Herald Sun, Citystyle
Rising prices is the biggest news in food this year, writes ED CHARLES
WHEREVER you eat this year, it will cost more. Stay at home and the basic staples of flour, bread, pasta and dairy will cost more.
Eat out and it will cost more – and the standard of service might not be up to scratch because of a huge shortage of waiters, sommeliers and chefs. Even dishwashers (the human variety) are in short supply.
“The restaurant sector is getting slammed on all sides. Labour’s going up, fresh produce is going up. Pretty much everything is going up,” Restaurant and Catering Victoria chief executive Todd Blake says.
The drought can be blamed for many price increases, especially the cost of fruit and vegetables. Wheat is in short supply and durum, used for pasta, last year doubled in price, causing riots in Italy.
Meanwhile, Asia’s demand for dairy is eating up supply and driving up prices.
Steve Kirk, manager of Melbourne food wholesaler Kirkfood, sayAs butter prices have nearly doubled in six months.
“Butter will never get back to the levels before these increases,” he says.
The story is similar for milk and cheese.
Ingredients
Don’t expect much of the molecular gastronomy fad this year. Just as the chemicals that make various foams and emulsions have become readily available Down Under, they have gone out of fashion in Europe.
Good local chefs are concentrating on the quality of ingredients and flavour and will use precision cooking techniques to get the most from them.
More restaurants will establish their own gardens such as that at George Biron in Sunnybrae and the Royal Mail Hotel
in Dunkeld.
Chefs such as Attica’s Ben Shewry and the Royal Mail’s Dan Hunter are leading the trend to forage for ingredients that have limited availability commercially.
These include samphire, wild garlic and colourful flowers. Restaurant kitchens will use more organic produce, which means more expensive produce.
“Provenance is important and always will be,” says Neil Perry, who is buying fish direct from fishermen.
He is also buying meat direct and at any one time has five tonnes of beef ageing at Rockpool Bar and Grill.
Dennis Lucy, from city restaurant Bottega, says that we will be seeing more grass-fed Australian beef on the menu rather than the fashionable, expensive, much-hyped and often misused wagyu.
Damian Hobday, who runs Vin Cellars and the Argo in South Yarra, says more restaurants will be serving seasonal food.
“There is no point buying asparagus when asparagus is out of season because one, it’s not good, and two, it’s expensive.”
Unpasteurised food
Unpasteurised milk products will become more popular and will be widely available through farmers’ markets and organic shops.
These products – “bath milk”, for example – are sold as unfit for human consumption, but there are consumers who, undeterred by food authorities’ warnings, want them.
Cheese entrepreneur Will Studd, who already imports unpasteurised Roquefort from France, says import restrictions on unpasteurised cheeses may be relaxed this year by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand.
After that, the body will address the issue of allowing locally produced unpasteurised products to be sold for human consumption under strictly controlled conditions.
Shared dining
The trend towards smaller, shared plates in the style of tapas continues, as does the possibility for casual dining at any time of the day.
Maurice Terzini, who is opening Giuseppe, Arnaldo and Sons at Crown in March, says the whole tapas-style of eating has taken off.
“I think our lifestyles are changing. It’s nice to have places to go where you can eat at any time of the night,” he says.
Yum cha – or dim sum – is part of this trend and this year will have mass appeal.
Last year saw the opening of Yum Cha Dragon in Docklands, Mahjong in St Kilda, and Chillipadi on Chapel, all offering yum cha.
Last year David Zhou’s city Oriental Teahouse on Little Collins St quadrupled in size, reopening in December with almost 130 seats.
A similar-sized venue opens in Chadstone in March.
The giant designer 400-seat Duck Duck Goose opens in QV in April, offering sushi and, like Mahjong, Chinese fine dining with excellent service.
Bar slow-down
Melbourne is envied worldwide for its tiny hideaway bars, but Sydney will catch up. NSW is freeing up licensing as Melbourne councils are clamping down.
Blake says authorities want to encourage and maintain our thriving bar culture, but planning and licensing changes will come into play this year designed to stop socially irresponsible behaviour in entertainment precincts.
“It will become more difficult to open a bar in the CBD.”
Casino wins
The final parts of the Crown jigsaw will be put in place in coming months with the opening of Giuseppe, Arnaldo and Sons and Sydney chef Guillaume Brahimi’s bistro.
With Nobu and Perry’s Rockpool Bar and Grill, they could dent trade from the other 2000 or so restaurants in Melbourne, especially at the high end.