CONNOISSEUR:ECONOMIC DOWNTURN, credit crunch, recession, call it what you will, the winds of change are blowing over us all and nowhere more so than in the artisan food sector. But while we endlessly hear and read about the mass defection to the so-called discounters (aren't they all at it?) there are some surprising stories unfolding.
Some weeks ago we highlighted the deals to be had in restaurants as early-bird menus reappear, but there is also a resurgence in home cooking which is having an interesting effect on the artisan sector. Where you might expect sales of so-called niche operators to fall as we count the cents, the opposite appears to be happening, at least for some.
Some weeks ago TV chef Jamie Oliver featured a recipe for shoulder of pork cooked for six hours. It is not a new dish, you can find it in any number of classic and more recent books, but James Whelan Butchers in Clonmel could not believe the response as the phone and shop hopped with requests for pork shoulder. Whelan’s customer numbers are up, as is the average spend. What owner Pat Whelan has noticed, however, is a fall-off in wholesale, most of which is to restaurants.
He is convinced many Irish people have recognised quality and are not about to give that up. They are just changing how they celebrate, and much as we have seen the demise of the pub as people head towards their living rooms, so too it is with eating out.
What is also interesting is the growing knowledge of consumers. Shoulder of pork is not a difficult cut, but it is not something you find in the pre-pack section of most supermarkets, or indeed on most meat counters. It is not difficult to cook, but it is certainly a step up from a pork chop – as is the idea of cooking anything for six hours.
January has seen further sales growth for Ralph Haslam who makes Mossfield, an organic cheese. With markets opening up in the US and the Middle East, he is convinced the quality of Irish artisan produce is slowly getting the attention it deserves and in his case much of that is being driven by home demand. His customers say that having tasted something good, there is no going back.
If entertaining at home is the new going out and buying local (for which read Irish) artisan produce means something, does this signal the tentative emergence of a modern Irish food culture that embraces superior taste and quality? It is tempting to say yes, but the reality is far more knife-edge than that. Thinking and acting on sourcing locally what we eat requires firm commitment and understanding that what we do matters.
Siobhán Ní Ghairbhith makes St Tola goats’ cheese in Clare. This month the kids are being born and her herd of just over 200 Saanen, Toggenburg and British Alpine goats come into their own as the spring milk comes on stream. Ní Ghairbhith is also confident about the continued strong growth of sales of her cheese and is convinced the main challenge is to win new customers. Once they taste the quality of cheese made with milk washed by Atlantic winds, she says, there is no going back.
She is a firm advocate of spreading her net as far and as wide as is necessary to win new customers. There is, she points out, a wish by most artisan food producers to convince and convert as many as possible to the benefits. “We’d be mad not to,” she says. Supermarkets, corner stores, delicatessens, farmers’ markets and direct sales, all are necessary for success.
Goats’ cheese falls neatly into the camps of both artisan and convenience. A slice on toast, in a salad, grilled or left plain, fashioned into an omelette, mini souffle or sprinkled over pasta is no-cook Irish cooking of the best kind: plain, simple and honest, full of flavour and produced by an individual brimming full of passion.
CONTACTS
www.jameswhelanbutchers.com; www.mossfield.ie; www.st-tola.ie