Lancashire, Famous for Beanspouts ?

How can the Chefs ensure they meet or exceed rising customer expectations through creative cooking, whilst maintaining a multi cultural, ethical, sustainable and seasonal perspective?

This post will take a look at Chefs very real choices, which are available to them when choosing fruit and vegetables.

The expectations of customers are greater than ever before, with an increase in the public’s interest in food. The hospitality industry now caters for a multi cultural society with cross ethic tastes; the public are now far more adventurous in their choice of food and are more willing to embrace food from other cultures.

Into this fusion of cuisines, of which we all partake, is the importance of seasonality, which not so long ago, was once celebrated in festivals and verse, but now many once cherished traditions have now been all but lost.

Added to this is the moral viewpoint, which is the ethical, ecological, cost of manufacture, and vast distances that produce especially fruit and vegetables now undertake to reach our plates.
To meet the demand of customers, Chefs need to understand which market segment that they are catering for and the emergence of new market segments, which not only may replace their current market, but also possibly will enhance the reputation, profitability of their operation being being on trend with customers expectations

In the period from the mid 19th century to the early 21st century the variety of fruit and vegetables available to the professional kitchen has changed, beyond what any chef could have ever expected. This is of course is a natural development due to the ingenuity of chilled transportation and airfreight, as the customer is always looking for the latest trend. Professional chefs strive to deliver these changes to satisfy the customer. As the general public holiday or work further afield and the world’s population becomes more transient, vegetables, fruit and their applications become ever more wide spread.

Italian food would be a good example, the local seasonal simplicity of Southern Italian cookery was ripe for future development when food industralisation and global supply chain became a driving force. This can be applied to any food culture or countries diaspora from Malawi, Senegal, China to India. People want to have the comfort of home cooking and food memories

There are many diaspora communities spread throughout the globe due to socio/economic reasons and with them, they take their cuisine.

The challenge is this, the fruit and vegetables of whatever countries diaspora wants to cook, those familiar comfort foods whilst in lands far away, such as the teff, plantains, tomatoes, millet, are more often that not in grown in that country or in season throughout the year where they are and so global transportation of major food groups were the only way to ensure year round supply to meet the need.

The trade review, Harpers Wines and Spirits in an article written by their editorial team reported that

“The distance traveled by food air-freighted into the UK increased by 31% or 65,000 tonnes in 2006, according to new government statistics. The figures showed the number of "food kilometres" for goods transported by air rose from 28 to 36 million over the period.”

Customer’s expectations and tastes change, from the tastes of earlier generations, even from that of their parents. Some customers no longer cook following the seasons and if professional chefs do not either, then there really is a problem. Many customers grow neither fruit nor vegetables for their family either in the household garden or on an allotment.

Michel Roux Jnr. stated in an Internet article for The Hub that

“The fact that an item may be in season elsewhere and consumed here means that we no longer follow a pattern and food trends develop at a different pace, it also means that some recipes and styles of cooking are lost in the muddle of global summers.”

This may be down to the relentless march of the supermarkets, of which we will talk more of later. It may be that modern life does not lend itself to the practice of growing your own vegetables and fruit, or even the fact that people do not know how to cook.

It now appears though that the general public are beginning to change their habits, the expensively marketed gloss that the multiples have carefully crafted over many years, is in parts of their target market segmentation, beginning to lose a little of its expensively honed sheen.

A groundswell of opinions points towards a re-emergence of self-sufficiency to some degree. This may be down to extensive media reporting regarding environmental change and the fear of not knowing what goes on your food.

The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts founded in 1912, complied a report about for The Local Food programme, which had at its disposal £50 million pounds of public money to assist in developing local food initiatives.

The Local Food programme, managed by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT) Mark Wheddon, said:

“The public appear to be increasingly in tune with the environmental consequences of the choices they make, including their knowledge and understanding of food and where it comes from.”

This indicates at ground level the public is begining to realise they can affect through individual actions a change for the common good, for example the environment

It stands to reason therefore, that the caterer who can show the commodities they sell are local or seasonal can also increase this awareness. As groups of customers who place importance on this behavioural variable grow, the importance of accountability from gate to plate or farm to fork will develop and those with the greatest market dominance will have to listen, as purchase power is a powerful tool in changing retail behaviour.

Greg Wallace, grocer and broadcaster whilst promoting an Eat Seasonably campaign at a conference called for a law, which required ten percent of supermarkets fresh, produce to come from within a 10-mile radius of the store.

“The local and seasonal trend showed shoppers wanted more British-grown produce”

This is interesting but realistically unachievable because if you are a supermarket in Dover or Whitehaven you will be limited somewhat by the stores close proximity to the sea, this would also apply if you’re a supermarket in central London, but what it does show is that consumers are being encouraged into thinking about moving away from the complete globalisation of the food chain.

