Is the Local movement simply a new version of Protectionism?

Image from The Food Project:

I have been thinking about local food a fair bit recently. And it is very hard to argue with the fact that local food is better. Oliver Rowe's food and restaurant demonstrate this brilliantly.

Riverford Farm also does a great job of showcasing the idea of local food being superior to food from far away. Not long ago it was fashionable to serve air freighted peas from Kenya out of season. Now this would result in people making their excuses and leaving. Or worse still calling Greenpeace to dob you in for crimes against the environment.

Now I love local food. The idea of terrior is fascinating. And has been around since the first Frenchman ate a decent mouthful of food. It gives food a story. It gives you a physical connection to where your grub has come from. Quite often it means you personally know the producer or the trader involved. It also means you support the local economy/community.

But when you look at it this way, isn't the local food movement simply a locally sourced, sugar coated version of protectionism?



Image from Marxist.com

Championing local food is a clever way of getting around the thorny and politically charged issue of protectionism. In a climate where we have a free trade agreement in the EU it helps to look after our own by raising demand for local food rather than limiting supply from abroad. Clever, touchy feely stuff. It also stops the domino effect and protectionsit arms race that would kick off where we able to slap tarifs and duty charges on foreign food.

We've all grown acustomed to being able to buy fancy foreign food at Tesco and would find it very strange if we were only allowed to buy local food. It would limit our choice and we would all complain bitterly. So the emotional route in via touchy feely protectionism is far more powerful.

It's an interesting subject that I am just beginning to get my head around. If I was doing a PHD I'd love to explore this area in more depth. I like the idea of flipping the idea over and getting into it from the other direction - if that doesn't sound too dodgy.

The Future Laboratory meets Oliver Rowe

I went to The Future Laboratory's Spring trends day earlier this month to find out about what the future has in store for consumer attitudes, design and a whole wealth of other interesting things. But most importantly they always do a good lunch. In the past Melrose and Morgan have done the catering and also the Wapping Project. Both of which were brilliant.

But this year things moved up a notch. I noticed that the afternoon talks featured a half hour session on "Food Futures" which covered the idea of "Localvores". Having been to Konstam at the Prince Albert about 5 months ago I was delighted to see Oliver Rowe's food on the menu.

To emphasise the impact of this trend towards local food, it made perfect sense for Konstam to do the catering. All the food had been sourced from within the M25. Our slow roasted shoulder of lamb from Amersham was delicious. It fell apart at the touch of our bamboo recyclable cutlery and melted in the mouth. Seriously high class "mass catering". I recognised some of the staff from Konstam who did a great job of serving up high class food in a cramped, tumble down building - London's oldest and most derelict music hall called Witlons.

I popped outside with a cup of coffee to check some emails and get some sunshine and found myself peeking through a crack in the wall that looked into the kitchen and was amazed to see Oliver Rowe himself doing the cooking! When we had been to Konstam he hadn't done any of the cooking in the open kitchen - but he did come in to check how things were going. So it was brilliant to see the man himself slaving away for us. It made the whole experience 100% more authentic.

So I can recommend both The Future Laboratory and Konstam / Oliver Rowe!

Konstam at the Prince Albert

Lulu joined us on a 6 month rotation to work on our account and has done such a good job we thought she deserved a good lunch. And I have been wanting to go to Konstam for ages so it was a great opportunity to kill two birds with one aimed throw of a stone.

6 of us trekked down to Acton Street, just down the road from King's Cross. This neck of the woods is developing a bit of an eco-conscious theme with Acorn House just up the road on Swinton Street.

The decor in Konstam is different to say the least. The girls arrived in the first taxi and drove straight past becuase it looked like a disused pub! The distinctive ball bearing curtains are very imaginative but make the room a bit dark during lunch. They also give the place a bit of a bondage feel, which is no bad thing. In fact we really liked the design and thought they were very brave to have a completely open kitchen. No food dropping here!

It's one of the most original dining environments I've been to and is a great point of difference. As a bunch of advertising people we thought they had done a great job in differentiating themselves in terms of their USP (gimmick) of all the food coming from within the M25 and the design being eye catching and unique. We did think however that the whole thing wasn't as joined up as it might be. The look and feel of the place doesn't really fit with their key selling point. But who cares! We were here for a good lunch.

Oliver Rowe has done a great job of promoting Konstam with his BBC TV show, "The Urban Chef". It goes to show if you have an interesting concept that is surprising and fits into the cultural flow you are onto a winner.... so long as the product is good too!

Here's the Urban Chef in full flow



We started with a glass of sparkling English wine which was fantastic. Their Chapel Down NV sparkling wine from Kent was brilliant. We liked it's freshness and the fact that it wasn't tainted by any mustiness that always seems to come with Champagne. Maybe that was just us being phillistines!

My mackerel with pearl barley and bacon bits was delicious. Very unusual and really tasty. The mackerel had a great meaty saltiness that went really well with the sparkling wine. Lulu's duck and goose liver pate was smooth, ducky and really excellent. You could taste all the component parts and was even better when smeared on some crunchy toast.

My duck for main course was disappointing. It's unfortunate because I was really looking forward to it. It was overcooked which gave it a very dead grey colour rather than the vibrant pink I was hoping for. I suspect the person who cooked it wasn't a big fan of duck. Anyone who likes duck knows that it's got to be pink, juicy and with salty, well crisped skin. But to be charitable the purple cabbage and sweet mashed potato was great. As was the plum jam. Get the duck right and this would have been great!

The others had pan roasted chicken which was so good that it was all gone before I got a chance to sample it. The skin was crispy and the meat was tender. Just as it should be. And the others had slow cooked bacon which arrived looking like a plate of sick but tasted great! There's an art to presenting slow cooked food; it normally involves covering it in pastry or mashed potato!

A couple of us had bread and butter pudding with quince jam which was brilliant. John said it was the best he had eaten in 2007. Impressive stuff.



Toward the end of our meal Oliver "The Urban Chef" Rowe strolled into the kitchen the check how things were going. I suspect if he had cooked the duck we'd have been raving about the cooking. It was great to see him actually in his own restaurant. He looked very happy with things and at ease with Konstam.

Our minor gripes were that the service was casual and a bit too slow. And more imporantly the food was good but not as good as it could have been.

But overall we had a super time. I'm planning to return for dinner with Cowie when I hope the food will be stepped up a gear.