Winnow announces winner of 100 Recipes for $100M competition

Today, on Stop Food Waste Day, we're thrilled to announce the winner and shortlist of our #100Recipesfor100M competition.

What is 100 Recipes for $100M?

Late last year, we hit a milestone worth celebrating: chefs using Winnow are now saving over $100 million in food waste every year. To mark the occasion, we launched #100Recipesfor100M - a global recipe competition open to chefs across our community, asking them to share their best zero-waste dish.

Recipes were judged by Chef Vojtech Vegh on creativity, innovation, zero-waste impact, and presentation. The winner receives a hamper of premium cookware and recipe books worth over $750, and the top 5 recipes will feature in Winnow's first ever digital cookbook.

We received over 150 entries from chefs working in hotels, catering, and hospitality kitchens around the world. Selecting a shortlist was no easy task - as Chef Vojtech said:

"The creativity behind those recipes was beyond impressive - from fermented cabbage core to pasta dough made with carrot peels, chefs have really pushed what is possible to create from things we label as 'byproducts'. Selecting even 100 to feature in the recipe book was an almost impossible task, let alone selecting the top five and only one winner."

So without further ado, the winning recipe is... 

Hash Brown Gnocchi with Mushroom Ragout
By Chef Shriya Gurung, Waldorf Astoria Doha West Bay

Zero-waste elements: hash browns, button mushrooms and cheese leftover from breakfast service; herb trimmings.

Chef Shriya's winning dish was born from the leftovers of a busy breakfast service - hash browns, button mushrooms, cheese and herb trimmings transformed into a Mushroom Ragout that impressed our judge on every level.

Chef Vojtech said of the winning dish:

"Shriya, with her Hash Brown Gnocchi, ticked all the boxes. Not only was her dish exceptionally well presented, it also includes multiple zero-waste elements and a great surprise factor. I, for one, have never thought about making gnocchi from leftover hash browns."

In Chef Shriya's words:

"Born from the humble leftovers of a busy morning service, this dish celebrates culinary creativity and the transformative power of zero-waste cooking."
Zero-waste elements: hash browns, button mushrooms and cheese leftover from breakfast service; herb trimmings.

The shortlist

Congratulations also to our four shortlisted chefs, whose dishes impressed Vojtech with their creative use of ingredients 

Hand Rolled Carrot Pappardelle with Almitra's Signature Caranara
by Chef Almitra Williams, Guckenheimer 

Zero-waste elements: carrot peel and leaves, onion skins and tops, broccoli stems, bread ends, salami stick offcuts.

"Since I was a young girl, my mother taught me how to utilise everything our homestead produced. This recipe was a passion project born from that same ethos, transforming kitchen offcuts into something worth celebrating."

Whole Charred Cabbage, Used Entirely
Chef Dan Catford

Zero-waste elements: outer cabbage leaves, core and trim - all repurposed into sauces, seasoning and fat.

"This dish uses 100% of a single cabbage. All trimmings, by-products and cooking remnants are repurposed into sauces, seasoning and fat, demonstrating how fire cooking and zero-waste principles can coexist without compromise."

Tomata (The Tomato Dish)
Chef Christos Karageorgiou, Novotel Platinum Pratunam Bangkok

Zero-waste elements: overripe tomatoes, unripe watermelon parts, watermelon rind, used kombu leaves, fruit peels, vegetable trimmings, blackened herbs, used vanilla pod.

"Every component of this dish, from the consommé to the caviar, is built from what most kitchens throw away. I applied the same principle my family always lived by — find the potential in what others overlook."

Fruit Scrap Pastry Tarts
Chef Rasanka Manoj, Conrad Abu Dhabi Etihad Tower

Zero-waste elements: fruit scraps, trimmings and bruised buffet fruit; leftover pastry.

"Even the apple skin is used in this recipe - cut into a fine julienne, placed in ice water, and used as a garnish for the dish."

A huge congratulations to Chef Shriya and to all of our shortlisted chefs. Their dishes are a reminder of the creativity happening in professional kitchens every day - and what becomes possible when chefs turn their food waste data into culinary inspiration.

Want to see all five recipes in full? The Winnow digital cookbook - featuring over 100 zero-waste recipes from chefs across our global community - is coming soon. Watch this space.