‘I thought people would think I’m using garbage to make gelato’ – Cream of the Crop’s Giselle Makinde

The Brazilian-born chef’s business came to fruition with a timely meeting of zero-waste ideals, support from local chefs and suppliers, Brazilian backers – and a load of old bananas

Giselle Makinde’s zero waste brand, Cream Of The Crop, used surplus bananas from Fyffes and the funds raised from its crowdfunding campaign to launch a new snack, Bananitas. Picture by Kamyla Abreu

Michelle Fleming

It wasn’t a falling apple that brought on Giselle Makinde’s eureka moment, it was a box of over-ripe bananas. One day while working in a Dublin café, the Brazilian-born chef decided to put banana bread on the dessert menu. But when Sean Hussey, of Hussey’s Farm, arrived with her order, she discovered they just weren’t ripe enough for her style of oozy, sweet banana bread. “I told him I need ripe bananas, not new ones,” says Makinde.

The next day, Hussey arrived with a 7kg box of super-ripe yellow bananas — and told her he didn’t want a penny for them. “They smelled so nice and I was so happy and asked what I owed him, but he gave them to me. He said: ‘We can’t sell this, restaurants or stores won’t buy it, so they’ll be thrown away.’ I couldn’t believe it. Ripe bananas are so tasty — perfect. And to me, as a chef, throwing away all this perfectly good food is a crime.”