You are currently browsing the daily archive for November 1, 2023.
Recently, I collected a number of bookmarks on the world of restaurants.
Whilst these apply to the United Kingdom and France, readers around the world will be able to apply the same criteria to their own dining establishments.
Chain eateries: the good
On September 29, 2023, The Guardian‘s food critic Grace Dent wrote a comfort food homage to chain restaurants, ‘A moment of dependable zen on a helter-skelter day’ (emphases mine):
… there is a side to eating out that is rarely celebrated, and that thrives on providing a moment of comfort: the chain. Come as you are, come dishevelled, hungover, heartbroken, alone or with a rabble. We’re not going on a culinary journey; rather, this is a culinary cul-de-sac where you’ve been doing a three-point turn for the past 20 years … A trip to Pizza Express or Nando’s will never rock your world, but the fact that you can visualise exactly how your butterfly chicken with macho peas will look before you’ve even walked through the door will bring a moment of dependable zen to a helter-skelter day.
… we choose the chain because it rarely seriously angers us. Sure, they will have bad days – fiorentina pizza with a hard egg yolk, a Zinger Supercharger Tower meal with missing hash brown, or dry, overcooked peri peri chicken, as well as missing loo paper and forgotten desserts – but your favourite chain never truly burns its bridges …
… to ensure I get to eat something hot in a motorway service station, is often my single moment of self-care in an otherwise thankless day. I’m not at Noma now, and needs must, so I’ll take joy however it’s packaged.
Chain eateries: the bad
Two weeks later on September 11, The Telegraph‘s Ed Cumming wrote about the up and coming British bakery chain, Gail’s, where a loaf of bread costs £5.
Cumming wrote about his disillusionment in ‘How Gail’s has gone from bourgeois cafe to irritatingly robotic chain’:
… the other day … I read that Gail’s, the bakery chain, had estimated that there was scope in the UK for ‘300-500’ stores. Speaking at something called the ‘Lunch!’ event, managing director Marta Pogroszewska said there was ‘high demand’ for what Gail’s does, adding that the ‘bakery space is very interesting right now’. It plans to open 31 new stores this financial year, adding to the 121 it already has.
She’s right, the bakery space is interesting right now. Gail’s is a particular example. Like bankruptcy, or falling in love, Gail’s is something that happened slowly and then all at once. The first shop opened nearly 20 years ago, in Hampstead in 2005. As it inched its way through the capital’s more bourgeois enclaves – Notting Hill, Soho, Bloomsbury, Kentish Town – Gail’s became a byword for sophistication. Its distinctive red and white branding was a proof that you could relax, you were not far from a superior pastry and a babycinno for your toddler. If you were a Gail’s person you were better than other café goers.
Gail’s has a good pedigree, in that it started with Luke Johnson, the man behind the success of Pizza Express. Then, two years ago, private equity arrived:
Evidently the formula, devised by former Pizza Express maestro Luke Johnson, worked. In September 2021, as the rest of the hospitality industry was licking its wounds from the pandemic, Gail’s – which then had around 70 outlets – announced it was to be bought by Bain, the private equity firm, in a deal worth a reported £200 million. Flush with American cash, since then it has been opening new branches faster than you can say ‘San Francisco Sourdough’.
Gail’s secret is to appeal to people who like exclusivity:
… the Gail’s Superiority Feeling depends on the sense you are getting an elevated experience, not available to everyone. These loaves cost a fiver, which is a good feeling to those who can afford it; but apart from the cost, part of the joy is knowing that you can’t get them everywhere. ‘People might not buy a new Mercedes, but most people still treat themselves to sourdough bread,’ said the chief executive, Tom Molnar, earlier this year, showing a curious understanding of the word ‘most’.
I treat myself to sourdough bread nearly weekly. I have my own culture, make the dough and bake the bread myself. It costs a fraction of what Gail’s loaves cost — and, on the basis that I make it, it’s pretty darned exclusive. But I digress.
