Masterchef star to turn waste food into a feast fit for Mancunians


Real Junk Food Manchester is the place that takes perfectly edible food that would otherwise be thrown out by supermarkets and wholesalers and uses a team of chefs to transform it into nutritious, delicious meals that are pay-as-you-feel.

They’ve turned almost 20 tonnes of food that would otherwise go to waste into a massive 12,690 meals since they opened on Oxford Street six months ago. For every tonne of food saved from going to waste, that’s 4.2% tonnes of CO2 prevented from being emitted into the atmosphere.

And they’ve extended their opening hours. They now serve up every meal of the day in a sustainable way.

So if your experience of junk food for breakfast consists solely of eating cold pizza after a particularly rough night out, this is the place to redeem yourself.

The brand new breakfast menu has featured baked eggs, porridge with seasonal berries and a range of brilliant butties. And they serve sustainable coffee, too. It’s just across the road from Oxford Street Station – ideal for that morning commute.

But they don’t just serve breakfast – there’s lunch and dinner, too.  You can have a proper sit down meal in the quirky, custom-designed underground restaurant or use the takeaway service.

Dishes on the menu have ranged from crushed pesto potatoes with salmon to a range of soups, a particularly tasty potato hash.

If you’re lucky enough to visit when bread and butter pudding is on the menu, go for it. An enormous tray of dessert doesn’t get much better than this.

And if you thought that fine dining on junk food was impossible, think again.

You can enjoy an evening in their intimate underfloor restaurant amidst upcycled decor, plates and cutlery, whilst you marvel over a multi-course set menu made from ingredients they have intercepted that day. The fine dining events are available for bookings Thursday-Saturday 6pm-11pm and are also pay-as you-feel.

As if that’s not enough, there are some fine dining special evenings coming up involving top chefs turning food that would otherwise go to waste into the tastiest and most exciting meals they can.

MasterChef: The Professionals star Matt Campbell will be guest chef on 4 and 5 April. His challenge is simple (but actually really difficult at the same time).

He will arrive on site on the morning of his first event to find out what food Real Junk Food Manchester have rescued from going to waste in the last few days.

With help from the amazing in-house chefs, he’ll have just hours to create and prepare an entire fine dining menu for 45 lucky guests using only those ingredients.

As with all Real Junk Food Manchester’s events, Matt must include veggie, vegan and gluten-free options. And as with all Real Junk Food Manchester events, tickets are free to reserve, and the meal will be served on a pay-as-you-feel basis.

A selection of organic wines, organic prosecco and local independent beers will be available from the bar until 11pm – but not, unfortunately, on a pay-as-you-feel basis.

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