
Roll over Humble Potato. We serve up cancer sticks.
By volume by far the main ingredient served up in this trendy Cornish beachside restaurant are the fries. Fries / chips — whatever you want to call them — swinging out of the the kitchen with almost everything — from burger to lobster. And all ingredients where possible, the menu states, are sourced locally. Apart from the humble potatoes, it seems. Must be impossible to buy a local potato in Cornwall?!
I ask the waiter where the potatoes from. He tells me they will be Cornish. I ask him to check with the chef and he returns enlightened if a little surprised. “You are right, they are not local. We buy them in ready prepared. I am surprised.” I wasn’t.
So, sackfuls of processed and frozen potato fries (with all the attached health scares) bought from God Knows Where to serve up at a restaurant proclaiming, at the top of every menu:
“We always use fresh ingredients that are local whenever we can”
Except for the main ingredient, it seems.
Meanwhile, 85% of potato growers have left the industry in the last 20 years. The main growers left have had little choice but to accept direct cost of production contracts with large retailers. What do these contracts mean? The grower must share all his costs with the retailer and then will be dictated a price based on these production costs, which will take into account inflation, farming inputs like the cost of fertiliser etc. and a little bit for the farmer.
A sustainable potato industry with independent growers maintaining the diversity of crop needs better support and engagement from its peers in the food chain. The consumer deserves better than kitchens buying in convenience.
No excuses for a restaurant that serves the number of covers this one does at the prices it does. It’s not a busy mother rushing to feed screaming kids some oven chips. It is a restaurant with chefs and a team. With the right equipment they might even save money and save a farmer. Time they made their own!
