Ómós Digest # 11: Undervaluing food's value
Is looking after our food, looking after our people?
Welcome to the Ómós Digest. This newsletter will hopefully bring you on that journey about the food you were looking for, or perhaps never knew existed. It is our quest to expand on what we don’t know and to share with those who care.
This newsletter is part 2/2 and is brought to you by Cúán Greene, Founder of Ómós. In case you missed part 1, the Future of Food, you can read it here.
2020 has demonstrated to the world the staggering vulnerability of the hospitality industry. The global pandemic has unearthed the fragility of restaurants and the lack of financial symmetry in how this industry has been run to date. Despite the frailties of the industry, the pandemic has revealed the indisputable role and importance that restaurants, bars, cafés and hotels play in our daily lives, and the necessity for their survival.
Disregarding 2020/21, Ireland’s revenue statistics for the last 10 years have been promising. 2019 saw record figures for the tourism and hospitality industry, with a food service value of €8.4 billion. Despite false claims that restaurants were enjoying inflated profits, Fáilte Ireland director Aidan Pender put that to bed, revealing that a profit margin of 2 to 4% in the restaurant sector would not be considered excessive (!!!). Input costs for Irish restaurants were found to be higher than in many comparable countries. This is all too believable. With rising rents and rates, Ireland received an honourable 13th place on the world’s most expensive countries list.
All things considering, over the past couple of weeks there have been whispers of price increases in restaurants. With the increased price of product, labour and the necessity to repay debt, it's expected that menus will jump 20% on what was paid pre-pandemic. But what does this do for both the consumer and the industry, and will this impact how we dine out? Having not cooked in a restaurant for over 1.5 years, I watch my peers vying to survive.
How was dinner?
As a child, I was always allowed to partake in my parents' parties up to a certain hour. There was never such a thing as a kiddies table at our household, nor a kiddies menu. In fact, as a 7 year old, I was disgusted by them. Encouraged to taste what was served and listen to the conversations being told, my siblings and I always had a voice at our parents’ table. Later in the evening, when it was time for bed, I requested that my door be left open. On these nights, I enjoyed listening to the echoing sounds travelling upwards from the kitchen. In them was something soothing.
Similarly, when my parents went out for dinner, the following morning, I would ask what they each had chosen from the menu. I asked them to describe every detail of the meal - too young to understand why my mother could seldomly remember the dessert. For this matter, and many more, it is plausible that I was always headed in the direction of the hospitality industry. As a child, unaware of the imbalance, underlying abuse and inequitable wages, restaurants have always portrayed a sense of wonder to me.
The hospitality workforce is the new honey bee.
As our hospitality industry prepares for its reopening, it’s apparent that those who were forced to let staff go over the course of the pandemic, face rehiring a staff force that no longer exists. Over this period, many in this industry have rightfully abandoned their careers in search of new ones. Our international workforce have returned to their home countries, with a newfound appreciation for life outside of work. Many of those who were so devoted to this industry have found new careers in more stable sectors, and would you blame them? Unless something is radically done to incentivise a revival, the skilled workforce we depend upon is in deep trouble of extinction.
A recent article from food magazine Eater, brought our attention to a New York restaurant (now a temporary sandwich bar) that loses money on its best selling sandwich, priced at $14. The chef, Amanda Cohen, who once had the luxury of serving a tasting menu which fetched high prices, refused to cut the quality of her product in order to produce her sandwiches. The article demonstrates that quality ingredients today are expensive. It reaffirms that Fáilte Ireland’s average profit statistic for restaurants is not only an issue in Ireland, but globally. By not sacrificing on quality and paying employees a livable wage, the $14 price reflected the costs of operating the business (ingredients, labour, delivery/takeout and fixed costs).
However with inflated living costs, it’s only inevitable that the cost of locally produced food will rise. Cohen for one intends on raising the tasting menu prices to better compensate the staff once the restaurant has reopened. Of course this is a scary thought for consumers, but isn’t this the price we pay for the true value of a meal for which workers are fairly compensated and the food served is nutritious and sustainable? If we as a nation want to continue the development of our food industry, we need our best restaurants, cafés, and food trucks to prosper. For that to happen, a higher value should be placed on establishments that source the best quality food. Consequently, it is pivotal that the value we place on food also increases. After all, food has “always been precious”, according to Alice Waters, chef and founder of Chez Panisse.
