Food for Thought. On the Eve of New Zealand's first Michelin Awards.

Excited about New Zealand’s very first Michelin Awards this week.

But, also slightly conflicted. As many will feel.

The conflict lies in the realisation that - if we want a globally recognised food story longer term, we'll have to really support it in the short term. Right now. At a time when many of us are struggling to have that extra disposable income - and many hospitality outlets are struggling as a result of that in turn.

We’re literally all involved in a real live experience of the tension between long-term brand building and short-term sales activation.  We - local consumers, right here right now, are the short-term sales activation part and - they - the more glittering international food tourist (said to spend 25% more than the usual visitor) is the longer term goal, at the end of some serious brand building - of which the Michelin Guide plays a serious (and expensive) role.

We’re both essential to New Zealand’s future food story. New Zealand's future food story is essential to even more.

Food is a key reason people choose New Zealand (and why they choose other destinations over us) - that is, without one - we're screwed. Local cuisine is the number one activity for than 85%+ of visitors across key source markets (including UK, US and Germany). It's a lesser driver, but still 70%+ behind visits from Australia.

No doubt about it - food can get visitors here. 

It can also disperse them around the country, to explore regional offerings. Hawkes Bay, a Great Wine Capital no less - for example.

But we’ve got to make sure our food story is still here and thriving when these desired high net worth international visitors arrive. Otherwise - well, awks.

The short story is that right now, hospitality is under real pressure. We’re all watching our pennies. Both customers - and hospitality businesses. As Kim Knight from the NZ Herald thoughtfully laid out in the ‘paper’ over the weekend we’re heading towards $50 a main.  Supply costs are up to such an extent - it’s inevitable that some must be passed on to the customer. Broke Boy Taco’s Sean Yarborough articulated this via social media recently too.

Absolutely fair enough. 

Post Covid we were approached by someone who wanted to provide more than $100,000 directly to hospo workers.

We created 'Help for Hospo' as a vehicle to distribute that support. Because, as our generous client put it “I can’t just go around and chuck it out the window”.

We haven’t had such a shoulder tap this time - but, in our own little way, we're going to try and provide “Help for Hospo”.

We're reframing.

Can we spend $50 a main without blinking? Nope.

Can we spend $50 on an immersive brand experience - that feeds all of our senses, gets us thinking, provides a new perspective etc? Yes, more likely.

So:

We're doing Dry July. *Irrelevant info - but it gets us through to August which is -

Restaurant Month.

And, we’ll be going as hard as my bank manager will allow. Wining and dining in the interests of the future of our country.

We're booking the experiences - (there are some awesome ones already listed on the site)

And, we're intentionally looking at hospitality differently.

If you start looking at a $50 main through the lens of an immersive brand experience - and with full understanding of the supply / source story behind it - then the food and the price becomes much easier to swallow.

When we left for Japan earlier this year, someone mentioned it has the most Michelin-starred restaurants in the world. That one comment had us planning to be back - sans kids - on some kind of  self-guided Michelin food experience.

That's the power of a food story. 

The long - and the short of it.