How Chef Billy Ngo turns holiday scraps into culinary gold

By Chef Billy Ngo, Restaurateur

The holidays are all about tradition, family, and food. As a chef, I see cooking as one of the most meaningful ways to show love. But let’s be honest, we too often buy too much, cook too much, and make more trash than usual. This year, I hope to inspire a different approach.

Growing up in an Asian household, nothing went to waste. Chicken bones became broth. Herb stems flavored soups. Leftover rice turned into a new dish. That mindset still shapes the way I cook today.

This season, I’m inviting families to rethink the holiday table with a waste-free mindset: planning ahead, giving food a second life, and recycling food scraps by putting them in the green bin.

• Start With What You Have. Holiday meals often include proteins like turkey, ham, or roast duck – and those leftovers are culinary gold. Instead of tossing bones, I use them to make a rich broth with aromatics. From there, I can create turkey congee, pork bone soup, or a holiday twist on Vietnamese chao. These dishes are warm, comforting, and rooted in Asian food traditions.
• Cook With Purpose. One of the best ways to make less trash: cook intentionally. Choose recipes that use ingredients fully. Save carrot tops, scallion roots, and onion skins for broth. Turn stale bread into croutons. Transform leftover mashed potatoes into savory cakes. Freeze leftover food for future meals. These small habits go a long way.
• Recycle Food Scraps. Even the best chefs don’t use 100% of every ingredient, and that’s okay. What matters is what comes next. When you’re done cooking, put food scraps in the green bin. This includes things like squash stems, eggshells, and shellfish shells. Most cities now provide curbside pickup, making it easy to keep food scraps from creating pollution in landfills.

If everyone cooks more intentionally and recycles their food scraps in their green bin, the benefits add up quickly. Protecting the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat starts with simple daily habits.

Delicious food can also be responsible food. This holiday season, I hope you’ll join me in honoring every ingredient and taking small steps that make a big impact. To learn more about how to recycle food scraps properly, visit RecyclingReimaginedCA.com. 

About Chef Billy Ngo
Chef Billy Ngo is a celebrated Sacramento restaurateur and culinary innovator known for elevating Japanese cuisine in California’s capital. Born in a Hong Kong refugee camp to a Chinese Vietnamese family and raised in Sacramento, Ngo began his restaurant career as a teenage busboy and dishwasher before graduating from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco in 2003. After honing his craft at top sushi restaurants, he opened Kru Contemporary Japanese Cuisine in 2005 and went on to launch Fish Face Poke Bar, Kodaiko Ramen & Bar, Healthy Hounds Kitchen and Chu Mai Restaurant. His refined approach blends traditional Japanese and other Asian flavors with local and sustainable ingredients, earning him recognition as a 2024 James Beard Award finalist for Best Chef: California.