News and Reviews

GENEVIEVE CARBERY

BUYING IMPORTED food in a multinational supermarket has been described as a “traitorous” act in the latest edition of the Bridgestone Irish Food Guide .

In the introduction to the ninth edition of the guide, which was launched yesterday, co-author John McKenna said Ireland had been “economically colonised”. He described the relationship between multinational supermarkets and farmers as one of “master and slave”. The Government had allowed multinational supermarkets to exercise “unprecedented power”, he wrote.

“Mary Coughlan and Brendan Smith have got to show that they are on the farmers’ side. They cannot do the same thing with agriculture as they did with financial markets,” Mr McKenna said at the launch yesterday.

However, Irish restaurateurs and artisan producers are bucking the economic trend as many have had their best ever year in business, he said. While customers still want to eat out what they are looking for has changed, he said.

“There is still plenty of money out there, but there is carefulness in the market and value is no longer about price. People want the good stuff they know and only want to spend their money on the good stuff,” he said.

This is a change from the boom when people would go to the latest celebrity chef restaurant. They are going back to the tried, tested and trusted and these are the people that are flourishing,” he said.

Containing some 1,500 entries, the guide lists some 300 more places than the last edition in 2007. Mr McKenna noted a sharp increase in entries for counties which previously did not have a great reputation for food such as Mayo, Leitrim and Louth.

Among the new entrants were three businesses that opened during the recession. Darren Grant of The Organic Supermarket in Blackrock launched his business on the day it was announced Ireland was in recession.

However, it is doing well because “people are going back to cooking from basics as opposed to buying precooked meals,” he said.

He kept costs down by buying from local farmers and his “saving grace” has been growing his customer base through a nationwide delivery service, he said.

The recession has forced restaurants to work harder to please customers and this has improved quality, chef Stephen Gibson said.

Shane Crilly and Aengus Lacey,left their careers to launch Base pizza, a boutique wood-fired pizza delivery business in Terenure in November 2008.

They believe their business has thrived because “people are staying at home, but still want to treat themselves at the weekend”.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0121/1224262782589.html

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