Chef nazi, she makes sure you finish all the meals or you're

Subject: Chef nazi, she makes sure you finish all the meals or you're

banned!!! Interesting concept! I really like the idea! I know some girls some girls who would just eat little bits of food most of the time. But when they have me there , i eat it all for them!!!



CHEF Yukako Ichikawa cooked up a radical solution to food waste after a favourable newspaper review brought too many of the wrong kinds of diners to her restaurant door.

''They are picky eaters. I do not want to make food for these people,'' said Ichikawa, 42, who turns away customers not in tune with her homespun philosophy of eating, which partly derives from her horror about a world where people die from hunger.

Six weeks ago, at Wafu, her 30-seat restaurant in Surry Hills, she began offering a 30 per cent discount to patrons who ate all the food they had ordered.

She and her staff tell diners that if they do not leave clean plates, they will not be welcome back. ''Finishing your meal requires that everything is eaten except lemon slices, gari (sushi ginger) and wasabi,'' says the menu, which is tagged ''guilty-free Japanese food''.

''Please also note that vegetables and salad on the side are NOT decorations; they are part of the meal too,'' it says.

Launching a campaign this week, the NSW Environment Minister, Frank Sartor, deplored the 800,000 tonnes of food waste generated annually in the state's households, on top of 300,000 tonnes dumped by businesses.

But before the government began telling everyone to eat all their greens, activists were working out ways to reduce restaurant food garbage.

''Freegans'' or vegans dedicated to obtaining leftover food free, devised internet guides to ''dumpster diving'' at shops and restaurants, with one couple donning formal gear for a video send-up of TV food shows. They spawned meat-eating versions- ''meagans''.

Meat-loving chefs have joined the ''nose-to-tail'' movement designed to use all parts of a slaughtered beast.

The chef at Paddington's Four in Hand, Colin Fassnidge, offers pig's ear schnitzel and a veal dish of cheek, fillet, bone marrow and tongue, which is mostly ordered by men because, as he says, it is ''like caveman food''.

Chefs hated wasting food, said Roni Kahn, the founding director of OzHarvest, which collects surplus food from hotels and restaurants to feed the needy.

But none has gone as far as Ichikawa. ''It is her lone stance,'' Ms Kahn said. ''She is pretty brave, because being as dictatorial as she is - and she is certainly pretty dogmatic about how she runs her business - she is going to alienate people,'' she said.

Those buying her takeaway food, which is organic and free of gluten, dairy, sugar and eggs, must bring their own containers.

Each week she fills with waste a bin smaller than a kitchen tidy. Previously even two people struggled to carry out the rubbish.

This year, she nearly closed her restaurant after wasteful types made her ''sick of people'' who were not her regulars. ''If I didn't know them, I didn't want to take them,'' she said.

But friends persuaded her instead

to impose rules and, after a visit to a solicitor, she pinned her policy to her front door. It exhorts diners to share meals, to thank the earth while eating and to be mindful of the amount they order.

When Ichikawa feels ''negative'', she sends customers around the corner to her former husband's eatery, Matsuri, because she believes she transmits her negativity to the food.

Her toughness has inspired some bad reviews. One, on the eatability website, said that three people were sent outside to read the policy and then rudely sent away.

Another took exception to ''an aggressive, badly communicated lecture'' about left lettuce leaves, despite the diners having brought their own takeaway container.

''This was after we'd ploughed through the biggest plate of green beans ever seen,'' lamented the writer.

Visiting as an anonymous diner, your Herald correspondent left the plate clean, which won smiles from Ichikawa and an invitation to join her 300 ''members''.

''Sometimes it is funny because even adults, when they are completely finished, they are proud,'' she said.

Rather than arguing, those failing to finish tended to apologise and pay the extra, she said.

Eastwood engineer Mellissa Vaby eats at Wafu monthly with her husband Fred Hardtke and their seven-year-old son, Gabriel, who has a serious nut allergy.

''I don't think she is being rude,'' she said. ''She is laying out her philosophy and methodology.

''She comes right up at the start and says: 'This is what my restaurant is'.

''If you don't appreciate those philosophies, if you don't appreciate whole food and sharing, and you condone wastage, you should go somewhere else. There are plenty of options in Sydney.''


http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/this-real-iron-chef-will-make-you-pay-20100507-ujo6.html