Celebrated for its Bedouin-inflected cooking, Sheung Wan restaurant Bedu takes the close relationship between its namesake nomadic Arab tribe and Mother Nature to heart in their new Dinner with Corey series. Kickstarting the four eco-themed, one-night-only countertop dinners planned for this year, chef Corey Riches is partnering with Peggy Chan, formerly of Grassroots Pantry, for a four-hands feast to mark Earth Hour 2021. This marks the ninth consecutive year that Chan has hosted her annual Earth Hour dinner, with last year's edition taking place by candlelight.

Each of the six courses on the menu is a proof-of-concept, demonstrating how different facets of food sustainability can be realised in delectable fashion. Taking place on 17 March, the dinner will begin with an aperitif, the Zero Waste Tonic (beetroot juice, ginger, turmeric syrup, burdock, lemon juice, soda water), made using leftover ingredients from the kitchen; before progressing to the Refrigerants, a riff on Bedu's signature mezze and dips made entirely without cooling to draw attention to the highly-damaging chemical coolants used in fridges, freezers and aircons.

See also: Curry Fishballs Are One of Hong Kong’s Greatest Food Inventions, According To Peggy Chan

"Ugly" carrots find a home in the next course of hummus, alongside a compost crumble and vegetable chips; and following that, an umami-packed vegetable bouillon of mushrooms, burdock floss and tree nuts named after silvopasture, the practice of integrating trees, crops, and the grazing of livestock in a cycle of regenerative agriculture.

The Plant Rich Diet, a nutrient-rich soup combining Lebanese quinoa, tarator sauce, Baharat spiced tofu, and yellow lentils, upends notions of flavourless vegan and vegetarian cuisine; while the Clean Energy, a mille-feuille of poached cabbage and black garlic grown under LED lights, rounds out the savoury portion of the meal. With dessert, Riches and Chan draw on the evocative flavours of cacao and local pink guava ice cream with cacao husk tea, whisking us away to the world's rainforests—simultaneously the most threatened biomes on the planet, yet the most crucial to our survival.

At HK$680 per person, the Earth Hour four-hands dinner on 17 March will be spread across two seatings at 6pm and 8.15pm. For more information or to book a seat, click here.