Executive Chef Dan McGee leads the culinary team at Swissôtel Chicago, an award-winning
luxury hotel overlooking the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, and just steps from the
Magnificent Mile. With its sleek glass design and 65,000 square feet of banquet space, the
hotel regularly hosts large-scale conferences, galas, and corporate events. Behind those
seamless services is a kitchen built for scale, serving hundreds of covers daily while quietly
tackling one of hospitality’s biggest challenges: food waste.
For McGee, reducing food waste is about doing what makes sense for business.
“Waste less. Spend smarter. And prioritise food waste in your P&L.”
McGee started cooking at 15. “My mom was a terrible cook, so I started early,” he says.
His early passion led him to the Culinary Institute of America and then into kitchens around
the world, from Florida to Paris and Switzerland. That exposure taught him the value of
precision and respect for ingredients, lessons that now guide his leadership style in a
fast-paced banquet setting. “Back then, we made everything from scratch. You used it
all. Nothing got thrown away.”
Identifying the Issue
With thousands of meals prepared each week for large banquet groups, the culinary team
often knows exactly how many guests they’re serving and what they’ve ordered. That
visibility should make waste easy to manage, but in practice, it’s not so simple.
Unpredictability still plays a role. Guests may skip meals, switch venues, or change
attendance last minute, particularly at breakfast. Recognising this, McGee and his team
began using Winnow in 2024 to better monitor and respond to pre-consumer food waste.
What they found was clear: breakfast was the biggest culprit, and addressing it would
require practical, day-to-day changes.
Empowering the Whole Team
By giving stewarding staff ownership of waste tracking, and making the data part of regular
team discussions, McGee has built a kitchen culture where everyone contributes to reducing
waste.
Practical Changes, Real Impact
McGee and his team have made practical, scalable adjustments based on daily waste data
and real-time kitchen observations. One early shift was reducing egg portions from three to two and a half per guest, which helped cut egg waste by 70%. They also prepare à la minute where possible, using quick-to-cook items that can be replenished instead of overproduced. “You pick items we can do quickly. That way, we don’t overproduce upfront,” he explains. During multi-day conferences, production is also adjusted based on guest behaviour and
data. “After one day we know what kind of eaters our guests are, we can adapt our
meals” he says.
Any food that’s been prepared but not touched is safely repurposed for staff meals, rather
than discarded. Together, these small shifts have led to a significant reduction in food waste, with breakfast alone seeing a 66% drop in food waste.
His Advice for Fellow Chefs
McGee’s message to other chefs is simple:
“It’s not about showing off with ingredients, it’s about knowing your numbers. Know
your numbers, control your food waste and save your money”