Bio Labo House: Miica Fran’s experimental zero-waste kitchen | The Japan Times

Julia Marino
4 min readApr 4, 2020
Local partnership: Miica Fran runs Bio Labo House out of aVin, a shop specializing in bio wines in Tokyo’s Meguro neighborhood. | JULIA MARINO

Food creator Miica Fran is on a mission to save the planet through her “special healing power” of salvaging and savoring vegetables.

Fran runs an experimental zero-waste kitchen, Bio Labo House, out of aVin, a wine shop and bar specializing in bio wines from Rhone and Provence, on a cozy street in Tokyo’s Meguro Ward.

Despite the ubiquity of Japanese concepts like mottainai (“what a waste”), the Environment Ministry reports that the average amount of food thrown out per person, per day “could fill up an entire rice bowl,” even though Japan’s food self-sufficiency stands at a paltry 37 percent.

Appearances are deceiving: So-called B-grade vegetables are still perfectly delicious and nutritious. | JULIA MARINO

Learning about the waste produced in Japan is what motivated Fran to start Bio Labo House.

“I want to share my experience with the other chefs because it’s an experimental zero-waste restaurant,” she says. “It’s not perfect.”

Last year, Fran explored farms, foraged forests and cooked with chefs in six European countries to better understand food loss and how to reduce waste in her own kitchen. She also had the chance to visit Nolla, a zero-waste…

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Julia Marino
Julia Marino

Written by Julia Marino

Let's make the world better, one step, one breath, one bite at a time. food and health writer. visual artist. seeing beauty in the imperfect.

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