NUEVAS TENDENCIAS EN EL TRANSPORTE

Lack of storage space at The Amber Flower and the limited temporal existence of food give very little time for decisions about which conduit is the most appropriate to use. Furthermore, as discussed by Fine (1996) the temporal features of the work day influence interactions with food; busier days result in less time spent on a single dish. Thus when and where food is interacted with has a role in determining waste creation. For this section I will use potatoes to draw attention to some of these impacts time and space have upon waste creation.

All activities that occur within the catering kitchen involve some expenditure of time and effort. Retrieving pig buckets for use and separating out what can and cannot be placed inside them2 _{or putting aside}

and bagging food for storage, both require some preparation and mental effort. However, the first priority is to create dishes, ensure they are presentable, and deliver them to consumers. At The Amber Flower functions and the lunch buffet need first to be fully supplied with the required dishes at the desired time. For The Amber Flower the Executive Chef puts an emphasis on presentation; which also takes time, all food must meet a set aesthetic standard as the Executive Chef would inform me one evening when preparing entrées for a wedding:

2 _{The different types of food which can and cannot be placed easily into pig buckets}

After the country-style soup vegetable cutting came preparing cubes of potatoes. The Executive Chef showed me how to cut them to size, pointing out that each one should take seconds with just a few quick cuts to make three or four pieces. There was an added injunction to do these more consistently and quicker than I had the carrots and pumpkin earlier - speed and presentation were king (7th March).

As the functions and the lunch buffet approach the pressure in the catering kitchen rises to ensure dishes are ready and of an acceptable standard. These pressures take priority and reduce the time available to place food in conduits where it would not become waste. Further increasing the time pressure is the need to supply food as close as possible to the time of a function, to minimise the internal changes of a dish that results in a loss of quality:

As the wedding was running a little late I thought to ask the Chef how these cases tend to be dealt with and how late weddings tend to be. He replied that normally you can expect ten minutes or so, but there was one time when the bridal party was one hour late - they were still swanning about taking photos when the food was done. As an aside he added that for vegetables or anything steamed, the peak point of consumption is within fifteen minutes, anything beyond that and it starts going bad. So the kitchen did what they could to make the food last, and sent out one of the front staff to diplomatically inform the bride that the food was going bad. He finished with a note of disappointment and resignation by saying that when that happens it is frustrating for the chef as it is beyond their control, but you just have to deal with it and accept that the food quality is lessened because the customers were stuffing around (24th March).

The time between cooking food and consuming it needs to be minimised to avoid the assemblage breaking apart with a subsequent loss in value. After cooking the loss of value in vegetables is rapid as a dish cools. The aesthetic qualities are lost and the efforts that a chef put into its creation feel wasted and pointless.

During the days I worked at the satellite kitchen there were only thirty to forty people staying at the site and thus time was a readily available resource, although space was not. Most days presented a similar situation and the Chef often commented on how boring it is throughout the day, other kitchen staff spoke of how uninteresting the satellite kitchen is, and another chef would tell me that he felt his time could be better utilised elsewhere rather than serving so few people. An outcome of this extra time is there are more opportunities to utilise conduits that allow food to become something other than waste. Unfortunately, while there is time available to use conduits more readily at the satellite kitchen, the amount of space does not include them. At the satellite kitchen there are no pig buckets, significantly less space to keep food in storage for later use, and few staff to eat leftovers:

I was trying to keep out of the way and do a few dishes while observing the kitchen, the one front staff who was working there appeared quite bored. The Chef proposed peeling potatoes as something for her to do. The Chef thus set about filling a sink with water and emptying the potatoes into it. I observed the front staff peel the potatoes, with the skin just going into the water …. With the potatoes done, all the peelings just went down the drain into the waste disposal unit. The Chef gave a push with his hand to make sure that everything went down (5th February).

There may be time to break potatoes into their component pieces to best accommodate diversion from waste streams in the satellite kitchen, but because of the lack of space to store, hold, and place food that is not part of dishes being prepared, or anticipated to be prepared in the near future, opportunities for this food to become something else are not available. Consequently lack of time and lack of space for placing food can result in the creation of waste.

Conduits are important to secure journeys of food away from becoming waste by allowing changes in value to be realised in different ways. In order to do so requires more than only the knowledge of their proper use, but also simply that conduits are present when and where they are needed.