Wallace also felt that;

‘If Chefs were no longer putting out-of-season produce on restaurant menus - a trend that would filter down to consumer’

The fact that these comments were reported in the highly influential trade magazine The Grocer shows that mainstream media outlets that are being read widely within that market segment are picking up these ideas and their influence may effect consumers purchasing decisions.

The caterer who embraces these changes will achieve a greater profit margin through customers becoming what the Oxford University Press voted as its new word of the year back in 2007, which was a locavore.

This is a crescive market, and its developing interest in local seasonal food provenance continues to grow. It will become ever more important to the caterer, as customers demand to know what goes in their food and where is it from. This will lead to purchasing decisions being made upon on that answer.

The locavore movement as one can imagine originated in North America but has taken root in Britain. The mileage radius generally accepted by locavores is 100 miles from point of purchase, but this is not regulated by law.

However many people regard local food as produce from the county that you are in or the one next to it, for example Surrey and Sussex or Devon and Cornwall but its just a short trip logistic wise between Yorkshire and London so that lovely poached rhubarb served with great yoghurt from Buckinghamshire sits in the local not local camp, as you can see there is no hard and fast rule governing what is local and very much depends on what your supply chain allows you or what you decide to do as a business owner.

It is also difficult to judge what is seasonal, Do you just class fruit and vegetables, which are native to your area/county or do you include more recently introduced vegetables which are regarded as local or British due to the changing tastes of the customer, this was highlighted to me when checking an a delivery against an invoice from a fruit and vegetable supplier.

The carrots were from Godalming, Surrey, the Cabbage was from Lincolnshire and the Asparagus was from Doncaster, South Yorkshire. So far so good.

The most surprising thing was several packets of bean sprouts, which boldly had the Union Jack across the packet stating British Vegetable. Having read the packet it stated that the bean sprouts were from Fylde in Lancashire Further investigation of Dawndew Salads revealed that they are a fourth generation family owned company established in 1907. When I was growing up bean sprouts were not regarded as a British vegetable, In our family home like many others at that time we had never seen one, but if the produce is grown in Britain, does this mean, it is a British vegetable?

Grown in the UK ?

If this is the case, it may lead to Fylde in Lancashire, being as well known for bean sprouts, as is The Vale of Evesham is for asparagus. David Lam whose farm in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire was set up in 1987 specifically to grow oriental vegetables and is Britain’s largest pak choi producer as well as Choi Sum, Kai Choi, Kai Lan.

When Cherry Farms was first established, all of its produce went to the Asian markets but 40 percent of his crop now goes to British high street supermarkets and that figure is increasing. The reduction in air miles is fantastic,

These clear examples emphasise that culturally, what was once regarded as a foreign ingredients, which were imported, are now marketed as British vegetables giving us fresher produce, local produce meeting customers needs.

Photograph taken by Sabrina Dallot-Seguro,

SDG2 London Action Hub: Insights into Organic

The importance of local food and the loyalty shown to regional products is strong, especially in certain parts of Europe. In Britain we tend to have lost sight of this but consumers are asking beginning to ask questions.......

Supermarkets place great value in giving the customer what they want and each year they respond to customer complaints via the Competition Commission. Some interesting responses from supermarkets to complaints from consumers are to be found within these reports, which highlight the public’s expectations,

The supermarket group Safeway reported to the Competition Commission when questioned about the lack of availability of English apples when in season replied that….

“fresh produce and vegetables were difficult areas to manage due to the seasonality of supply, differences in quality and consumer expectations that all fruit and vegetables would be available throughout the whole year, regardless of season (for example strawberries at Christmas).”

You would think that if a fruit was not in season then, it would be unobtainable, but the public has been told that fruit and vegetables have been available all year round for the last 50 years.

The historian David Knayston in his book Austerity Britain 1945-51 reported that well known brand, Birds Eye promoted what were called ‘frosted’ foods with the advertising strap lines of

“Don’t moan when summer fruits are over, Birds Eye Quick Frozen Foods give you garden fresh fruits and vegetables all the year round”

Maybe not the type of advertising strap line used today but I would imagine very persuasive to families after years of rationing and to busy housewife’s at work. If your grandparents and your parents used convenience foods and you do not understand the seasons how are you or your children going to.

In summary, should professional chefs have a duty of care to be agents of change by promoting seasonal vegetables and fruit in their food offer even if that fruit or vegetable is not ‘traditional’

Its an ongoing discussion but this can be done via menu writing, talking with your suppliers and the companies we all work for. It also important to understand that British Fruit and vegetables may include produce that you do not necessarily think of as British. A professional chef can drive profit and exceed customer expectations by focusing on ever evolving behaviour variables, Chefs should steer the conversation to seasonal and sustainable developments whilst enhancing the customer’s expectations

Further Info

https://jp.reuters.com/article/instant-article/idUKL307287420070531

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/british_food_security

http://www.cherryfarms.co.uk/about.html

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabrina-dallot-seguro-321b0a22/?originalSubdomain=uk

http://www.sdg2advocacyhub.org/index.php/news/london-action-hub-insights-organic