Potato Head does it again: Indonesia’s first zero-waste restaurant

After becoming Indonesia’s first hotel to pledge carbon neutrality, Potato Head is now home to Indonesia’s first zero-waste restaurant. Bali needs more companies and leaders like Ronald Akili.

Ijen is under Chef Wayan Kresna Yasa, a Nusa Penida local who has seen Bali’s transformation first hand.  he was recently interviewed in Gourmet Traveller.

Its owner, Potato Head Family, has a history of sustainable business practices, but Ijen takes things up a notch, repurposing the majority of its waste. Plastics are processed into building bricks, green scraps are fed to local livestock, fish scales are the star ingredient in rice-flour crackers. “We use our waste to create other products,” says executive chef Wayan Kresna Yasa. “Pickles, aromatic oils, chilli oil. We even ferment our own sambal using a technique similar to sriracha.”

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The zero-waste model keeps Ijen’s kitchen and suppliers on their toes, but for Kresna Yasa, the cause is vital. “People need to care about the environment, not just about making money,” he says. “I see more and more business owners starting to focus on sustainability. We just need more.”