Mario Batali And Sam Calagione Team Up To Create A Brew From Recycled Food Waste

Chef Mario Batali is no stranger to the strange when it comes to pushing boundaries in food and pop culture. Within recent years, he’s made headlines for actions like choosing to live off food stamps for a week, dissing his Iron Chef co-hosts, and ordering 200 pairs of orange Crocs. And did you notice a crazy amount of people dressed up as Guy Fieri this Halloween (cc: Chrissy Tiegen)? I still like to reminisce when Batali did that four years ago.

Nowadays, it seems he’s focusing less on “strange” and more on odd. In the premiere episode of First We Feast’s “That’s Odd, Let’s Drink It,” Batali partners with Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery to create a pruno by recycling “past-its-prime” Chicagoan produce.

The unique “WasteNot” brew was ultimately inspired by wastED, a community which moves to “reconceive ‘waste’ that occurs at every link in the food chain.” With around 40% of food grown for human consumption being thrown away in the U.S. every year, Batali and Calagione looked to seemingly unusable ingredients like overripe tomatoes, bruised citrus, and stale bread in an effort to spread awareness and help decrease widespread food-waste.

The drink was served as part of a complete wastED-inspired dinner, showing just how far creativity and efficiency can take us.