In the first in a series of regular columns, FEASTED’s Cris Cohen looks at the changing face of hospitality, why it’s not enough for a chef to be just a cook and explains the importance of connecting people and communities to food.
Good morning.
Hope you have a coffee in hand…
Welcome to this corner of Daily Focus. I will be hanging out here for a little while, talking about hospitality and the opportunities we have in this incredible industry in our county.
There have been bleak reports of the challenges within the hospitality sector. Exacerbated by the pandemic without a doubt.
There is a huge staffing crisis for many hospitality businesses. Many chefs found their way out by taking up delivery driver roles during the pandemic. They have not returned. Next time you accept an Amazon delivery ask the driver if they fancy making your dinner!
I was inspired by the approach that so many hospitality operators took on during Covid.
The sense that anything was possible. Many created food delivery boxes and some took these to gastronomical detail, aimed at the aspiring home chef, who could for once swoosh a silky-smooth purée across their plate and finish a brulee with the dusty brulee torch hidden at the back of the cupboard.
It worked or at least hospitality made it work. Boxes were flying around the county keeping couriers busy and customers keen to access refined flavours happy.
We did it, we did the impossible. Our doors were closed yet we fed people, we found new markets, new customers and new vigour in the way we worked.
We didn’t stop there… because hospitality used its skills to feed those in need. We worked to stop the hungry being hungry, we provided meals to the NHS, to care homes. Our industry really did find a way.
But we begged to return to normal. The problem was, normal wasn’t working. And as normal arrived many chefs didn’t show up. Many left the industry.
The staffing crisis took hold. Some restaurants were left with no choice but to reduce their operating hours. Their very model depended on a 7-day service to survive.
Many hospitality forums and organisations have strived to overcome this. But I feel the industry is missing something.
Chefs have traditionally cooked up. Cooked up to those above them in society. But like in the pandemic chefs can cook out into society helping communities feed themselves and help people.
Gastronomy should not just be for the privileged. We can be ambitious to connect people with food no matter what, whether hungry or looking for a unique experience.
I have said many times that food poverty and gastronomy are much closer than we think. If chefs incorporate community into their practice and ambitions, we can begin to shift the needle to having a greater impact on those hungry within communities.
I will be sharing ideas and thinking on this subject over the next few instalments of this column.
I truly believe, It’s not enough for a chef to cook.
I believe there is so much more to what a chef is capable of. If you immerse yourself in the National Food Strategy penned by Henry Dimbleby or Feeding Britain by Prof Tim Lang there is a great sense of opportunity for people in the world of food.
Chefs are often isolated as processors of food. But the culinary world has a chance to enable those who work within it to begin to find new ways of helping educate others.
Is it reasonable to suggest that a restaurant could be a base of knowledge and expertise on the many contexts around food. Working with community, helping develop growing projects. Helping others develop confidence to have ambition in food practice.
Can we begin to shift the needle to changing a food system, dangle a tasty carrot in the direction of government to demonstrate there is a realistic measured approach that will feed communities and sow the seeds for new commercial endeavour.
When you consider enough food is thrown away every day to feed all the hungry people in the city, maybe there is a better way.
This month Henry Dimbleby comes to Keele University to talk about how we can set about change in the food system. I look forward to attending and sharing our ambitions with Henry.
The author of the National Food Strategy has published a book called Ravenous. Ravenous makes simpler reading of the finding in the National Food Strategy.
It’s a document that states the realities but signals many opportunities to set about change.
For me its micro changes that make a big difference.
Micro changes over time can make a big difference. Helping believe that we can be ambitious as a city gastronomically is where it begins.
When you discover a cities truth, you discover opportunities in abundance in the most surprising places.
