I must confess to a few wee struggles on my self-imposed ‘free-range or nada’ rule but so far my will power is winning out over my need for bacon NOW, before I have time to head to the supermarket for some free-range goodness, NOW. The biggest transgression was deliberate and calculated; it was done in a spirit of research and not indulgence. No really, I don’t even LIKE this food very much. I will get to what it is soon, bear with me. I’ve mentioned before that I’m also hoping to cook more and healthier but I might not have mentioned that I also want to broaden my palate and try new things. I’m trying to say a lot more yes, though mushrooms are still getting a resounding NO. One of the points that struck me in Eating Animals was that we as a society eat a very, very, very small percentage of the amount of edible produce on the planet; I eat even less of that edible produce because, well, I’m a spoiled brat. So that brings us to saying yes, when for the purposes of this blog I would normally say no.
Okay, tangent over. I want to talk about fancy restaurants (I also want to own fancy restaurants, live in fancy restaurants, eat in fancy restaurants and only have friends who own, live in, and eat in fancy restaurants but that’s another story). My hunch was that with the bigger price tag you get the right to know what is going on your plate. The high-end establishments are generally more able to buy free-range and local. With the Masterchef phenomena I also think clientele are more interested in this kind of thing. I had a few visits to one of Melbourne’s well established Café Vue planned (disclaimer, one of my bestest pals works at Café Vue but that doesn’t make me more likely to be nice to them, I promise) and so they seemed like a good place to start asking questions. The staff have always been very keen to answer questions when I’ve been to the Café so I thought I would get the same response from the business as a whole. And I did, sort of…
Sent: Monday, 12 July 2010 9:53 AM
To: Vue de monde
Subject: Farmers and stockists
Hi,
I'm currently writing an article on restaurants in Melbourne that serve locally and ethically farmed meat - and I'm also a huge fan of your restaurants - and I'm hoping you can answer a few quick questions.
Firstly, do the Vue restaurants have a policy on this? If so, what is
it?
Do you source your meat directly from farmers? If not, how?
Where do you source your chicken, pork, lamb and duck from?
Any information you can provide on this would be hugely appreciated.
Regards,
Kim
To Kim.Armstrong
13/07/10 10:44 AM
Subject RE: Farmers and stockists
Dear Kim,
Thank you for your email and interest in Vue de monde.
I will look in to this for you, may I ask if and where the article will
be published?
Thank you,
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX XXXXXXXX
Executive Assistant
Vue de monde
Normanby Chambers
430 Little Collins Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Okay, so far so good. I told her it was for a humble blog but that we’d see where it went. Next email was this:
To Kim.Armstrong
13/07/10 05:51 PM
SubjectRE: Farmers and stockists
Dear Kim,
Thanks for your email. We source our meat and poultry from Vic's Meats.
Kind regards,
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
Executive Assistant
Vue de monde
Normanby Chambers
430 Little Collins Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Well colour me disappointed. From this one might conclude that Vue de Monde and its various babies don’t have a policy on where the meat is from and how it is treated. Nor, I might assume, are they particularly inclined to talk about. Intrepid eater and blogger that I am, I soldiered on (I might add at this juncture that I had TWO events at various Vue eateries that week and I really wanted to be able to enjoy them). While awaiting next contact from Vue de Monde I did a little research into Vic’s Meats. They’re an on-seller butcher that source from a lot of different farmers, if you do a little googling it seems they stock a pretty broad range of meat that includes a lot of free-range products. They also sell your stock standard meats. So it didn’t help me much.
Sent: Wednesday, 14 July 2010 8:23 AM
To: Vue de monde
Subject: RE: Farmers and stockists
Hi XXXXXX,
Thanks for the reply.
Do you have a policy about ethically produced or locally produced meat?
Regards,
Kim
Firm, wasn’t I? At this point my Café Vue contact might have stepped in and done a little prompting and reassured everyone in the office that I am not in fact a crazy person, or at least only harmlessly crazy. That shouldn’t have had to happen but there is no denying the response was an improvement. A few days later:
Hi Kim,
I'm sorry this has taken so long to get back to you, I just had to check the information I was giving you was correct.
We strive to use the best quality meat and poultry available, free range if possible. And currently all our meat and poultry is free range.
All the best for your blog and good luck with the ethical adventure!
XXX
XXXXXX XXXXXXX
Executive Assistant
Vue de monde
Normanby Chambers
430 Little Collins Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
So it ain’t all bad, but it ain’t all good. I got to enjoy my duck, and my pork jowl (I know, right?) and my beef bourguignon etc. They were all spectacular and (totally unbiased) the service at both Café Vue in the city and Café Vue at Heide Gallery was great. I can’t deny though that it would have been so much better if the restaurant was a bit keener to engage with me on this. The price tag gives me the right to ask what I’m eating, I stand by that and intend to continue being annoying (it’s growing on me).
So what nasty thing did I eat? Well, foie gras. I had never really eaten foie gras and I decided not to knock it til I tried it. And it was okay, rich and meaty but not so good that avoiding it will keep me up at night. The ethical price tag is way too high. But kudos to this mob and I might see if there is somewhere I can sample their goodies.
A joint post on our visit to a farm up in Healesville with fun photos coming soon.
Smoochies,
Kim
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