Setting the standard
But how? It is not so easy for the consumer to know which establishments operate ethically and transparently. This year, Michelin recognised the need for change and now annually awards a Green Star of distinction to restaurants at the forefront of the industry, when it comes to their sustainable practices. While this is a great step, regular examination isn’t carried out by the Guide, which makes you wonder if restaurants truly honour this recognition. The lack of checks are in stark contrast to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. They operate a management system known as HACCP, in which regular unannounced health checks by company inspectors ensure that safe practices are being followed. This is by legal requirement.
In the U.S, the Green Restaurant Association (known as GRA, an abbreviation that coincidentally means ‘love’ in Irish) is a non-profit environmental organisation that helps restaurants and its customers become more environmentally sustainable in ways that are convenient and cost-effective. The ratings range from 1-4 stars, with only 25 restaurants in the entire country to have obtained a 4 star recognition to date. To receive Green Certification, restaurants must meet GRA’s environmental standards by acquiring GreenPoints in eight categories: sustainable food; water efficiency; waste reduction and recycling; sustainable furnishings and building materials; energy; disposables; chemical and pollution reduction; and transparency and education. A tool that measures sustainability, like GRA, would improve recognition for restaurants in Ireland that actively move towards more sustainable practices, providing a tangible and quantifiable identification for consumers.
The new history of food
We have witnessed a notable shift in consumer mentality and eating habits. Not in the last five decades have we seen consumers place such focus on ethical and sustainable choices until now. The resurgence of quality, independent groceries has become an integral part of communities. 63% of Irish consumers are now more willing to buy from Irish businesses and retailers. Consumerism plays an important role in the development of society, and consumption can be a driving force to shift society into a sustainable future. More readily available now to the consumer is local produce that has been grown using methods that understand and are conscious of the effects of farming on an ecosystem. And while not all local food is ethically farmed, choosing organically grown food that comes from small farms is certainly a step in the right direction (here’s a handy guide that might help further demystify your thoughts on what is right).
This desire to help the economy along with climate change is fast becoming a conscience within our community, and restaurants that practise this ethos should prosper. It would entail a more ethical outlook on produce and the use of sustainable approaches across management and business practices. In my mind, creating a sustainable model is worthy of a 20% price increase on the menu. A model that can differentiate those from other departments that neither contributes positively to our health, environment nor future.
A growing initiative
As I write this, a text message has come in from the General Manager of a hotel on the West Coast of Ireland: a hotel whose ethos I am helping to shift from generic, Irish hotel food to a farm-to-table concept. They are willing to offer free accommodation and full salary to chefs. It’s the first time I’ve noticed the ball shift in favour of the chef. A testament to how the pandemic has shone a light on the significance of this industry, the value of the workforce and the quality of ethical food.
We can be encouraged by successful models in Scandinavia and New York, where restaurants place importance not only on the standard of their product but also on the wellbeing of their staff. In Denmark, the law states that all professional kitchens must have access to natural light, a vital but basic resource that is key to our physical and psychological wellbeing. In the restaurants I worked in, in addition to natural light, the quality of LED lights and work surfaces in the kitchen were of equal quality to those in the dining room. It felt as if our well-being was of equal importance to the customers.
The expected rise in menu prices might signify a surge in standard for both consumers and employees. The standard of food, employee wages and working conditions may improve. It might also promote a sounder environment for a more able-bodied workforce. That said, with an increase in menu prices, comes the reality that dining out becomes less accessible to many. Undoubtedly, the act of going to a restaurant will become more of an occasion and in a way, shouldn’t it? In the last decade, how we eat has changed drastically. It was once an activity for special occasions, reserved for birthdays and celebrations, where food of great quality and skill was served. Today, eating out has become an everyday expectation of varying and immeasurable quality.
To really value our food, we need to make better decisions around the food we eat: what we eat, where we eat and when we eat. By altering our food choices and outlook in favour of better quality and more ecological produce, we can help to counteract the broken manner in which the majority of the world's food is grown. After all, we can only eat well when we farm well. Supporting restaurants that embrace this ethos is definitely a good way to start and to work towards the development of a more progressive industry, economy and environment.
As always, thank you for reading the Ómós Digest. This is newsletter #19, so if you missed our previous editions, you’ve got plenty to catch up on, including our Something Saucy offering. You can also check out omos.co if you’re curious about our story.