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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.
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.
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.
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.
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