Cumming has become a bit disillusioned with a chain he once enjoyed:
… as it expands, Gail’s is already starting to betray the irritating robotic tendencies of a large chain. It has an app that takes about 45 minutes to load, so is useless at the till …
There is gold in bakeries, for those who can get it right. Just look at Greggs. But the road to profit is paved with quotidian pains. After all, if I want to overpay for a disappointing baguette served by brusque staff on every street in the country, I can go to Pret.
Pret’s a darned sight cheaper, that’s for sure.
Fortnum and Mason eye US market
Granted, this item is not restaurant-oriented, even though Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly has a restaurant that attracts both Britons and tourists.
The department store has discovered that visiting Americans would like to buy their merchandise back home in the US.
On October 31, The Telegraph reported, ‘Fortnum & Mason plots major US expansion as demand for British tea and jam grows’:
Tom Athron, chief executive at Fortnum & Mason, said the upmarket grocer would open a warehouse in the US so it could begin selling its products directly to Americans.
Mr Athron told The Telegraph: “About a third of the overseas customers into Piccadilly are from the US. What we want to do in much the same way as we’ve done in the EU is put some of our own stock on the ground.”
The upmarket kitchenware chain Williams Sonoma is ready to help:
Californian retailer Williams Sonoma, which owns chains including West Elm and Pottery Barn, currently imports some Fortnum & Mason products to sell in its shops but plans to open a warehouse would allow the British retailer to sell products directly to Americans for the first time.
Demand is strongest in California and New York “and then some of the major cities – Houston in Texas is big, Chicago is big and Miami,” Mr Athron said.
American shoppers are particularly fond of British staples such as tea and jams, Mr Athron said. Fortnum & Mason holds a royal warrant to supply the King with tea as well as groceries.
Mr Athron said: “We want to make sure that they have access to products at home but send them signposts so when they come to the UK, they think: ‘Oh, I must go and get the full Fortnum’s Piccadilly experience’.”
He suggested Fortnum & Mason could even open shops in the US in the future, saying: “I always remain open to it.”
European business is expanding …
It comes as the King’s grocer this week restarted deliveries to the EU for the first time since they were curtailed by post-Brexit red tape. Fortnum & Mason has opened a new warehouse in Belgium and launched a dedicated EU website.
… as is trade at two major international airports:
As well as restarting deliveries in the EU and expanding into the US, the retailer earlier this year opened a new shop in Hong Kong International Airport and plans to open another branch in Dubai International Airport over the coming months.
Tom Athron is making Fortnum’s even more appealing to foodies in Piccadilly:
Mr Athron, a former chief financial officer of Waitrose, took on the role of chief executive in 2020 during the throes of the pandemic and kicked off a five-year plan designed to make the business more appealing to a broader range of shoppers.
This included a major revamp of the third floor of its Piccadilly shop, turning it into a “creative hub” for food and drink with an in-house kitchen, gin distillery and new kitchenware shop.
Excellent news!
2014, 2023: French legislation on restaurant fare made on the premises
Over the past 15 years, controversy has loomed over the extent to which quality restaurant food is made on the premises.
In 2009, news emerged that some of Gordon Ramsay’s expensive fare was actually sent in from industrial kitchens in west London. Wikipedia tells — or reminds — us:
On 17 April 2009, it was revealed that one of Ramsay’s restaurants, Foxtrot Oscar in London’s Chelsea area, used pre-prepared food that was heated up and sold with mark-ups of up to 586%. It was also revealed that three of his gastropubs in London did the same thing. A spokeswoman for Ramsay said, “Gordon Ramsay chefs prepare components of dishes devised and produced to the highest Gordon Ramsay standards. These are supplied to those kitchens with limited cooking space such as Foxtrot Oscar and Gordon Ramsay’s highly acclaimed pubs, including the Narrow. These are sealed and transported daily in refrigerated vans and all menu dishes are then cooked in the individual kitchens. This is only for the supply of Foxtrot Oscar and the three pubs and allows each establishment to control the consistency and the quality of the food served.”[159][160] Reflecting on the controversy in 2010, Ramsay was unapologetic: “When I was working at the Gavroche all those years ago, the duck terrine wasn’t made there. It was made outside, then brought to the restaurant wrapped in plastic. This is standard practice. What on earth was the fuss about?”[161]
Well, I missed what he said about Le Gavroche, which is closing at the end of the year to allow Michel Roux Jr to focus on other projects. I ate there once. It was an outstanding lunch. I’m glad I didn’t have the duck terrine.
