Words and photos by Ashley Joanna
Edited by Breandán Kearney
Humans of Belgian Beer is a series of photographic portraits which celebrate a people and their culture.
After a long night of catering work at a wedding in 2018, Rosemarie Verlinden fell deep into conversation with one of the wedding guests about food innovation, food waste, and how to make the planet a better place. Rosemarie had always been aware of food waste as a child, but this conversation revealed some startling facts: One third of the food produced worldwide is thrown away, and in Flanders alone, consumers discard 150,000 tons of food every year. Rosemarie and her younger brother Michaël were devastated by these statistics, and quickly embarked on a mission to educate, innovate, and inspire. Something could be done about food waste in the world.
Rosemarie can still close her eyes and remember her experiences with food as a little girl: Specifically, her grandmother Dimpha’s old, wrinkly hands finishing the final touches on her homemade cheese and potato croquettes. Their countryside home was always filled with sunlight, wildflowers, mouth-watering smells, and fresh herbs from the garden. Rosemarie and Michaël spent most of their childhood baking. One day it was cookies. Another it was ‘“crocodile shaped baguettes”. They stole ideas from the stack of children’s cookbooks in the corner of the kitchen.
Shortly after that conversation with the wedding guest, Rosemarie and her brother Michaël, the creative-science duo, began cooking together in a kitchen which was quite different from their childhood: Atelier M. FoodLab. The FoodLab provides sustainable catering for companies and organisations, as well as assisting companies and producers in “no waste” product development. Michaël was a qualified Bio-Engineer in Nutrition. Rosemarie had a passion for cooking and educating people in sustainability. These things combined made them a force to be reckoned with.
“Food innovation is my baby and at Atelier M. FoodLab, we strive to create original recipes using every single part of a piece of food,” says Rosemarie. “Think leaf to root. For example, my brother and I have created a roasted nut mix with flavours such as BBQ, smoked, and sweet. This was all flavoured with coffee grinds. Even our business cards are made from organic nuts.”
But another significant sustainable waste issue came to light. Rosemarie was informed that the beer industry creates over 150+ tonnes of waste every year during their brewing processes. Rosemarie and Michaël couldn’t believe it. They set about trying to contribute to a solution. In 2019, Atelier M. Foodlab connected with De Wilde Brouwers, a brewery based in Merelbeke, near Ghent, and took on the challenge of creating recipes out of the brewery’s two types of beer waste: draff, spent grain that remains after wort production; and trub, the compounds and hop debris left behind after the wort has been boiled and transferred for cooling. The waste came from three of De Wilde’s beers: Louis XVIII; Termont; and Troggeling.
Rosemarie and Michaël were surprised to find that the process of using beer waste was very similar to working with food waste. The most challenging difference was the mass amounts. But using waste in large quantities meant they had recipes they could also mass produce easily. The waste particles were examined in the food lab and then repurposed. They processed the draff to make it “less fine” and used it as a flour substitute to create mustard and marshmallow cookies. The trub was used as a flavour contributor and as an extra liquid to make meringue custard for an ice cream dessert.
“Ideas are never the issue,” explains Rosemarie. “It’s been great fun figuring out original recipes to produce with residue beer flow but we enjoy the challenge and know this is just the beginning of collaborations with Belgian brewers.”
We enjoy the challenge and know this is just the beginning of collaborations with Belgian brewers.
Rosemarie Verlinden
