Thinking out of the box, the circular bio-economy and local production are the key concepts in Gorm’s Pizza’s recent partnership with Beyond Coffee.

From autumn you can try out Gorm’s new signature pizza, “Mushroom Salute” which was created together with the pioneers of organic food, Beyond Coffee, who cultivate oyster mushrooms in organic coffee grounds collected from, among other places, cafés in Copenhagen.

“In our pursuit of the best Danish mushroom, we heard about some guys who were growing oyster mushrooms in coffee grounds that they collected in and around Copenhagen. Thinking out of the box and with our focus on the circular bio-economy, we knew we had to contact them,” says pizza master Gorm Wisweh.

Beyond Coffee takes its point of departure on the incredibly large amount of waste associated with coffee production - only 0.2% of all of the nutrients in coffee are actually used when we make an espresso. The other 99.8% remains in the coffee grounds, which Beyond Coffee collects from local cafés, offices, large kitchens and educational institutions – altogether 700kg coffee grounds per week – and use to grow mushrooms. The mushrooms are ready after one month and the coffee grounds can be reused to grow mushrooms several times.

“In the beginning I had my reservations about the flavour they might have, but my concerns were assuaged once I tried the mushrooms. They have exactly the right structure and taste just as if they were picked during a mushroom forage in the forest. And on top of that, they are completely fresh when they are delivered to the restaurant because they are grown locally.

Pizza with these special mushrooms are available at all Gorm’s restaurants and the other toppings include creme fraiche, mozzarella, potato, lovage and pancetta on a wholewheat pizza base.

You can hear more about the partnership by clicking on the video below.