Around the time that the Ramsay controversy came to light, the French current affairs magazine Marianne had an extensive report on the amount of restaurant food that is actually boil-in-the-bag. French restaurateurs said that it helped them keep overheads down. Furthermore, they were able to hire less expensive migrant staff who just wanted a job and really weren’t interested in cooking. Oh, dear.
In 2014, however, a new law appeared in France designed to regulate — and reduce — the amount of pre-prepared restaurant food. This was during François Hollande’s presidency.
On July 15 that year, The Guardian reported:
From 15 July, every restaurant in France will have to make clear whether it cooks its food from scratch, rather than serving food prepared industrially off-site. After all, who wants to sit on a bistro terrace, charging bistro prices, to be served onion soup out of a packet? But according to chefs, the “fait maison” (homemade) law falls far short of its goals.
… midrange restaurants in particular have faced criticism for using factory-made shortcuts in the kitchen. A survey carried out by French catering union Synhorcat suggested 31% of restaurants (not including cafeterias, bars and fast food outlets) used industrially prepared foods.
Others claim the proportion is much higher – Xavier Denamur, restaurateur and fresh-food campaigner and filmmaker, carried out his own personal survey, which took him to dozens of restaurants throughout France. He believes closer to three quarters of restaurants relied on industrially produced food.
Last month, UK-based French chef Michel Roux (senior [co-founder of Le Gavroche with his brother Albert]) blamed this decline on France’s 35-hour working week and the high employment costs. “France is in danger of losing its proud food culture and traditions, not to mention its gastronomic supremacy,” he said. “In contrast, the food in Britain has improved so much and the standard is largely excellent. It is the reverse of what has occurred in France.” Nicholas Farrell also blamed the working time rules when he recently called French food a “national disgrace”.
Many in the industry say the 35-hour week has had an impact on the quality of the restaurant experience. (Ever felt rushed out at the end of a late evening meal?) But it’s not quite as simple as being restricted to a seven-hour day; the hospitality industry has allowances for longer days, within certain rules, and plenty of chefs put the time in. Gregory Marchand of Frenchies in Paris says: “You get career chefs who work long hours and want to learn, and people who are just doing this as a job.” Australian chef Shaun Kelly, speaking during a break in his 15-hour day at Paris restaurant Yard, says: “I have yet to meet a chef working seven-hour days.”
But many agree with Roux that high employment costs are crushing. Michelin-starred chef Alain Dutournier says things are going well at the high end of the market, but not for mid-range restaurants: “The deterioration began in the 1990s with the rise of national insurance costs and the cost of employment,” he says.
Cheap bought-in goods cut preparation time and the need for costly kitchen staff and it’s easy to find places adopting this model, according to British chef Michael Greenwold, of Roseval and the Sunken Chip in Paris. He looked at around 25 spaces when choosing premises for his restaurant. “Everywhere you went you could see that they were buying in ready-made stock, sauces and so on.”
And Dutournier tells of a recent trip to the coast, near Marseille: “We found it very hard to find a restaurant that would serve us fresh fish. It is terrible.” Kelly says he was surprised by the reality of French food. “I don’t want to use the word disappointed,” he says. “But as a chef, you hear about France all your life. And it wasn’t quite what I expected.”
The new law is meant to tackle this by promoting establishments that do cook from scratch. Carole Delga, secretary of state, said the fait maison logo would “allow all, at a glance, to distinguish food that has been assembled from industrially prepared elements from cuisine created from raw produce”.
