Ugly Butterfly, a sustainable casual restaurant, Champagne bar and sustainability conversation hub, has been opened on the King’s Road, Chelsea, on Wednesday November 13th 2019.
Aiming to demonstrate that zero-waste can be luxurious, and creating something beautiful from ingredients which are usually thrown out, Ugly Butterfly represents the second generation in sustainable hospitality, and is a collaboration between award-winning chef and restaurateur Adam Handling; Cadogan, the long-term family business that owns and manages part of Chelsea; Quintessentially Foundation – the award-winning and grant-giving arm of Quintessentially Group, providing funding and building awareness for UK registered charities; and The Felix Project, a London-based charity which collects surplus food from food industry suppliers, and delivers it to local charities and primary schools to help feed vulnerable people.
Open for walk-in diners from lunch time until the late evening from Wednesday to Sunday, Ugly Butterfly will offer an exciting and delicious menu of snacks and small plates, served alongside a Champagne list (by the glass) from the region’s top wine makers. The interiors have been created using up-cycled and re-utilised materials throughout.
All dishes will be made from the parts of ingredients that are usually discarded as waste, most of which will come from Adam Handling Chelsea, with an emphasis on the four most-wasted foods; bread, milk, eggs and bananas.
As well as providing a great place to eat and drink, Ugly Butterfly will become a hub for business and community sustainability initiatives to be promoted and supported, with pioneers in sustainable food and drink, restaurants, fashion, technology, and art and craft, holding free conversations and creating experiences for drop-in diners twice a week, on Wednesday and Sunday evenings at 7.00pm. The conversations will include talks from Mike Robinson, leading game chef, founder of The Woodsman, co-owner of the Harwood Arms and a wild food specialist, and Steve Bannatyne of The Wood Store, sellers of recycled and reclaimed wood and creators of most of the up-cycled handmade furniture at Ugly Butterfly.
The menus include some daring dishes created by Adam Handling and his team at Adam Handling Chelsea (located at the Belmond Cadogan hotel on Sloane Street), such as deboned crispy fried chicken feet with caviar; Adam Handling’s iconic cheese doughnuts made with left-overs from the cheeseboard; banana bread and chicken butter; lobster shell soup; broccoli stalk Caesar salad; retired dairy cow tartare, crispy potato peelings; reformed doughnuts (made with leftover bread) and overripe fruit jam.
2.5% of the takings will be donated to The Felix Project to support their many projects fighting food waste, and two dishes on the menu will use Feast Fairly pullet eggs which are usually disposed of due to their small size. Funds from Feast Fairly egg sales are donated to The Felix Project.
Adam Handling says: “This is such an exciting collaboration. Across my restaurants and bars we have a strong commitment to achieving zero waste and in setting up Ugly Butterfly, we can help to move the sustainability agenda forward even further by bringing together the pioneers in sustainable food and drink, fashion, business, furnishings, technology, arts and crafts and giving them a home for some really interesting discussions. We want everyone to be able to drop in for some really tasty food, and delicious Champagne, and to contribute to building awareness of how we can live our lives, every day, on a more sustainable basis.”
Hugh Seaborn, Chief Executive, Cadogan comments: “Adam was a breath of fresh air when he opened his destination restaurant on Sloane Street earlier this year – we are delighted to champion his brave zero-waste ethos further at this exciting new venture and use it to stimulate conversation around sustainability more widely, as well as raising funds for the impressive Felix Project. Ugly Butterfly resonates strongly with our ongoing commitment to long-term stewardship and reducing environmental impact; we hope that it is a creative way to inspire the community, both residents and businesses, to think differently for the future.”
Mark Curtin, The Felix Project CEO says: “The Adam Handling Restaurant Group is leading the way defining a new responsible and sustainable business model; we at The Felix Project are extremely grateful to be chosen as their charity partner and excited to help Adam and his fantastic team push the message of food waste reduction and sustainability in such an innovative and exciting environment.”
Ben Elliot, Chairman of Quintessentially Foundation and Co-Founder of Quintessentially says: “We’re excited to be involved in the Ugly Butterfly project spearheaded by Adam Handling in support of our charity partner of the year, The Felix Project who are leading the fight in tackling food waste. This is an amazing concept that will highlight the issue and disparity between food waste and the hunger of our nation’s most vulnerable in society.
“1.9 million tonnes of avoidable food waste is generated by the UK food industry each year. At the same time food poverty is a huge and growing problem, almost 4 million children in the UK live in households that struggle to afford to buy enough fruit, vegetables, fish and other healthy foods.’’