Park City’s first Chef’s Table Festival is bringing the world of the acclaimed Netflix series to the ski town for four days, and partnering with a local nonprofit to reduce kitchen food waste.
Started in 2024, Park City Community Foundation’s Zero Food Waste program works to divert all food waste from the Summit County landfill by 2030.
The foundation’s Climate Fund Manager Victoria Schlaepfer said Summit County won’t permit another landfill so the community needs to help put home and commercial kitchen food waste elsewhere.
“Right now, almost half of what goes to the landfill is food waste, and so if we can continue to pull food waste out of the landfill, it reduces the amount of methane coming out of the landfill and also frees up space so that we can extend the life of the landfill,” she said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Aug. 12.
She says at this month’s Chef’s Table Festival, more than half the participating restaurants will include food waste diversion as part of their program.
Head chef and Alpinist owner James Dumas said the restaurant is using the festival as a test-run for its zero-waste initiative.
“They have containers, but you want to make sure that you know they're going to the right spot. It's another step in the process, right?” he said. “Versus when you're clearing tables, the servers and buses want to get back out on the floor. So it has to be streamlined in the process.”
More than 70 chefs will visit Park City for the inaugural festival Aug. 13-16.
