Sydney and Melbourne restaurants forced to adapt to food shortages
Staffing issues are ravaging Sydney and Melbourne restaurants as they battle cyclones, COVID infections and isolation and driver shortages.
Many restaurants have also found they need to tweak menus to incorporate available produce, although this has always been standard practice in restaurants, even before the shortages.
"If you can't get tuna, you use kingfish. It's not the end of the world, you just have to be adaptable on your menu," head chef across Hinchcliff House's three venues in Sydney's CBD Elliott Pinn says.
Sam Pinzone, a chef who consults to an events business and several cafes, has said that specialty items such as witlof, sorrel leaves, kohlrabi and celeriac have been extremely hard to find in Melbourne in the past couple of weeks.
Kim Driver, owner of Northside Fruit and Vegetables, supplies produce to around 200 top restaurants in inner Melbourne. Driver had to contact 30 customers the Saturday before Christmas to tell them they would need to rewrite their menus as his order of 2000 zucchini flowers hadn’t arrived.
"Supply has been as hit and miss as I've ever seen it. The transport getting it to us has been very unreliable, but less have been planted too."
After having several staff members contract Covid-19, Northside is paying three times its normal rate for drivers. It's also reduced its delivery service from two drop-offs to restaurants per day to one, but sometimes deliveries still arrive later than usual.
One solution would be free RAT [rapid antigen] tests.
"Food distribution workers should 100 per cent be provided with RAT [rapid antigen] tests," says Driver. "If we could have access to that every morning, if someone tests positive they don't come in."
Farming bodies have also called for RAT tests as they have been forced to reduce fresh produce farming to cater to falling demand for product over the last two years.
Sydney fruit wholesaler Fruitique has seen less produce at wholesale markets, however given the 40 per cent decrease in demand from restaurants, there has been less pressure on suppliers.
Simon Tarlington who co-owns Loosie's Diner and Wowee Zowee on the Mornington Peninsula says even frozen chips are becoming rare due to problems with interstate trucking routes,
Tarlington has been told that for the next few weeks he won't receive the particular style of chip he orders, although he will get whatever is available.
"They've said it's become a bit of a mess that's going to take a few weeks to get back to normal," Tarlington said.
Irit Jackson, 17th January 2022
