Silo is the world’s first zero-waste restaurant, founded by chef and sustainability visionary Doug McMaster.

Originally launched in Brighton in 2014, Silo is now based in Hackney Wick, East London.

Doug and his team build dishes around what’s available, not what’s expected, often working directly with farmers, millers, and foragers.

Now, the popular Michelin Green star restaurant is celebrating ten years of sustainability and service.

10 Years of Silo and Defying Commercial Logic

Doug said: “By some grace of some zero waste gods, we somehow managed the unimaginable - not just to survive, but to thrive through 10 years. Commercial intelligence says that if you stray too far from the commercial centre, your business won’t thrive. And we’ve strayed far. We’re not doing beer and pizza here. It’s quite a radical thing that we’ve done. To have survived, and to still be in such a strong position - it’s a bit of a miracle.”

the Chaos and Magic of Silo Brighton

He added: “What I remember most vividly about the early days of Silo in Brighton is chaos. Anarchy. Absolute creative madness. And it was brilliant. The book I wrote chronicles those formative years - five years of Brighton that were a tempest of the good, the bad, and the ugly. It was everything, all at once, and it tells a good story. Everything that could go wrong did, like nearly burning the building down in the middle of a lunch service, or making Giles Coren wait in a queue. But it was full of heart. There were zero booking nights, there was heartache, there were wars, and there was this relentless drive to try and discover a food system that didn’t really exist.

“There was no such thing as a restaurant without a bin. We were trying to make sense of something that had no blueprint. We were totally remote, totally isolated. No buoyancy. No roadmap. It was a really mad time.

“The last five years in London have been tame in comparison, which sounds less rock ‘n’ roll, but it’s where we’ve reached levels of quality and sustainability that we only dreamed of in Brighton. Going from one restaurant to another was like resitting an exam - an exam that you sat the first time with no reading list, no idea what the questions were. And now, you sit that same exam, with experience. It’s the same 50-cover restaurant. The same 15 staff. But now you know what not to do with social media, with accounts, with leadership. You get it right. It’s good for business, it’s good for sustainability - but it’s not as colourful a story.”

Future of Silo and the Rise of the ‘Siloverse’

Silo isn’t just a restaurant - it’s the heart of what Doug calls the ‘Siloverse’,

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a growing ecosystem of circular economy projects and radical food system ideas.

Doug explained: “I think we’re heading toward specialisation. Fermentation is a huge one - it’s such a vast subject. We’ve opened a fermentation factory, which is a massive project. At first, we thought: we’ll grow koji and use it to fix food waste on an industrial level - like making soy sauce from waste bread or miso from spent brewers' grain. Then put those products back into the food system. That’s one specialisation, and there will be more.”

“I see Silo expanding through these offshoots - whether it's opening a glass pottery to turn wine bottles into plates or tiles, or other self-contained systems. That’s the Siloverse. We’re creating a whole ecosystem of circular solutions.”

Challenges

He added: “It would be irresponsible to say we’ve never had challenges or setbacks. Waste is messy. The system isn’t perfect. We still recycle - glass is a big one - and my dream is to one day eliminate that too. I’d love to have everything served from taps, and turn the few glass bottles we do get into plates or tiles. That’s not recycling - that’s upcycling. But it’s a lifetime’s work.

Doug Mc Master

“What we’ve never had is a general waste bin. No black bags of non-circular materials. If we do make mistakes - like someone sending us plastic packaging by accident - we don’t sneak it out the back. We keep it. We use it as a memento. A reminder. We own our mistakes because that’s how you learn. I’d rather be transparent about our flaws than pretend we’re perfect.

“Perfection is a myth in this industry. Look at the world of Michelin, cookbooks - everyone’s presenting themselves as perfect. But we’re not. I’d much rather be honest, imperfect, and human.”

If he could do it all again

Doug added: “If I could go back and have dinner at Silo on opening night, I’d say: ‘You’re mad.’ I’d say, ‘Fortune favours the brave, but you’re walking the path of most resistance. If you’re not prepared to suffer, you’re going to fail.’ What we were doing was change, and change is hard.

“Innovation brings challenges, friction, instability, stress, and tears. You can’t change the system without encountering massive resistance. The commercial world understands what it already knows. When you present something unrecognisable, you’re going to get less bookings. People won’t know what to make of it. Staff might join with the wrong expectations. It will be hard. The more you innovate, the more you struggle. But that’s the price of progress.”

Written by ABi kinsella

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