Book review: Join the Greener Revolution by Ollie Hunter

Join the Greener Revolution follows Ollie Hunter’s debut publication last year, 30 Easy Ways to Join the Food Revolution, and, like its predecessor, it offers 30 ways to live and eat more sustainably. While his first book featured a recipe plan and explained how to be more conscious about how we eat, this time his focus is on everyday sustainability.

As a result, the focus of this ‘cookbook’ is not entirely on food; it is as much a beginner’s guide to following more sustainable practices in our everyday lives. Despite this, the recipes shine as creative and original ways to reduce waste and make the best use of produce.

Ideas include using coffee grounds in bread and tomato leaves in focaccia, using a sweetcorn cob to give a vanilla-like flavour to ice-cream, and plum kernels in crème brûlée. Hunter says that courgette stalks can be treated like penne, and dandelion leaves used to make pakoras, always focusing on flavour.

Hunter is chef-owner of the Wheatsheaf pub in Chilton Foliat, Wiltshire, which was awarded Business of the Year at the Sustainable Restaurant Association’s 2019 Food Made Good Awards.

Join the Greener Revolution is more about the small changes we as individuals can make at home, but Hunter also regularly uses examples from his experience as a pub owner, and many of the systems he discusses could be just as applicable to commercial premises, such as e-water, voltage optimisers and compost heaters. He poses questions every operator could and should consider – what other businesses can use my waste? Are there certain years, months or weeks that I should work harder and some less?

The latter question led to Hunter reconsidering his business model amid the coronavirus outbreak last year. When permitted, the pub will only open four days a week, offering the team a more sustainable work-life balance and improving the efficiency of the business.

“We can choose to write a new chapter where we go with the flow,” Hunter writes – a sentiment perhaps we all need to consider in these strange times.

Join the Greener Revolution by Ollie Hunter (£14.99, Pavilion)