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The Demand for Fine Dining – Is it Sustainable?.
July '08
‘Sustainable’ is a new favourite. In 2008 our fine dining
experiences revolve around the implied need to
consume local produce that is organic and sustainable.
One might argue that local produce has too many
benefits to ignore: Cultivating a local market community,
a reduction in unfriendly transport costs and showing off
what the local area has to offer.
If our opinion of the world is also a confession of
character, as RW Emerson once famously said, then
perhaps it also holds that our view of the world is
coloured by our own experiences.
Should this be true then the ‘local’, ‘organic’ and
‘sustainable’ bandwagon is rolling right through fine
dining from top to bottom. Why? As new diners come to
the market their expectations and experiences require
these things.
After all, it is all they hear about, all they read and all they
see in the media. New chefs too want to rise to the
challenge and meet this demand. Eventually, even the
old guard will adorn their menus with platitudes about
local, sustainable produce.
Since Al Gore's pivotal Nobel Prize and Oscar winning
piece An Inconvenient Truth, the notion that the
environment is our best friend has seeped, by osmosis,
deep into the ocean of world psyche.
It may not quite be the end of Bresse and Anjou or ‘line
caught’ or ‘hand dived’ appearing on our menus but they
will become increasingly marginalised over time.
But this is just a diversion, we are asking is fine dining
itself sustainable not just its contents.
It is fair to say that over the last 10 years the demand for
fine dining has exploded. And this appetite for top end
eating has not been confined to Britain – We have seen
Michelin produce Guides for the United States and Japan
as they continue to expand into further markets.
Michelin is just a signal, a sign of the times, people
demand to know what’s out there and, importantly, have
had the economic clout to go and experience these best
of establishments.
July '08
‘Sustainable’ is a new favourite. In 2008 our fine dining
experiences revolve around the implied need to
consume local produce that is organic and sustainable.
One might argue that local produce has too many
benefits to ignore: Cultivating a local market community,
a reduction in unfriendly transport costs and showing off
what the local area has to offer.
If our opinion of the world is also a confession of
character, as RW Emerson once famously said, then
perhaps it also holds that our view of the world is
coloured by our own experiences.
Should this be true then the ‘local’, ‘organic’ and
‘sustainable’ bandwagon is rolling right through fine
dining from top to bottom. Why? As new diners come to
the market their expectations and experiences require
these things.
After all, it is all they hear about, all they read and all they
see in the media. New chefs too want to rise to the
challenge and meet this demand. Eventually, even the
old guard will adorn their menus with platitudes about
local, sustainable produce.
Since Al Gore's pivotal Nobel Prize and Oscar winning
piece An Inconvenient Truth, the notion that the
environment is our best friend has seeped, by osmosis,
deep into the ocean of world psyche.
It may not quite be the end of Bresse and Anjou or ‘line
caught’ or ‘hand dived’ appearing on our menus but they
will become increasingly marginalised over time.
But this is just a diversion, we are asking is fine dining
itself sustainable not just its contents.
It is fair to say that over the last 10 years the demand for
fine dining has exploded. And this appetite for top end
eating has not been confined to Britain – We have seen
Michelin produce Guides for the United States and Japan
as they continue to expand into further markets.
Michelin is just a signal, a sign of the times, people
demand to know what’s out there and, importantly, have
had the economic clout to go and experience these best
of establishments.
As has been said in previous editorials, people are
influenced by near blanket media coverage in how best to
consume in line with lifestyle aspirations and who have we
seen on TV more than chefs in the last decade?
People have become so much better educated and
discerning in their choices and over the last period
considerably better off financially.
However, here comes the crunch – the ‘credit crunch’ in fact.
The economic circumstances of 2008 are far more worrying
and gloomy than 1989, when the beginnings of the last
recession hit Britain. The commonly coined credit crunch is
unprecedented in economic history and in the modern
world everything economic follows from the cost of credit.
The accompanying (but unrelated) record oil prices make a
potent and potentially catastrophic combination.
(I have a conspiracy theory – one of many – that the price of
oil is a fix to deter India and China from rapidly expanding
their consumption of fossil fuel: OPEC control supply and
supply determines price and as yet I don’t see the US
leaning too hard on OPEC to fine tune their delivery of
Crude.
Understandable and logical. Why? An expansion in supply
and reduction in price would fuel demand in these
developing countries to a point where the ‘unsustainable’
comes uncomfortably into view for the whole oil dependant
world.)
But where does this leave fine dining? An economic
downturn, one that is severe and prolonged, will hit all
sectors of the market. Indeed , the first to suffer in a
downturn are luxury disposable income items and who
could argue that fine dining restaurants are not at the top of
that list!
It may not be too long before the plethora of chef
programmes follow the property programmes off our
airwaves.
However, I suspect the top end will survive, a form of
hibernation, before the first blossoms of economic spring in
around 2012.
Perhaps a period of adjustment: fewer new ventures, fewer
front of house, fewer chefs in the kitchen.
In any event, I’ve no doubt that fine dining restaurants will be
sustainably selling sustainable menus to the sustainably
wealthy for the foreseeable future.
influenced by near blanket media coverage in how best to
consume in line with lifestyle aspirations and who have we
seen on TV more than chefs in the last decade?
People have become so much better educated and
discerning in their choices and over the last period
considerably better off financially.
However, here comes the crunch – the ‘credit crunch’ in fact.
The economic circumstances of 2008 are far more worrying
and gloomy than 1989, when the beginnings of the last
recession hit Britain. The commonly coined credit crunch is
unprecedented in economic history and in the modern
world everything economic follows from the cost of credit.
The accompanying (but unrelated) record oil prices make a
potent and potentially catastrophic combination.
(I have a conspiracy theory – one of many – that the price of
oil is a fix to deter India and China from rapidly expanding
their consumption of fossil fuel: OPEC control supply and
supply determines price and as yet I don’t see the US
leaning too hard on OPEC to fine tune their delivery of
Crude.
Understandable and logical. Why? An expansion in supply
and reduction in price would fuel demand in these
developing countries to a point where the ‘unsustainable’
comes uncomfortably into view for the whole oil dependant
world.)
But where does this leave fine dining? An economic
downturn, one that is severe and prolonged, will hit all
sectors of the market. Indeed , the first to suffer in a
downturn are luxury disposable income items and who
could argue that fine dining restaurants are not at the top of
that list!
It may not be too long before the plethora of chef
programmes follow the property programmes off our
airwaves.
However, I suspect the top end will survive, a form of
hibernation, before the first blossoms of economic spring in
around 2012.
Perhaps a period of adjustment: fewer new ventures, fewer
front of house, fewer chefs in the kitchen.
In any event, I’ve no doubt that fine dining restaurants will be
sustainably selling sustainable menus to the sustainably
wealthy for the foreseeable future.
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