Dana's Kitchen

Chef Nick Balla Will Attempt to Eliminate Food Waste at New Restaurant | Eater SF

"Planned as a zero-waste restaurant and large-scale processing facility (a “working name”), Duna Kitchen aims to eliminate food waste by processing very large volumes of B-grade produce — think 1,500 pounds of overripe plums or an overwhelmingly huge amount of dandelion greens — into delicious food. I’m told Balla is custom-designing a 3,000-square-foot kitchen filled with equipment like tilt skillets and huge dehydrators so the processing facility can be the main function, while also housing a counter-service location of Smokebread, a bakery, a ticketed dinner series, butcher-block seating, and a retail section. Wholesale under the Duna Kitchen brand is a goal, with Smokebread dips and spreads offered in smaller compostable packages, and although produce may be donated at times, the plan is to pay for it to create market value and benefit everyone through the supply chain. The project is still early — lease and fundraising remain, and recipe testing will start on a smaller scale in a commissary kitchen — but the intent is to build a flexible processing kitchen that creates food that is simple and delicious." - Ellen Fort