Five young chefs show off skills turning leftovers into new dishes

AMMAN — Five young female chefs, who have spent the last month participating in a food production training course, put their new skills to the test on Monday during a cooking challenge highlighting the problem of food waste. 

The event at the Haya Cultural Centre in Amman was organised by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Dar Abu Abdullah (DAA) as part of WFP’s global #StopTheWaste campaign, said a WFP statement. 

“One-third of all food produced for human consumption goes to waste,” WFP Country Director and Representative in Jordan Sarah Gordon-Gibson was quoted in the statement as saying. 

She added that reducing food waste is an essential part of tackling hunger and ensuring food security for all. “The world produces enough food to feed everyone, yet one in nine people go to bed hungry every night.” 

WFP’s #StopTheWaste campaign narrows in on what individuals can do to reduce waste — for example, creating new dishes with leftover food rather than throwing it away — and this was the basis for Monday’s challenge, according to the statement.

The participants were asked to create two dishes in just 35 minutes using only leftovers, along with a small selection of basic ingredients. 

For the five participants, the challenge marked the culmination of a food production course that is part of a WFP programme, run in partnership with DAA, the statement said. 

The programme offers vocational training to around 230 young people from vulnerable families to support their transition into adulthood and help them to find jobs, gain confidence and become independent, according to the statement.  

After 35 minutes of “intense activity and concentration”, each participant served two dishes to a panel of guest judges, who were scoring creativity, taste and presentation, said the statement. 

Marah Al Saadi, a 25-year-old from Mafraq Governorate, was awarded first place, with praise from the judges for her “outstanding” dishes. 

Congratulating all the young chefs, DAA’s Director General, Samer Balqar, who was part of the judging panel, emphasised the value of the skills the group had learnt during their vocational training, saying he hoped that it would enable some of them to eventually open their own restaurants, the statement concluded.