All restaurants must now put the following key phrase on their menus: “Les plats ‘fait maison’ sont élaborés sur place à partir de produits bruts,” (“‘Homemade dishes’ are made on site from raw produce.”) Restaurants that make everything from scratch must then display the words fait maison or the logo somewhere visible, and those that have a mix must put it next to each cooked-from-scratch dish. Those that buy everything in, and so have no fait maison dishes, still have to put the key phrase on menus to “remind their customers of the rule”.
This is where the 2014 law was predicted to fail:
… there has been debate over what constitutes brut or raw produce. Under the law, to qualify as fait maison, ingredients must not have undergone significant “modification” – so no heating or marinating. But, for example, they can be frozen, industrially peeled (except for potatoes – fast food places shouldn’t be calling frozen chips homemade), chopped, sliced, or shaped, and industrially made sauce bases are fine too – as long as it’s noted on the menu.
Denamur has made a number of documentaries on the state of French food and arguably kickstarted the fait maison idea, but he is bitterly disappointed and is calling on chefs to ignore the law. “I chop all my steak tartare to order, but someone who buys it in, vacuum packed in a controlled atmosphere, where it might have come from 10 different cows, can call theirs fait maison too. It’s ridiculous.
“We could have set an example for Europe, but instead we have this catch-all where the government is trying to go some way to please the consumer, some way to please the restaurant industry and some way to appease the industrials,” Denamur says. “If you can’t make the base for a sauce, don’t make one. Don’t use an industrial one – that’s not real cooking, it’s not fait maison.”
Three top chefs decided to go further than the law. Dutournier, along with:
Alain Ducasse and Joel Robuchon have set up a quality mark scheme where restaurants meeting certain criteria, including cooking from scratch, can display the Restaurant de Qualité sign. Around 800 restaurants have signed up. And union Synhorcat is calling for a legally protected “appellation” under which only establishments cooking from scratch on site could call themselves restaurants. A similar law, in place since 1998, means the title boulangerie (bakery) is reserved for places that bake bread on site; other bread outlets must use the term depot de pain.
The article concludes:
… the fait maison law is unlikely to help much.
And, unfortunately, it did not help.
Nine years later, Emmanuel Macron’s administration is attempting to rectify his predecessor’s — Hollande’s — shortcomings in the ‘fait maison‘ law.
On October 23, 2023, The Connexion reported on the new legislation and explained why the 2014 law did not work:
Restaurants will have to display a new logo to indicate which dishes were not entirely prepared by the chef under new plans announced by the minister of commerce.
Dishes that are entirely prepared by a restaurant can already be highlighted on the menu with the existing fait maison, or homemade symbol, which is a pan with a roof over it. However due to the stringent criteria this requires, it is not very widely used.
Out of France’s 175,000 restaurants, only 7,000 use the fait maison symbol, according to Alain Fontaine, president of the l’association française des maîtres restaurateurs.
In large part this is due to the extra work that the logo requires: restaurants must be able to provide documentation about the cooking process at every stage, without which they could be penalised for false advertising.
Frozen ingredients are allowed, but not chips: a single frozen chip disqualifies a dish from being fait maison.
Under the new plans announced on October 22, the opposite approach will be tested by 2025: a logo for non-homemade dishes.
“We have been working on this for several months,” Minister of Commerce, Olivia Grégoire, told La Tribune.
“We have to do something, because the optional fait maison logo that was created in 2014 is difficult to implement and not widely used.”
“There needs to be more transparency, both for customers and tourists,” she said.
“It is also good for the morale of restaurateurs who take the pain to prepare homemade dishes for their customers.”
However, Alain Fontaine doubted whether the new law would help:
… he is not certain that the new logo will lead to more homemade dishes.
“To make homemade food, even if it is cheaper in terms of ingredients, you need professionals in the kitchen, not just ‘bag cutters.’
