.”

With such a devotion to food, Krampl became somewhat draconian in his approach to waste. He monitors the bins of cooks in his kitchen to ensure they’re not trimming off too much of vegetables, and calls out staff accordingly. It’s a technique he picked up as an apprentice.

“At least once a week, before or after service, the master chef would ask for everyone to gather and then he would turn our garbage bin onto the floor, scatter through the garbage and pick out things that were wasted and should have been used in other preparations,” Krampl recalls. “He constantly taught us to respect food and not waste anything at all.”

With his personal cuisine, Krampl has found a variety of unique ways to repurpose food that might have been thrown out. Inspired by Michelin-star Italian chef Massimo Bottura, Krampl loves creating meals from leftover bread. Breadcrumbs for frying meats, dumplings for stew, crisps to garnish salads, and of course, bread and butter pudding. There’s little in the way of his imagination.

In Bangkok, Krampl was known for recycling oyster and clam shells, sending them to a local chicken farmer who would grind and mix them into the feed. At home, he reuses “everything.”

“I dehydrate vegetable trimmings for chips, confit garlic, freeze scraps and trimmings for stocks, candy leftover lemons, deep-fry fish skins, make chips from potato trimmings, pickle watermelon rinds,” the chef says. “Overall, I’m a conscientious grocery shopper - this is where it all starts in my opinion. If you do not purchase surplus food, you will not have to deal with leftovers or spoiled items in your household. It’s that simple.”

Krampl appears to be the perfect person to lead Marriott Hotels on their latest mission to reduce food waste 50 percent by 2025. Action items include job trainings, inventory analysis, and education seminars. The chain is also working with procurement and supply teams to establish procedures that avoid food waste.

For any chef, Krampl recommends focusing on reducing sources, keeping prices in check, and never throwing out dinners. A clever menu goes a long way when it comes to cross-utilizing ingredients. 

“Food is our source of life, pleasure, and excitement,” Krampl notes. “We need to respect those who plant, harvest, and grow the food we are all consuming. If you’ve ever grown your own vegetables, you know how long it takes and how much effort you need for that vegetable to turn out well. Once you harvest those vegetables, you can truly appreciate the value.”

Especially if your harvest flops! 

For those following Krampl’s lead, check your trashcan next time before you take it to the street corner.

Find out more ways you can reduce waste in Replate’s zero waste zine!

And learn more about Replate on our website.