As part of the city’s efforts to help restaurants reduce food waste, Denver this week will showcase a tasting menu made from ingredients that most often get tossed in the bin.

Denver’s public health agency, along with the Natural Resources Defense Council and Slow Food Denver, will partner with Broadway Market restaurants for the Thursday night tasting event.

The project is part of Certifiably Green Denver’s third Food Waste Pilot Program that helps restaurants reduce food waste by means of prevention, donating and composting.

“Working with restaurants on this event provides an invaluable opportunity to showcase creative solutions to curb food waste because chefs already are trained to create their menus using as much of any given ingredient as possible,” DDPHE’s Certifiably Green Denver spokeswoman Susan Renaud said in a statement.

“Chefs also are such visible and valuable contributors to our community. Their attention to food waste will help us reach a larger audience and inspire people to think about ingredients differently when cooking at home,” she said.

Restaurants are responsible for a quarter of the food waste generated in Denver, the second-highest group behind households, which is why the pilot program is targeted at that sector.

Denver and Baltimore are the only two cities in the country that were chosen by the NRDC in 2018 to generate new strategies to combat food waste, which is the third-largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions.

“We have prioritized reducing and eventually eliminating food waste as one of the most actionable solutions to climate change – and Denver is showing how to get results quickly, while also working hard to address food insecurity in the area,” NRDC spokeswoman Madeline Keating said in a Wednesday press release.

Restaurants participating in the Broadway Market Food Waste Pilot Program include The Bar at Broadway, Broadway Gardens, Logan House Coffee Company, Maria Empanada, Misaki, Mondo Mini, Mother Tongue, Pizzeria Coperta, Royal Rooster, Tacos al Chile and Tora Ramen.

The event begins at 5 p.m. and runs through 8 pm. on Feb. 20 at 950 Broadway. The first 50 people in the door will receive a free voucher to try four tastings from the sampling menu.

At 5:30 p.m., local chefs will present their dishes and take part in a panel discussion with other representatives from NRDC, Slow Food Nations, Broadway Market and Denver’s Certifiably Green Denver. The topic will be about ways to reduce discarded food “in Denver and beyond.”