Q&A with Sarah Turner, Head of Development
We sat down with Sarah Turner, Social Pantry’s Head of Development to talk about her background and how she came to lead the kitchen into a new style of food and menu development.
When did you first start cooking?
My granny was a chef and I’ve always loved cooking and just love food. When I was five, I’d be on a stool at the kitchen top cutting with a knife. My Mum just trusted me to do it and I was barbecuing on my own by the time I was seven.
What is it about catering that brings you so much joy?
The act of food in its nature is so sociable and that’s something that I really, really like. There’s a real variety to the event side of what we do. We have the chance to bring people together whether it’s at weddings, private dinners, family homes, or even just a lunch at the cafe. When you’re catering on a large scale it’s so important to keep the same level of love and care. Although we now cater for huge weddings, gala dinners, and festivals, it is so important that we maintain that same level of love and care to the smaller ones.
Why is Social Pantry so unique?
Social Pantry is a really forward-thinking catering company. Zero waste, local ingredients and sustainability are all such core parts of what we do.
How do you create new menus at Social Pantry?
We create our menus using a fresh, local and seasonal lens.
And what exactly does that mean?
Fresh food is always better and the easiest way to make sure you’re using fresh ingredients is to source local produce. I love that we have a relationship with all of our suppliers and that means I know where our fruit, vegetables and dairy all comes from.
Cooking with the seasons means that you have to be really creative. In summer, you have lots of fruit and vegetables but I also love cooking with winter vegetables and seasonal leaves. We also preserve things from different seasons so that we can use them throughout the year. There’s so much we can do whether it’s fermenting, making chutneys, pickling, making oils.
I always collect a load of wild garlic when its in season, then I’ll take the leaves off, make a purée with the leaves and pickle the stems. You’d really be surprised by how much you can find to eat in the wild. A lot of people don’t know that you can use dandelions to make a syrup and this works really well drizzled on a dessert like Pavlova.
Where do you find your inspiration for new menus?
I’m always researching and thinking about new things that we can incorporate into our menus. Whether I’m on a train, on a walk, or sitting in the garden, I have a random little list of notes on my phone that I go through every week or two.
What steps do you take to minimise food waste?
I run my kitchen with a zero waste mindset and this all starts with trying to make sure that we don’t produce anything that could be wasted. Asparagus bottoms can be added to a stock. Beetroot leaves and carrot tops can be made into an ash and then that can be put through a honey. When I see something that is potentially wasted this is when we stop and think, “right, what could we do with this?”.
A lot of what we do in terms of zero waste isn’t always obvious. For example, we end up with bread left over from events. We bring this back and dry it out and this creates a really lovely crunch that can be added to a dish like asparagus and slow cooked eggs.
What makes Social Pantry’s team special?
For us, it’s not only about what we’re creating but how we’re creating it. It sounds cliché, but you are only as good as the people around you. This team is so important. You need people on board who feel passionate about the things that Social Pantry are passionate about.
Want to see what Sarah gets up to on a day to day basis? Check out our article A Day In The Life Of: Sarah
