Celebrity chefs push up food prices

[tweetiepooh]

Noticed this at the farmers' market yesterday that on one stall the price of pork belly is now more than shoulder because of increased demand. One another stall the price of pork belly has risen from £3.50 to over £6.00 in quite a short time frame (too short to account for that sort of rise).

I think this demand rise is because of celebrity chefs coming on and showing how these cheap cuts are really good and how to use them making them popular. The same has happened with other food items like lamb shanks and monk fish (the latter one used as lobster bait).

So the very act of highlighting how good cheaper cuts are causes them to become so popular they are no longer cheap. I don't know what the solution to this would be though. Cuts are cheap because they aren't popular so to tell people about them makes them more expensive and defeats the objective of letting poorer people get better food and experiment with cooking.

[Kymmy]

Yes but without the chefs telling people how to cook it probably few people would ever think of eating it..

Vicious circle comes to mind..

[Russ]

Given the current status of the economy retailers will use any excuse to artificially inflate prices as high as possible. It was the same at the start of the year with the VAT increase, a lot of retailers used it as an excuse to push prices up higher than the 2.5% increase.

[Taf]

One of our local butchers only to used to sell Skirt beef to a couple of old ladies and myself at a very reasonable price. No-one else was interested in it.

Then, as you say, a couple of TV chefs used it as "a cheap, forgotten cut with great potential".

Now the local butcher can't get hold of ANY because it's all prebought by high-end butchers at TREBLE the price he used to pay! Shin of beef went the same way, he said, and boneless chicken thigh meat is racing upwards in price at all the wholesalers he uses.

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by Taf

One of our local butchers only to used to sell Skirt beef to a couple of old ladies and myself at a very reasonable price. No-one else was interested in it.

Then, as you say, a couple of TV chefs used it as "a cheap, forgotten cut with great potential".

Now the local butcher can't get hold of ANY because it's all prebought by high-end butchers at TREBLE the price he used to pay! Shin of beef went the same way, he said, and boneless chicken thigh meat is racing upwards in price at all the wholesalers he uses.

I wondered why Asda had stopped selling it.Let us hope no one discovers braising steak next..

[Kymmy]

Breast of lamb will probably be next.. at least I can still get them from the local farmers market at £1.50 each