Topic: Ingredients costs

[macferret]

Livo commented about the price of almonds vs cashews, and this got me thinking about ingredients costs in general.
If you look at price inflation of raw ingredients as against the prices on our high street curry menus, the last ten years have been shocking: oil, rice, lamb and chicken have risen steeply in price. But restaurants find it very hard to pass this on to their customers, so they have been slashing margins and cutting back on ingredients. This might explain why I find so many t/a curries disappointing now. One chef I know in Woking complained bitterly that there was a list of ingredients that had been banned by the manager, so he had resorted to bringing his own cardamom pods to work.
Our margins are pretty good because we face so little competition here in France. But they were definitely better 3 years ago, not least because we are not shielded here by the fiercely competitive supply market that exists in the UK.
I'd be interested in your thoughts on the cost of ingredients a whether you think that this might have driven down quality in the high street BIR.

[livo]

I can't comment on Europe but I am amazed that T/A's over here can sell the dishes they do for the prices they charge.  I know that cooking Indian at home is a bit of a luxury really.  I guess they must make enough profit selling the less costly items to cover the losses on heavy dishes.

Another interesting thing out here recently, re costs in general, was the sale of a basically new, commercial, gas fired tandoor oven which had only been used a couple of times before the management of the business decided it was too expensive to run.