The Foodie Manual Issue 3 May 2022

Food

Cities

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The World’s

Biggest FoodCity

Words by Melissa Compton.

We were so excited to write this feature, We’ve been researching all month long, and why wouldn’t we be foodies - whowouldn’t want to know. The most agreed answer is Tokoyo Japan, which currently has the most Michelin Star restaurants atover 220. Here’s the thing although a few capital cities such as London, New York, and Paris consistently make the top 10 list,the list vary and each country has different statistics on which they judge their biggest food cities, in American they keep statisticson how many eating establishments each state has and although New York is listed as a big food city It doesn’t top thelist for eating establishments.

According to the National Restaurant Association, California holds this title with a massive 87,225 restaurants/eating establishments in comparison to New York’s 58,027. While Washington DC takes the award for most restaurants per capita with 0.4 restaurants per every 100 people.

In the UK the office for national statistics holds records for the food and drink industry in the UK, too and London is also a regular among the world’s Biggest Food Cities, too. All this research leads us to the ultimate question of what makes a ‘world's biggest food city’ based on the research we discovered it depends on who you ask.

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Statistics detail restaurants and eating establishments per state/county/city some with a via of how many restaurants there are per person, while others rely on how many cuisines they serve. The interesting thing was no one was rating the food cities based on quality, food hygiene Tokoyo is rated on having the most number of Michelin Star restaurants in the world making it worthy of the title. While London has just over 50 Michelin Star Restaurants (2022).

While the Michelin Star awards are a desired status within the restaurant industry, what then about the street food vendors small cafes etc many of which make up the appeal of foodie cities, are these then to be excluded?

What about the average foodie too what do we look for in a great foodie city! Are our standards the same as the data available and does it help?

As foodies, we explored the criteria of the Michelin Star award and what it means to us in everyday terms.

1. Use quality ingredients

Now, let us be honest. This is a grey area it needs a better definition they mean utilizing fresh ingredients best for the recipe and food being produced we assume as they go on to say that using premium ingredients is not imperative and this is a myth they would like to correct.

“The freshest fruit doesn’t always make the sweetest jam!”

Not all recipes call for or are improved upon by using the freshest & best ingredients. We would prefer to see this replaced with a joint assessment in food hygiene and a dedication to sourcing new ingredients and using ingredients in an inventive and innovative way. After all as foodies if we are going to a Michelin Star restaurant I am expecting innovation before We have even left home.

In our opinion, all cooking is based on using quantity ingredients making this definition misleading. Also, the freshest ingredients in the world won’t serve you well if you can’t utilise them well and know how to store them.

2. Mastering Flavour and Cooking Techniques

This is an area we can get on board with, as foodies we are expecting Michelin Star establishments to be at the top of their game in terms of their use of flavour and use of cooking techniques and if it can be cooked tableside, go for it! It is the best thing you can do in terms of excellent dining experiences.

3. The Personality of the Chef in the Cuisine

Here’s the thing, when we go to eat at a restaurant, we’re not thinking I hope the chef puts his personality into the food, we are thinking we hope the chef puts his expertise in the food and heart and soul into the presentation and design. The presentation and service is the are where food esablishments get to reinforce their branding and display emotion. But this is essentially about branding, not the chef's personality, if the chef has an authentic brand then the two areas merge. A chef’s personality can be completely different to their brand depending on how they choose to repre sent themselves and their food. We believe that people that love what they do make better food due to diligence and dedication.

4. Value for money

Let’s face it this is another grey area, value for money in any area is a subjective topic usually judged on either how much money a person could afford to spend, or the quality of service. While £40-125 seems to be a general price range for some Michelin Star restaurants with the value being based on a number of attributes, quality of the food, menu choices, service, how long the food took to arrive, staff etc each individual will rate any restaurant differently to someone on a limited income £125 for a meal might be a little too much to gamble on a restaurant they don’t usually frequent and so be deemed less valuable,

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while people are usually willing to pay more for their tried and tested restaurant choices. When checking out a new restaurant at the magazine we have a £50 limit (in the cases where we pay for the food).

5. Consistency of Food

By this, they mean that the quality of food, presentation and dining experience should be consistent even if the chef’s absent or having a bad day if the restaurant is short-staffed. Not only is this a tall order, but it is hard for restaurants to determine how performance will be affected if they are short-staffed or the chef has having a bad day. We believe that dining experiences should be consistent we also believe that most diners are sympathetic when a reasonable explanation is provided in circumstances beyond control. While we believe as foodies it is impossible to mandate that a restaurant never has a bad day. There are procedures and structures that can be implemented to remove or reduce a negative experience for customers. We would never recommend having a staff member who was experiencing extreme negative circumstances come to work this can be helped by having a small number of bank staff to fill in in emergencies, We strict reporting potential absences policy such as phoning in 5 hours before shift starts, a good working relationship with staff where they are supported to give honest feedback and good organizational management. We think the Michelin star award should reward these practices.

Essentially foodies rate restaurants and eating establishments on their service, and food quality and that’s how it should be for us the biggest food cities should have the following a good ratio of people to restaurants, a high number of cuisines served, a good number of establishments with the highest stands, a high hygiene rating. These awards should be about providing the public with reassurance and the restaurant with recognition for their hard work.

The Pandemic changed the food industry people are using takeaway services more than ever and the most popular kind of restaurants are pub restaurants, the current statistics point to the food and drink making a recovery from the 32% drop in revenue in 2020 by 2024. As of now, it is still an unpredictable landscape. The pandemic is often blamed for the problems within the food industry, the truth is there have been issues since 2018 when a boom in casual dining and consumer behaviour and rising costs were cited as the main causes.

Maybe when we take all this into account we should be considering the number of casual dining establishments in cities when looking at the world's biggest food cities.

What’s your favourite food city and why?

Sources https://restaurant.org/

https://www.statista.com/

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