Everything but kitchen sink as Kwong joins war on waste

Monday's free lunch at Martin Place offered a stove-top debut for all the slightly disfigured, unusually speckled vegetables that never make it into shopping baskets, writes Lucy Cormack.

It was a midday meal with a feel-good flavour as 5000 Sydneysiders enjoyed the hot lunch, cooked entirely from rescued surplus food.

''I think my favourite would have to be this beautiful vegetarian curry cooked from surplus vegetables from the markets,'' said celebrity chef Kylie Kwong, who was among the top Australian chefs lending a hand at the event.

Hosted by OzHarvest, Feeding the 5000 was held to raise awareness of the 4 million tonnes of food Australians waste each year.

Cooks Co-op chef Martin Boetz, formerly of Longrain, offered up a soup of unwanted ham hock he collected and smoked over two weeks, which would otherwise have ended up in the bin.

The event originated in Britain and aimed to encourage consumers not to avoid produce with slight blemishes or an unconventional shape and size.

Kwong said she couldn't turn down the chance to help with any OzHarvest cause.

''I love the whole philosophy behind this event,'' she said.

Feeding 5000: Kylie Kwong with OzHarvest founding director Ronni Khan volunteering in the curry tent at Sydney's Martin Place.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 30 July 2013