“There is a problem of recruitment that affects the whole sector.”
Several months ago, I listened to a number of discussions about the restaurant sector on France’s talk radio station RMC. A number of independent restaurateurs complained that furlough during the coronavirus pandemic put paid to retaining cooks as well as front of house staff. More than one said that his employees left to work for DIY chain stores where the hours were a reliable 9-to-6 and only involved ‘standing around not doing anything’. Anyone who frequents DIY chains know that s/he has to know what to look for because the staff are in no position to help.
EuroNews also had an article on the new 2023 legislation:
If you travel to France and sit down in a nice bistro in Paris to enjoy the delights of French cuisine, what you may find is… industrial food.
That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s tasteless and tough to eat but for many places it’s simply cheaper and more practical to buy mass produced and frozen meals.
It might be surprising in a country whose gastronomy has World Heritage status but restaurants have been facing criticism for using ready made dishes, bought from wholesalers.
According to the 2 Michelin stars chef Thierry Marx, only half out of 175,000 restaurants in France are serving homemade food. “Many of them suffer because they are compared in terms of price to others who use ready to eat meals, or even ultra-processed food without telling their customers,” he explains.
The article included a tweet from the Minister of Commerce, Olivia Gregoire, who says that customers deserve to know more about what is on their plate, where it comes from and how it is prepared:
The article says that how restaurants will comply is currently under discussion:
French Trade Minister Olivia Grégoire wants this new rule to become compulsory by 2025. Several weeks of discussions with industrials and restaurants owners, however, are now due to begin to define precisely how it will be displayed.
“It could for example be an asterisk which refers to the dish at the bottom of the menu. It’s less punishing and easier for restaurant owners to implement,” suggested Alain Fontaine.
The French government is also planning to require that France’s consumer and fraud protection agency increase checks on misleading use of the label or non-compliance.
How to know if your restaurant meal is pre-prepared
The EuroNews article gives tips on discerning if a restaurant meal has pre-prepared elements:
If you travel to France and sit down in a nice bistro, here are few tips from a French foodie to avoid readymade favourites like boeuf bourguignon and veal blanquette.
– If there are too many choices on the menu (more than 15 main dishes let’s say) be wary.
– Check if the dishes are not “too basic” like duck confit, gratin dauphinois, Shepherd’s pie or even chocolate mousse. Those meals are likely to be prepared by industrial suppliers. (That’s why many restaurants specify already on their menu “homemade” next to those dishes when they are.)
– If the menu does not take into account the change in seasons, then be extra careful – as frozen products are more likely to be used.
– A complete menu at too low a price is also worthy of suspicion.
– If you have any doubts, do not hesitate to ask.
They are plenty of restaurants across France serving delicious freshly cooked food. It would be a shame to not taste the (real) delights of French cuisine. Bon appétit!
The Telegraph‘s Ed Cumming wrote about the new law on October 28 and also looked at British fare in ‘How to tell if a restaurant is serving you a pre-made meal’:
According to the Association of Master Restaurateurs, just 4 per cent of the 175,000 restaurants in France serve meals cooked entirely from raw materials, a staggeringly low figure. Most buy from specialist supermarkets. Braises are a particular target. While French food looks sophisticated to outsiders, just like a gastropub, many menus are built around the same dozen or so items. These can be standardised and sold in bulk, which makes it easier – and cheaper, crucial in a cost of living crisis – for new operators to open.
Even expensive restaurants use ready-made elements:
“The large majority of restaurants seem content to serve you the industrial version without telling you,” says Edward Chisholm, the author of A Waiter in Paris, a memoir of his time working in the city’s restaurants. “If you took the time to riffle through the bins of most Parisian restaurants you’d probably be shocked at how much ready-made packaging was in there. And this isn’t just the tourists traps in the centre. It can also be places masquerading as high end, such as places I worked. Often you’re so taken in by the decoration that it seems implausible that there isn’t a kitchen of the same calibre.”
