To market, to market, jiggity jig.

Markets, where else can you go and get such inspiration and instant information about the current produce and trends. The wealth of interesting fruits and vegetables from all corners of the world are sure to have you salivating over all the food possibilities. A place where you can get bok choy, olives and moroccan spices all in one place. Most kitchens that I have worked in have some kind of fruit and vegetable seasonal availability poster, but is there really a better way to find out what is available than getting out there and seeing it for yourself?

Why not grab a few kitchen staff and head down to your local markets. See, touch and smell the produce, look at the prices and talk about new and interesting products. By having a greater interest in these sort of things you can get greater job satisfaction, better creativity and a broader knowledge. So get out there!

Food Identity, Food Tourism and the Importance of Utilising Local Produce

Supporting and using local produce in the kitchen has always been a niche market, but as the industry and our customers become increasingly savvy and better informed, it is becoming a concept that should be embraced throughout all kitchens in SA. I thought it might be interesting to have a look at some of the aspects and impacts that using local and artisan/ boutique ingredients and produce can have compared to buying imported and mass produced items.

 Firstly  I think we have to address the obvious, it often just isn’t cost viable or diverse enough to run a kitchen on entirely local produce. There are always going to be products that the local market are just unable to produce, keep up with demand on or have the attributes that a chef might be looking for.

In a perfect world we would all be buying only local produce but the demands of a modern kitchen dictate that this is usually not possible. Constraints like budgeting, deliveries and initial sourcing / exposure to the products are all major barriers to using local produce. However using local produce also has many amazing benefits. These benefits are why we should all strive to incorporate more local, boutique and artisan produce on our menus and in our dishes. So let us discuss those benefits.

Food Identity. South Australia is a great food (and beverage) producer and over the last 20 years an astronomical amount of time and money has been spent on promoting the Food Identity of the State. From the lamb and Wagyu on the Limestone Coast to the Wines of McLaren Vale and Barossa, Cheeses from the Adelaide Hills, seafood and grains on the Eyre Peninsula, beer in the Metropolitan, the list is ever growing. All of these regions have been heavily promoted to the rest of Australia and the world. This creates an international image of the state as having a strong food identity, it highlights our region as a great place to indulge and experience a wide range of culinary delights. A tourism market has been forged for the state that revolves around amazing produce and passionate driven food producers so we as the chefs, business owners and apprentices need to harness and embrace that marketing that has already been done for us. By utilising and further promoting local produce we add to this food identity, we endorse it and we claim it as our own.

By using local, artisan or boutique products you are tapping into this food tourism market, you are justifying slightly higher charges on your menu by promoting your use of a high quality localised ingredient. The support and relationships that can be gained from buying from these small producers go a long way to ensure that you have more unique menu items and a greater understanding of how those produces are made. Buying local also has a great effect on sustainability of produce and food miles / carbon footprints of our foods. All these things are becoming ever important to the modern customer.

By supporting South Australian produce you also ensure that SA will continue to have a strong food identity into the future and that we continue to attract a growing number of food tourists to the state. Talk to your local producers, see how they make their products and discuss ways that you maybe able to cross promote each other and forge strong partnerships. Supporting and utilising these products is investing back into our industry and State which is in turn supporting your business.

For these reasons and so many others that I haven’t even mentioned it is imperative that we incorporate an increasing amount of localised produce and products into our menus and businesses in the future.

The rants of a Hospitality Mentor

Well here it is, our first official blog. By now I hope that anyone reading this will understand exactly what the program is here for and about so lets delve straight into some of the things that we as hospitality workers and particularly chefs are coming across in the last few years. Over the last 10 years, as budgets have become tighter and as products have become more accessible, there has been a quite prominent move away from doing some processes in our kitchens. We are quickly moving into a day and age where it is easier to order in pre-prepared products instead of doing it ourselves, for example often meat is no longer even portioned in restaurants. The worst thing about this is that it makes perfect sense, why risk the wastage and inconsistencies when you can do precise costings and get consistent products by having some of the prep done offsite (say at the butcher) . The problem that occurs though is that after these sort of services are used for a long time, that skill for the chef can be lost. This also means that the skill will not be passed on to future chefs. In this way we are effectively deskilling the future generations of chefs and ourselves in one foul swoop. We all need to make a real effort to pass on our skills to anyone in the kitchen who is willing to learn them, even if the skill isn't utilised in the daily kitchen prep. If we only teach what we absolutely need to learn then we limit the growth and creativity of the workplace. So have a think about a skill that you might be able to pass on in your workplace, and be open to others trying to pass on their knowledge and skills, I'm sure it will make a more enjoyable and interesting workplace for everyone and we will retain those skills that are quickly being lost!