The organic question
I t all started innocently and pleasantly enough. Last weekend my husband and I decided to try Fig, a new Mediterranean restaurant on Kalayaan Avenue. It was near our home, charmingly decorated. We were hoping to find another place that was a perfect option for an easy, relaxed dinner nearby. Our table was nicely placed next to the window, soft lighting and a menu that had many desirable items. We ordered the baba
ghanoush, a gazpacho, a green salad and spanakopitas to start with followed by pork souvlaki with a side of bejeweled couscous for me and grilled homemade Toulouse sausage and fries for him. It was Friday night and we decided to get a nice bottle of Brouilly to enjoy our meal with.
As the appetizers came, we were impressed at how nicely presented things were. The smoky baba ghanoush was seasoned with good olive oil, the pita bread was nice and fresh, the spanakopitas — although a tad oily — were crisp outside and nicely gooey inside. My gazpacho was a bit on the watery side but still good and I loved the addition of chopped olives as a garnish. The salad was a bit small and lackluster but we just shrugged it off. The wine was good, we were having a nice time and overall things were pleasant.
Then things started to turn. When our mains came we were surprised at how
small the portions were. My souvlaki was fair-sized, two thin skewers and tasted quite nice, but the couscous I ordered as a side was jammed into a tiny ramekin.
But the biggest conundrum was the Toulouse sausage, which came sliced into six tiny pieces, garnished by one sad, wilted salad and a dollop of wholegrain mustard that was as large as two out of the six pieces of sausage. There were 12 French fries stacked neatly on top of one another in lattice form. As a friend of mine said, “It’s a bad sign when you can count the French fries.” Again we shrugged it off and said we would just order dessert to fill our bellies.
In the end when the bill came we were floored. Over P7,000 for what we ordered? Granted, we had a nice bottle of wine (which at P2,800++ we felt was actually reasonably priced) and one Jack on the rocks, but the food alone came out to close to P5,000. I felt like a tourist with a fanny pack in the middle of Venice’s Piazza San Marco, having a seemingly pleasant time only to find that I was pickpocketed and outright robbed. I went back to each item and the menu one by one trying to understand what was going on. The menu’s prices, which seemed fair enough offhand, had hidden costs and the portions were also much smaller than what the price would indicate: the P480 for the sausage did not include the 12 percent VAT and 10 percent SC which they tack on top at the end. Which meant that the miserable six slices of sausage was close to P600 with no sides. In my book that’s highway robbery.
The restaurant had a little laminated disclaimer that I read after the bill came, probably an attempt to explain the incredible prices of some items. It said that as much as possible, all their produce and ingredients are organic and it went on to list which items, specifically. This got me thinking. As much as I am a staunch supporter of the organic movement and the first to understand the premium for paying quality ingredients, where does one draw the line? Can we really just use the fact that it is “organic” as an excuse to slap on a hefty price tag? And how come some other restaurateurs manage to give better value for money while adhering to the values of sustainability?
I interviewed three main movers in the realm of sustainable food to explore these thoughts: Chit Juan of Echostore, Bianca Araneta-Elizalde of The Wholesome Table and chef Robby Goco of Green Pastures.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TRACEABILITY AND FAIR TRADE
“Organic is not just about certification,” explains Juan. “Organic means knowing how the food is grown, who grows it and if it’s true that no pesticides and chemicals were used in its production. The other important question is were the farmers paid a fair price for their produce?”
Knowing where your food comes from and purchasing directly from the source is key to a successful organic restaurant.
“Green Pastures took five years to develop,” shares Goco. “I was building a relationship with farmers, accrediting them as farmer-suppliers for Cyma. I encourage farmers to plant based on my volume and needs, of course, following the rules of sustainability. By doing so, I was able to do contract growing at a set price. I provide farmers the seeds, the technical knowhow, and technology. And that is why I get to sell my products in my restaurant at a fair price. I also provided them a market for their products. We eliminated the middleman.”
Juan then explains how inexpensive a serving of organic green salad can be. “Can one eat a kilo of greens? In our store that could range from P200 to P400 per kilo, and with one kilo you can make more than three salads. That’s only around P150 per serving. We are able to manage it because we either produce the goods or buy them directly from the producers. That makes our prices more reasonable.”
But of course, consumers also tend to forget that “food cost is but one factor in a menu item’s price” says Juan. “Expensive restaurants may have a low food cost but high rentals, forcing them to charge higher for their dishes so the price you pay goes to rent, electricity and staff wages.”
This poses a real challenge for restaurateurs to serve quality, organic food at competitive prices.
BALANCING ADVOCACY AND PROFIT
Running a sustainable food enterprise shouldn’t come from just wanting to jump on a trend but it is more of an advocacy that takes commitment and compromise on profit.
“I went into this business not only as a profit-making venture but mainly as an advocate for healthy eating and the organic lifestyle,” says Araneta-Elizalde. “That is my priority and I will never lose sight of that… This is an extension of my personal life and I strongly feel that everyone has a right to eat good, non-toxic, organic food that’s better for them and the environment. If I wanted to ‘just make money,’ I would’ve chosen another concept. However, having said all that, I also understand that there is an investment made, so we do our best to price our food competitively enough to turn a profit — however small our margins — so we can achieve a return on that investment.”
CREATIVITY AND COMMITMENT
Sadly, it is the Catch-22 of the organic movement: it is pricier because of the rarity, but if it stays too pricey the demand will not grow and neither will the supply. So how does a restaurateur stay competitive?
“You have to create and maintain a constantly evolving and changing menu. We cook based on what is in season,” explains Goco. “The traditional mistake for restaurateurs is to draw up a menu then look for suppliers or importers. I call this ‘forced food.’ These are dishes that are produced using ingredients that are not locally available, and endured long-haul overseas travel just to be able to be sold here and served in almost all of the premium restaurants. Ultimately we strive to offer fresh, straightforward, locally focused and unpretentious dishes curated in alignment with the farm-to-table movement.”
Araneta-Elizalde strongly feels that eating healthy should be more than just a trend. “There are quite a number of people opening up restaurants with similar concepts. But for us, we didn’t open The Wholesome Table because it’s a trend. To us, living a healthy lifestyle should never be viewed as such. It’s a lifelong commitment. And if people do not have that in them, that commitment and genuine space in their hearts for this lifestyle, I feel like the lack of authenticity will eventually show. They’ll cut corners here and there, overprice their food because they’re in it just for the money. I’m just hoping more people eat this way, to give our organic farmers greater reason to keep doing what they’re doing. Hopefully a greater demand brings prices down so that organic food becomes more accessible to the majority of people.”
That being said, I will most likely go back to Fig to give it another try. The food in general was not bad, the service was good and the place was nice, if only to swing the equilibrium of supply and demand in favor of more sustainable boutique food concepts. The next time around, however, I’ll be ordering a little more wisely with the help of my calculator.