Cumming then turns to UK restaurants:
Pre-prepared food is a feature of restaurants in the UK, too, at every level … That sweet gastropub with a surprisingly broad menu? It might well be buying from a central kitchen. Anywhere non-Thai with a Thai curry? Whether the curry is red or green, it could be a red flag, especially if it is alongside a range of other cuisines.
As in France, braised dishes are a giveaway. In the UK, pies are another item to watch for:
“You can often spot it because it’ll be places that rely on slow-cooked things,” says Jackson Boxer, the chef and restaurateur behind Brunswick House, Orasay and the Corner, a new restaurant in London landmark Selfridges. “Or pies where the contents of the pies will be made in huge bulk, bagged and shipped out to be refilled in containers.”
Also judge by the look:
You can sometimes tell whether it is likely to have been bought in by how much it resembles something you could buy in a shop yourself.
“If you walk into an upscale supermarket like M&S and Waitrose and see those long lines of ready meals where there used to be fresh vegetables, they’re marketing themselves as Indian or Chinese or gastropub takeaway,” Boxer says. “Restaurants are essentially buying the same stuff. It’s bangers and mash where the onion gravy and mash are made in bulk, and the sausages come from the butcher.”
It’s not necessarily a bad thing, he adds. Not everywhere can aspire to make all its dishes from scratch. “It’s a sensible approach to running a business whose intention is to feed people,” he says. “Out of necessity, lots of places serving food are relying on low-skilled labour. But does it make for an interesting, rewarding, soul-stirring dining experience? I would argue that in most cases, not.”
Jackson Boxer discussed Gordon Ramsay’s boil-in-a-bag controversy from 2009:
“I think if you were a very successful restaurant with a few places and realised you could support them by preparing things in a cheap kitchen somewhere, with logistical advantages, but you were still using the same suppliers and quality of produce, there’s zero difference with a normal practice,” says Boxer. “You’re essentially dividing your prep kitchen from your service kitchen by a greater geographical distance.
“I think where it changes is where you outsource that preparatory work to large-scale catering suppliers, or by scaling up you use that sense of accountability with where your stuff is coming from. There’s no point slaving over your cooking if you’re going to work with something of poor quality.”
The article acknowledges that some things are better coming from industrial sources. However, these are items such as mayonnaise, fish paste or chili sauce.
Sometimes, even an experienced diner can be confused:
Another food writer recounts going for brunch and ordering a poached egg, only to be told they “couldn’t do it yet”, which was surprising given that there were eggs on the counter. Eventually the waiter cracked and confessed they didn’t actually poach the eggs themselves – they bought them semi-poached and heated them on-site. Omelettes, steaks in the bag for different levels of cooking: it seems there is no limit to the corners restaurants can cut.
It might be time for a French-style law in the UK, now that our food is on a par with France’s:
All this fudging means many British chefs would welcome a similar labelling system here.
Ultimately, good food prepared on the premises costs more:
“If you’re talking about making food as transparent as possible, labelling makes total sense,” says Oli Brown, of Updown Farmhouse in Kent. “A normal customer wouldn’t have a clue how food is produced. In a world where everyone is broke and a country that still doesn’t fully understand how restaurants work and what it costs to run one, having a label that would let you say, ‘we’re the guys who peel the potatoes and cut them and blanche them and fry them and fry them again and that’s why it costs £6 rather than £2.50’ would be very useful.”
I agree.
On the other hand, how many restaurants are charging £6 for a plate for what started out as industrially frozen chips?
I cook dinner or bake bread nearly every day. The only item of kitchen equipment I don’t have is a deep fryer: too wasteful and logistically difficult with disposal of the oil. As such, when we do dine out, I normally have something fried, e.g. squid, soft-shell crab, matchstick fries.
Otherwise, I am continually learning how to expand my repertoire at home. It’s a lot cheaper — and I know what every single ingredient is and where it came from.
Churchmouse Campanologist 