SkyCity Auckland is a premier entertainment destination in New Zealand, with the country’s largest casino, 609 rooms across two hotels (with a third on the way), a 700-seat theater and an array of dining options.

SkyCity has deployed Leanpath’s intelligent food waste prevention platform at three of those dining outlets: the staff dining operation, 24/7; the buffet concept, Fortuna; and the 5-star restaurant, The Terrace.

In just nine months, SkyCity Auckland has reduced food waste by 47 percent across the three locations.

“It didn’t surprise me seeing how much waste we had. I expected that,” says Director of Culinary Lee Sugiandi. “What surprised me was how quickly the team was able to do something about it.”

Sugiandi says he was interested in addressing food waste for financial and sustainability reasons. He also says he wanted kitchen staff to better understand the value of food.

“I want them to understand what they’re putting in the bin,” he says. “And I want them to respect what they do.”

“I see everybody on my team as a future sous chef, a future head chef, a future leader,” adds Head Chef Jesper Gustafsson. “Understanding the value of food, what is being wasted, how to repurpose, those are absolutely essential for a chef to understand. My Terrace team is already having these active conversations about food cost when I’m not even there! That’s exactly what they’re supposed to do and that’s great.”

Daniel Na is the sous chef in charge of 24/7, the staff dining buffet that, as its name implies, is always open.

Leanpath data revealed the top wasted item from the 24/7 kitchen was roasted vegetables. Na set a goal in Leanpath’s food waste dashboard to reduce that waste by 10 percent in just over a month. The Leanpath intelligent platform monitored and reported the status of roasted vegetable waste to keep Na and his team focused on results. They came up with a simple and impactful solution.

“Before, we were making batches of roasted vegetables and keeping them in the hotbox until they needed to be served,” explains Chef Daniel. “But you can only hold them in the hotbox for three hours before they have to be thrown out for safety reasons.”

Na’s team adjusted their procedures. Now they roast the vegetables, cool them, store in the fridge and reheat when needed. By keeping them refrigerated, holding time is extended to a full 24 hours.

They ultimately reduced their roasted vegetable waste by 60 percent.

The top waste item at Fortuna was scrambled eggs at the breakfast buffet. The team got creative: as demand wanes the staff use smaller serving pans to reduce the risk of waste. Then, in the last hour or so of service, they stop stocking scrambled eggs and switch to boiled eggs, which can be easily repurposed in salads.

The team is currently experimenting with turning leftover breakfast pastries into a bread crumb mix. “It has this amazing sweetness,” says Chef Jesper.

“It’s really pretty incredible how easy it is to pinpoint problems now that we have the data,” says Chef Jesper. “Before, waste was just waste. Now we’re seeing what that waste is, how much is being wasted, how consistently we’re wasting the same products. Now we can start formulating a plan.”

The three locations using Leanpath have prevented 6,000 pounds of food waste, which translates into 17 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions avoided and 4,500 meals kept in the food system.

Additionally, the staff has become more efficient with their time now that they aren’t dedicating hours to preparing food that only goes to waste.

As Chef Daniel explains, the extra time they now have is being put to use creating new dishes, with higher quality, for a special upcharge menu. “We’re able to offer more options at higher quality.”

Next up for the team: tracking plate waste at Fortuna. “We’ve just started tracking and we’re starting to see customer preferences based on what they’re wasting. It’s working really, really well.”