For Winnie Sun, kitchen waste isn’t a problem — it’s an opportunity.
The self-taught bartender behind the buzzy cocktail program at Elem in Vancouver repurposes discarded ingredients from owner-chef Vish Mayekar’s kitchen to create drinks that are both sustainable and incredibly delicious. In Sun’s world, food scraps offer a competitive advantage. “The idea of the bar program was to transform overlooked ingredients into refined expressions,” she says. “I really wanted a closed-loop bar where everything gets reused and nothing is wasted.”
Whether it’s discarded prawn shells or unsold chocolate cake, Sun takes Elem’s kitchen scraps and upcycles them into exceptional cocktail ingredients. Take, for example, the Milk Bread Highball. It starts with toasted milk-bread trimmings infused with Shinobu whisky, then mixed with citrus, light agave syrup and soda for a drink that is as creamy as it is refreshing.
Inspired by the bar’s hyper-seasonal food program, Sun views its cocktail program as a chance, not only to reduce kitchen waste, but also to celebrate British Columbia’s bounty of natural resources.
We’re surrounded by so much nature and beautiful produce. To channel that into a bar program is quite ambitious. But it’s important.” Winnie Sun
–Sara Harowitz
