848: Kendal Mitchell Turns Eggshells Into Servingware: A Design Intervention for Food Waste

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Kendal Mitchell (2:08)

Hopefully, one day, I get to the point where if you go to an oyster bar, all the stools are made from oyster shells. Or if you're going to a Japanese restaurant, they tell you the kombu that they use to make the dashi is the same kombu that is used to make the lamps above them.

SPEAKER_1 (2:24)

This is TASTE.

Aliza Abarbanel (2:26)

I'm your host, Aliza Abarbanel.

Kendal Mitchell is a chef and biomaterials designer based in Brooklyn. Her series, Bringing Food Waste to the Table, turns often-wasted ingredients like egg shells and oyster shells into stunning tableware. And she's constantly exploring new ways to create circularity with organic materials. Today on the show, Kendal talks about training in sushi, her design work with groups like Ghetto Gastro, and the infinite potential within food waste. Kendal Mitchell, this is TASTE. Thank you for coming on the podcast.

Kendal Mitchell (3:06)

Thank you for having me.

Aliza Abarbanel (3:07)

I'm so happy to have you in the studio today. I think we're going to have a really fun and hopefully kind of nerdy food conversation. I think you're the only person who has brought me a plate made from egg shells before. Probably because I didn't know that existed up until you brought it into the studio today. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Kendal Mitchell (3:25)

Yeah. So I am a chef and biomaterials researcher. I went to school for environmental studies and food studies at Parsons School of Design, and I finished with a concentration in biomaterials research.

I currently am working on a project called Bringing Food Waste Back to the Table, where I repurpose food waste from the restaurant industry. So often food by products that are traditionally thrown away, such as egg shells, oyster shells, crab, all of the peels and pits and things that typically end up in the trash, I reutilize and recontextualize into design materials that can be reintegrated back into the experience of eating. So I brought you some of my egg shell and oyster shell plates today so that you can feel them and get a sense of how they are in real life outside of the imagery on Instagram.

Aliza Abarbanel (4:15)

I think you must have such an interesting brain because I can't imagine looking at an egg shell and thinking this would be a really good bowl. How did you even get that idea?

Kendal Mitchell (4:24)

I think it was the product of a series of events. Around 2023, I started working with a lot of incredible chefs, people that you are likely familiar with, Wolde Reyes, Mariah Nanda, Chef Tara Thomas. They really took me in and gave me my first real job in the culinary industry.