Barny Haughton Q & A
06.07.09Since it opened in September 2006, Bristol’s Bordeaux Quay has achieved national acclaim as the UK’s first ‘eco restaurant’.
A combined restaurant, brasserie, bar, deli, bakery and cookery school overlooking the harbour in the centre of Bristol, it has become a flagship for the West Country’s food and drink scene.
Its chef proprietor Barny Haughton has long championed local and organic produce, as well as artisan producers across Europe.
Here, he tells Fork about the extraordinary success of Bordeaux Quay as well as his views on organics, supermarkets and celebrity chefs
One year on from launching Bordeaux Quay, what do you think you’ve achieved here?
We’ve become a landmark already, which I guess isn’t bad for a restaurant that’s only a year old. Everybody in Bristol seems to know about us, as do a lot of people who don’t live in the city. I didn’t expect it to be so successful after such a short time.
Why do you think it has been such a success?
I think it was simply a good idea and even though we’ve got a long way to go before it’s absolutely right, the ingredients are all there and I think that’s what has attracted people here.
Do you think the food has almost been overshadowed by the sheer enormity of the project?
Yes, the food is the hub of the place and it’s not yet where I want it to be, but that’s more to do with the fact that I haven’t been in the kitchen as much as I’d like. That’s been the story for several years, but it will all change from September because I intend to spend much more time in the kitchen from then. The cookery school and the kitchen is where I should be and everything else will have to be managed by other people.
You must be missing the kitchen?
Yes, I am. I dabble in there in an ineffectual way, but I need to be there all the time. To get consistent food, the person driving the menu needs to be there 24/7. If you do it the other way and try to get your ideas across to someone else, it’s always harder, even if you’ve got some skilled players, which we do.
What have you learnt about people’s tastes since opening Bordeaux Quay?
We were already recognising that people who eat out are more sophisticated and more demanding and I think we’ve been part of that change in people’s attitudes to food.
What have you learnt about yourself over the past year?
It’s one thing to run a little place with 20 staff and a tiny kitchen, but it’s another thing to run a multi-faceted business with 80 staff and six or seven stand-alone businesses inside that framework.
What message are you getting about people’s attitude towards organics at the moment?
Not strong enough. People aren’t taking it seriously enough. There’s a hardcore of dedicated organic shoppers who we know about but it’s not really mainstream. It’s going to be really interesting to see what impact the summer floods will have on home-grown food prices in this country. We may have to import more food because of it, but maybe people will now see the connection between producers and what’s on their plate. We’ve got a long way to go but sometimes I feel the only way it’s going to change is when people are forced to change their habits.
Do you think the message to buy ‘local’ food has overshadowed the message to buy organic food?
It’s good that people are buying local food because of the fact it is reducing food miles and supporting local economies, but it’s bad because not all local food is good food. For example, you could be producing battery chickens or pigs locally. I think local food is one half of what needs to happen and the other half is organic. I truly believe that is the best way forward for agriculture.
What do you think of the supermarkets’ attempts at sourcing local and organic food?
Supermarkets are trying to do something that reflects changing attitudes, but they’re not being brave enough. Putting a picture of ‘Farmer Jones’ on the back of a packet of sausages means bugger all really because it’s sending out a slightly coded message. Supermarkets are responding to what consumers want but what consumers want is mixed anyway. Having said that, supermarkets also push, suffocate and drown other small businesses, which I don‘t like.
Read the full interview in Issue 2 of Fork
